Illegal migration, tax and abortion - fact checking Trump-Biden debate

BBC
16 hours ago

Donald Trump and Joe Biden have fielded questions on a wide range of election issues in a televised CNN presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia.

They traded claims on issues such as the economy, abortion and taxation.


BBC Verify has been examining some of the assertions made on stage.

Is Biden planning to quadruple taxes?

CLAIM: Trump said that Biden “wants to raise your taxes by four times... He wants the Trump tax cuts to expire".

VERDICT: President Biden’s most recent US budget makes no reference to the quadrupling of taxes for ordinary households. In fact, it proposes tax cuts for families earning less than $400,000 a year, along with increases for higher earners.

Trump introduced sweeping tax cuts in 2017, and many of these are due to expire in 2025.

Even if these aren’t extended, that wouldn’t amount to anything like a four-fold increase in household taxation.

An analysis carried out by the Tax Policy Center based on the 2024 Budget concluded that the top 1% of earners would see an increase in taxation of 9.7%.

Are there 40% fewer illegal border crossings?


CLAIM: Joe Biden said: "I've changed it in a way that now you're in a situation where there are 40% fewer people coming across the border illegally, it's better than when he left office."

VERDICT: Since Biden introduced regulations in early June restricting the right for those crossing the border to claim asylum, daily illegal border crossings have averaged roughly 2,000, according to internal Department of Homeland Security data obtained by the BBC’s news partner CBS News.

That’s a 47% drop from the 3,800 daily average in May.

In 2019, during the Trump administration, illegal border crossings peaked at 4,300. But there were months during the Covid pandemic when illegal border crossings averaged fewer than 2,000.

Since February 2021, the US Customs and Border Protection agency says there have been 9.6m encounters by enforcement officers with those having crossed the southern border.

This doesn’t mean that number entered the US, as some of these will have been the same person multiple times. Others will have been turned back or deported.



What is Biden's position on late abortions?




On the subject of abortion, Biden said he would restore Roe v Wade if elected to another term.

When asked if he supports legal limits on how late a woman should be able to terminate a pregnancy, the president pointed to his support for the framework in the Roe decision.

CLAIM: Trump responded: "So that means he can take the life of the baby in the ninth month and even after birth" and added "he's willing to, as we say, rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month and kill the baby."

VERDICT: Roe v Wade's framework states during the second trimester, the state may regulate abortion only to protect the health of the woman. During the third trimester, the state may regulate or prohibit abortion to promote the interest of the fetus, except when it is necessary to preserve the woman's life or health.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump promised to overturn Roe v Wade, a landmark Supreme Court decision that guaranteed the right to an abortion nationwide until the foetus becomes viable outside of the womb (after about 24 weeks).

This ruling was repealed in 2022 by the court, which included three Trump-appointed justices.

Killing a newborn is illegal in every US state, and no state is attempting to pass a law which would change that.

Less than 1% of abortions in the US happen from 21 weeks onwards, according to data from the CDC.

And 93.5% of abortions happen in the first trimester, so before 13 weeks.


Have US troops died during Biden's presidency?

CLAIM: Biden said he is the only president in the last decade that doesn’t have "any troops dying anywhere in the world like he [Trump] did".

VERDICT: Three US service members were killed in a drone attack in Jordan in January this year.

And during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, 13 US service members were killed in a suicide attack at Kabul airport by IS-K, the Afghan branch of the Islamic State group.

According to figures by the Defense Casualty Analysis System, 65 US service members were killed in combat during the Trump presidency from 2017-20.

Did Biden have 'largest deficit in history'?


CLAIM: "He's got the largest deficit in the history of our country," said Trump about Biden.

VERDICT: According to data from the US Treasury, the deficit peaked while Trump was in the White House at $3.13tn (£2.48tn).

By 2023, with Biden in office, it had declined to $1.7tn but the 2024 estimate is that it rises again to $1.9tn.


Is black unemployment at its lowest?

CLAIM: At one point during the debate, Biden said black unemployment "is the lowest it's been in a long, long time”.

VERDICT: While it is true that the unemployment rate for African Americans reached a record low during one month of the Biden administration, the claim lacks context.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for black Americans was 4.8% in April 2023 under Biden, a record low at the time.

Since then, it's gone back up, standing at 6.1% in May.

However, the jobless rate for African Americans during the Trump presidency fell to 5.3% in August and September 2019, also a record low at that point.

Did Biden play any part in Trump's conviction?


CLAIM: Biden was behind the prosecution of Trump that led to his recent hush money conviction in New York.

"He basically went after his political opponent because he thought it was going to damage me," said Trump.

VERDICT: The case was brought by New York prosecutors rather than any federal authority. The Department of Justice does not approve the charging decisions of the Manhattan district attorney's office.


What happened to inflation?


CLAIM: Trump said in the debate that Biden inherited "almost no inflation" when he came into office and that now "inflation is killing us".

VERDICT: When Biden came to office in January 2021, inflation stood at 1.4% using the most widely used measure of inflation, the Consumer Price Index, based on the average spending in urban areas.

It rose significantly during the first two years of his administration, hitting a peak of 9.1% in the year to June 2022.

This was comparable with many other Western countries, which experienced high inflation rates in 2021 and 2022, the main contributing factors being global supply chain issues as a consequence of the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Since then, US inflation has steadily fallen, with the latest monthly figure 3.3% in May.

Since Biden took office in January 2021, prices have risen by a total of about 20%.