U.S. vice presidential candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Walz met Tuesday night in their first and perhaps only debate ahead of the November election.
Mr. Vance, a senator from Ohio, is the running mate of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, and Mr. Walz, the governor of Minnesota, is the running mate of Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.
The debate, sponsored by CBS News, was generally peaceful, with much of the heavy policy discussion. This was a marked change from the Sept. 10 debate between Harris and former President Trump, which often devolved into personal attacks. Mr. Vance and Mr. Walz acknowledged that they sometimes disagree on policy issues and spoke with mutual respect during the debate.
But during the debate, they exchanged various accusations. Now, fact-check the candidates’ claims.
Iran
Vance: “Iran, which launched the attack (on Israel), received over $100 billion in unfrozen assets thanks to the Kamala Harris administration.”
error.
Under President Barack Obama, Iran actually had $100 billion in unfrozen assets after signing the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump later reversed. But Harris was not involved in the Obama administration.
What happened on Biden and Harris’ watch was a hostage release agreement with Iran that was supposed to release $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets. There is no evidence that the $6 billion reached Iran.
In August 2023, the United States agreed with Iran to secure the freedom of five Americans held in the country in exchange for allowing Iran access to $6 billion of its own funds frozen in South Korean banks. announced an agreement.
The funds were made up of Iranian oil revenues that had been frozen since 2019, when President Trump banned Iranian oil exports and sanctioned the banking sector. It wasn’t US taxpayer money. In April 2024, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said these funds had been frozen after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas and had not reached Iran.
Walz: “When an Iranian missile actually fell near U.S. troops and caused traumatic brain injuries to U.S. troops, Donald Trump dismissed it as a ‘headache.'”
truth.
Walz was referring to Iran’s January 8, 2020, attack on U.S. troops in Iraq. More than 100 soldiers have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries, according to the Pentagon.
President Trump repeatedly referred to the injury as a “headache.”
In 2020, President Trump said, “I heard you had a headache,” adding, “It’s not that serious.” President Trump reiterated this claim at a press conference in Wisconsin on October 1st.
After Iran attacked Israel on Oct. 1, President Trump was asked whether he should have been tougher on Iran following the 2020 attack that injured U.S. troops. answered. he said: “What do you mean injured? You mean your head hurt because the bombs didn’t fall on the fortress?”
Shiamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz and Emad Shargi, who were released during the prisoner exchange deal between the US and Iran, arrive at Doha International Airport (File: Mohammed Dubs/Reuters)
project 2025
Walz: “Their Project 2025 will have pregnancy registration.”
error.
Project 2025 recommends that states submit more detailed abortion reports to the federal government. More information is also being sought on when and how abortions are performed, as well as other statistics on miscarriages and stillbirths.
The manual does not mention or call for a new federal agency tasked with registering pregnant women.
immigration
Vance: “We have 320,000 children that the Department of Homeland Security has effectively lost.”
error. This is not what the federal monitoring report said.
The claim cites a federal oversight report on unaccompanied minors, children who came to the United States without a parent or guardian. The report cited 32,000 children who did not appear for their immigration court hearings and 291,000 children for whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not serve a “notice to appear.”
A Notice of Appearance is a complaint issued by the authorities and filed with the Immigration Court to begin removal proceedings. The report said that by not issuing these notices to children, Immigration and Customs Enforcement limits the opportunity to check on children’s safety after they are released from federal custody.
Following the report, Republican lawmakers and conservative news outlets reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had “lost” or “missing” the children. However, no such claim was made in the report.
tax
Walz: “Donald Trump hasn’t paid any federal taxes in the last 15 years, his last year as president.”
Most are wrong.
Trump paid no federal income taxes in several years, including his final year as president, but not every year for the past 15 years. It is unclear how much he has paid since 2020 because his tax returns have not been made public.
In September 2020, the New York Times reported that it had obtained a copy of President Trump’s tax returns. They note that Trump paid $641,000 in federal income taxes in 2015, $750 in 2016 and 2017, and as of the 2020 report, he paid “no income taxes in 10 of the past 15 years.” He said he had not paid at all.
In 2022, the House Ways and Means Committee released President Trump’s tax returns from 2015 to 2020. According to those returns, Trump reported paying $999,456 in taxes in 2018, $133,445 in 2019 and $0 in 2020, ABC News reported.
