Fact-Checking Claims Made During Biden and Trump's First Presidential Debate

Here are some of the claims made by former US Prez Donald Trump in his recent debate.

(Photo: The Quint)

United States President Joe Biden and former US President Donald Trump engaged in a debate on the Cable News Network (CNN) on 27 June, the respective Democratic and Republic Party representatives participated in their first debate ahead of the 2024 US Presidential elections.

In this report, we explore the misleading and outright false claims made by both candidates.

CLAIM 1: Trump claimed that “everybody” wanted Roe v. Wade overturned

At 14:31 timestamp, Trump claims that “everybody” including legal scholars wanted Roe v. Wade overturned so that the power to set abortion policy returns to individual states.

Let us see how true is this.

This decision was taken by the Supreme court of the US in June 2022. A CNN poll resulted in 65% of adults opposing the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Another poll by Marquette Law School poll conducted in February 2024 found that 67 percent of adults opposed the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

While talking to CNN, several legal scholars also wanted the legislation preserved, when Trump made a similar claim saying, “all legal scholars, both sides, wanted and, in fact, demanded be ended: Roe v. Wade” in April 2024.

Legal scholars refuted Trump's claim to CNN: “Donald Trump’s claim is flatly incorrect,” said Maya Manian, an American University law professor and faculty director of the university’s Health Law and Policy Program.

Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis who is an expert on the history of the US abortion debate, did not want Roe overturned. She told CNN, “What Trump said is obviously not true. Most legal scholars probably track most Americans who didn’t want to overturn Roe. It wasn’t as if legal scholars were somehow outliers.”

So clearly, when Trump mentioned that "even legal scholars" wanted Roe v. Wade overturned, he made a false claim.

CLAIM 2 - Trump: Democrats will kill babies in the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy

Trump also claimed that the Democrats will kill babies in the “eighth month, the ninth month of pregnancy, or even after birth”. He further pointed to the former Virginia governor’s support of a bill that would loosen restrictions on late-term abortions as an example.

He goes on to say that "some Democrat-run” states allow babies to be killed after birth.

However, this claim is false as it is illegal to kill babies (infanticide) in all 50 US states.

According to data available from before the 2022 ruling of Dobbs decision, over 93 percent of abortions occur during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Data published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that 0.9 percent of reported abortions in 2020 occurred at 21 weeks or later. The reason behind these abortions were serious health risks or lethal fetal anomalies.

And by contrast, 80.9 percent of reported abortions in 2020 were conducted before 10 weeks, 93.1 percent before 14 weeks and 95.8 percent before 16 weeks.

CLAIM 3 - Trump: "The Paris Accord was going to cost us a trillion dollars..."

At the 1:03:25 timestamp, Trump claims, "The Paris Accord was going to cost us a trillion dollars and China nothing and Russia nothing, and India nothing. It was a rip-off of the United States, and I ended it because I didn't want to waste that money because they treated us horribly."

Here's how this claim is misleading:

In 2009, as part of the Paris agreement, the US and other developed nations, including Western European countries, committed to collectively contribute 100 billion dollars per year by 2020 to help the developing countries in adapting the impacts of climate change.

Further in 2022, the set goal for these developed nations was finally met but the figure was never as high as Trump suggested it to be and the US did not pay one trillion dollars in international climate finance.

Here is a timeline:

• The US paid one billion dollars of three billion dollars commitment which was made in 2014, under Obama administration.

• After Trump opted USA out of the Paris accord in 2017, the country did not pay anything towards the global finance goal.

• Following up with Biden's administration which pledged 11.4 billion dollars annually but this funding has not been materialised yet.

• According to the US' State Department, the country was on track to meet that goal of contributing 9.5 billion dollars towards, as of 2023.

However, it is true that countries including China, India and Russia have not contributed to international climate finance yet, as said by Trump.

CLAIM 4 - Trump: "He indicted me because I was his opponent."

Referring to his indictment on state charges in New York, where a jury found him guilty on 34 counts related to falsifying business records, Trump claimed that Biden was the one behind the legal proceedings.

However, several news reports and public records shared by the Manhattan District Attorney's (DA) office show the the investigation into Trump's organisations first began in 2017, when Biden was not POTUS.

Reports on the timeline of the case by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), show that the investigation began around 2018, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) obtained search warrants for the residence and offices of Michael Cohen, the former president's then-personal attorney.

A 2023 document related to Trump's trial, available on the Manhattan DA's website, also shows that the investigation into Trump's falsifying business records dates back to 2017 and was named "The People of the State of New York against Donald J Trump."

The document stated that Trump had an "intent to defraud" in 2017.

(Source: Manhattan DA/Screenshot)

The document makes no mention of Biden, who assumed office three years after the FBI obtained warrants against Cohen.

Additionally, several reports show that New York Attorney General Letitia James spearheaded a full-scale investigation into Trump's organisations and business dealings in 2019.

Here is a screenshot from the report. 

(Source: NYT/Screenshot)

CLAIM 5 - Biden: "I am the only President in the decade who has no troops dying anywhere in the world."

Biden's claim is categorically false. Ever since Biden became President of the United States in January 2021, 29 US military personnel have lost their lives to "mishaps" or conflict.

The latest case being the one on 28 January 2024 where three US soldiers were killed, and 40 others were injured in a drone strike at a US military base in Jordan, near the Syrian border, as stated in a report by the Department of Defense.

The details are mentioned in the report of the US Department of Defense.

(Source: US Department of Defense/Screenshot)

In December 2023, eight United States Air Force (USAF) personnel lost their lives in a 'mishap' during a training mission off the coast of Japan, as per Associated Press (AP).

AP reported this in December 2023. 

(Source: Associated Press/Screenshot)

A month before that, five US Army aviation special operations forces were killed in a helicopter crash during an "air refuelling mission as part of military training," AP reported in November 2023.

Lastly, 13 US service members lost their lives in a suicide bombing at Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai International Airport back in August 2021, when the Taliban took over the country following America's rushed withdrawal of troops, as reported by The New York Times and ABC.

NYT reported that 13 US service members died in a suicide bombing at Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai International Airport in August 2021. 

(Source: NYT/Screenshot)

CLAIM 6 - Biden: "There were no jobs, unemployment rose to 15 percent" when he assumed office.

We found the relevant data for historical unemployment rates in the US on the country's Bureau of Labor Statistics' website.

Biden became president in January 2021, so we looked at data between 2020 and 2024.

In January 2021, the US unemployment rate was 6.4 percent, far lower than Biden claimed. It has steadily declined since.

Here is the data which was available on US's Bureau of Labor Statistics webiste. 

(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics/Screenshot)

CLAIM 7 - Trump: "We have the largest (national) deficit in the history of our country under (Biden)."

A simple keyword search using "US national deficit" led us to the US Treasury's fiscal data website, which showed us a chart of the country's federal deficit between 2001 and 2023.

It only carried data for completed financial years until September 2023, which showed us that the country's federal deficit was at a record high during Trump's presidency, amounting to 3.13 trillion US dollars in 2020.

Data sourced from the US Treasury's fiscal data website. 

(Source: US Treasury/Screenshot)

CLAIM 8 - Biden: Trump said "just inject a little bleach into your arm" during the COVID-19 pandemic

Biden's statement about Trump telling people to "inject a little bleach" into themselves is misleading.

During a press briefing about the COVID-19 pandemic on 23 April 2020, Trump addressed the media to highlight the White House's response and action plan to tackle the virus.

In the relevant part of the conference, which was shared on NBC New York's verified YouTube channel, one can hear Trump talking about the effectiveness of disinfectants in cleaning out the coronavirus.

Speaking to a member of the White House's coronavirus task force, he asked, "Is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside? Or almost a cleaning … it would be interesting to check that,” Trump said.

The former president's statement prompted disinfectant manufacturers, such as Reckitt Benckiser - who make Lysol and Dettol - to issue a statement, stating that "under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion, or any other route)," CNN reported.

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