Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will face off for the primary time Oct. 1 on the CBS Information vice presidential debate in New York Metropolis.
That is the one scheduled vice presidential debate for the 2024 election, and it comes simply three weeks after the first, and certain solely, presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
PolitiFact has scrutinized greater than a dozen latest statements from Vance and Walz since every man turned his occasion’s VP nominee. Right here’s how correct their speaking factors have confirmed to date.
Vance was among the many first politicians to spread the unsubstantiated claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, have been killing and consuming pets. In the course of the Sept. 10 presidential debate, Trump repeated this baseless rumor. Within the weeks since, Vance has used selective knowledge to magnify Springfield’s issues amid the migrant inflow.
Vance cherry-picked crime data to hyperlink the immigration uptick to rising murders, saying they “are up by 81%.” From 2021 to 2023, murders in Springfield rose from 5 to 9 — an 80% improve. However FBI murder knowledge additionally confirmed that the variety of homicides in Springfield fluctuated with no clear development from 2012 to 2022, and against the law knowledge knowledgeable cautioned towards making annual comparisons in locations the place lower than one murder is reported every month.
Vance additionally claimed the variety of communicable illnesses, reminiscent of HIV and tuberculosis, in Springfield have “skyrocketed” due to the rise in Haitian immigrants. That is Mostly False. Not together with COVID-19 circumstances, the general communicable illness price in Clark County, the place Springfield is, has typically dropped since 2018, apart from HIV circumstances. The county cautions that its charges could also be inflated as a result of 2020 Census knowledge doesn’t account for inhabitants will increase. Public county knowledge doesn’t separate case numbers by metropolis or demographics, so public well being consultants cautioned towards tying adjustments in case charges to immigrants.
When discussing immigrants within the U.S. extra broadly, Vance mischaracterized certainly one of Harris’ proposals, saying she “needs to provide $25,000 to unlawful aliens to purchase American properties.” However Vance is filling in blanks a few proposal that we all know little about. Harris has not detailed her plan or mentioned who would qualify for this first-time homebuyer help.
Walz’s assaults on Vance and Challenge 2025
Like Harris, Walz routinely works in warnings about Trump and Vance embracing proposals from Challenge 2025, despite the fact that the Trump-Vance marketing campaign has distanced itself from the 900-page coverage guide for the following Republican administration.
Walz mentioned Vance “actually wrote the foreword for the architect of the Challenge 2025 agenda.” That is True. Vance wrote the foreword for Heritage Basis President Kevin Roberts’ forthcoming e book, “Daybreak’s Early Mild.” The Heritage Basis led the community of teams that created the coverage handbook.
Nevertheless, Walz has additionally wrongly described Challenge 2025’s targets. He falsely claimed it requires girls to register with a brand new federal company in the event that they get pregnant. The guide doesn’t point out, nor name for, a brand new federal company to be created for being pregnant registration. It recommends that states present extra detailed and constant abortion and miscarriage reporting to the federal authorities.
Vance has sought to negatively reframe Walz’s 24-year army profession with the Nebraska and Minnesota Nationwide Guards. In August, Vance mentioned, “When Tim Walz was requested by his nation to go to Iraq, have you learnt what he did? He dropped out of the Military and allowed his unit to go with out him.”
This has a component of reality however misstates the timeline in ways in which may go away a deceptive impression, so Vance’s declare charges Mostly False. Walz retired from the Minnesota Nationwide Guard in Might 2005 to run for Congress. He submitted retirement paperwork 5 to seven months beforehand.
After Walz filed congressional candidacy paperwork in February 2005, his Minnesota Nationwide Guard battalion acquired a March 2005 notification for a possible deployment inside two years, not instantly. Walz’s battalion was not formally ordered to go to Iraq till July 2005, two months after Walz retired.
Vance has additionally attacked Walz for saying in 2018 that he wished to get “weapons of struggle that I carried in struggle” off the streets. Vance mentioned Walz “has not spent a day in a fight zone,” which is True.
On Walz’s gubernatorial document, Vance mentioned Walz enacted a legislation that might “take kids away from their mother and father if the mother and father don’t wish to consent to intercourse adjustments.” However that’s False, the legislation Walz signed doesn’t do this. It amended the legislation governing which court docket may have short-term jurisdiction over youngster custody circumstances involving multiple state.
Walz has characterised the Trump-Vance marketing campaign as antiunion, saying that when Trump was president, he “lower extra time advantages for thousands and thousands of staff.” That’s Mostly False.
In 2016, former President Barack Obama’s administration set a rule that might have raised the wage threshold for extra time pay. However a choose struck it down earlier than it took impact, and the incoming Trump administration dropped a problem towards the ruling. The Trump administration set its personal rule to boost the wage threshold for extra time pay, which was decrease than the Obama-era coverage. The Trump rule didn’t quantity to a “lower.”
Walz has additionally blamed Trump for racking up the federal authorities’s debt, saying Trump “added extra to the nationwide debt than every other president.” That’s Half True.
Wanting on the improve in federal debt, Trump ranks first for debt added in a single time period. Nevertheless, Biden is projected to cross Trump’s complete by the point he leaves workplace in January 2025. Utilizing a special technique — counting how a lot future debt a president’s insurance policies created — Trump is projected to about double Biden’s debt quantity.
Extra fact-checks of Vance and Walz’s statements
- Vance mentioned Harris is “calling for an finish to the kid tax credit score.” That’s Pants on Fire!
- Walz mentioned former President Ronald Reagan was “the final union member on a nationwide ticket.” That’s False.
- Vance mentioned Trump may have destroyed the Inexpensive Care Act, however “he selected to construct upon (it).” That’s False.
- Vance mentioned a zero-tolerance coverage throughout the Trump administration “led to much less household separation than below Kamala Harris’ border insurance policies.” That’s False.
This truth test was initially published by PolitiFact, which is a part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this truth test here.
