With Election Day about a week away, it can be very hard to tell if what politicians are saying is true. To help voters have a clear picture of the presidential candidates, here are some fact checks of claims the candidates have made.
Vice President Kamala Harris claims that former President Donald Trump plans to implement something she calls the “Trump tax,” which would raise the price of essential items by 20%. Harris claims the tax will raise prices for middle class citizens.
“He intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax, call it a ‘Trump tax,’” Harris said in her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. “That would raise prices on middle-class families by almost $4,000 a year.”
However, the Trump tax is a tariff or fee foreign companies must pay to import goods. Trump said he plans to put it into place to help American jobs and factories, but it could still raise prices for American people.
Another claim Harris makes is that Trump is involved with Project 2025. Project 2025 is a collection of policy proposals by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, where the goal is to reshape the executive branch of the government.
Project 2025 covers many topics such as abortion, saying that the overturning of Roe v. Wade was just the beginning. Project 2025 also calls for eliminating or reducing basic benefits for low-income families by adding work requirements for those benefitting from Medicaid.
Additionally, Project 2025 seeks to reduce the number of refugees by making asylum policies stricter. It also works towards overturning the Flores Settlement Agreement which is a court approved agreement on how to humanely treat minors who enter the country illegally.
Project 2025 contains many more policies than what is listed above.
“Project 2025 is a plan to return America to a dark past,” Harris said at the American Federation for Teachers 88 National Convention. “Donald Trump and his extreme allies want to take our nation back to failed trickle-down economic policies.”
Project 2025 was not created by Trump. It was created by the Hertiage Foundation and many other conservative groups. Many people who are involved with Project 2025 worked in Trump’s first administration, but Trump said he disagrees with elements of the efforts.
Some notable people that worked on Project 2025 are Ken Cuccinelli, Trump’s deputy secretary for Homeland Security, Peter Navarro, Trump’s White House advisor on trade, Christopher Miller, Trump’s former cabinet secretary, and several others.
On the other hand, Trump has also made false claims about Harris.
Trump claims that President Joe Biden and Harris have been letting in millions of immigrants from jails, quoting statistics from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“These are certified numbers,” Trump said at a rally in Erie. “Kamala let in the 13,099 convicted murderers and opposes all efforts to find them and to remove them.”
While there were 13,099 immigrants convicted of homicide and not in immigration detention, the data is being misinterpreted. The data represents the past 40 years, so many of these immigrants did not enter the United States during Biden’s presidency. Additionally, many are not in immigration detention because they are serving sentences in the custody of law enforcement.
Moreover, the ideas surrounding immigrant crimes are often false or over exaggerated.
Trump also heavily opposed a bipartisan immigration bill that was proposed by Biden’s administration. The bill aimed to build more boarder barriers, expand detention facilities and hire more ICE officers and Border Patrol agents.
Trump also claimed that Harris is a Marxist. Marxism is a philosophy critical of capitalism and is in favor of a worker revolution to create a communist economic system.
“She is really a Marxist. Her father is a Marxist professor,” Trump said in an interview with Shawn Ryan, host of the Shawn Ryan Show podcast. “This country is not ready for a Marxist or a communist.”
Harris’ policies do not align with Marxism or communism. The policies Trump might be referring to which could be considered Marxism are raising taxes on the rich, combating grocery price gouging and offering child tax credits, but they are not communist or socialist policies.
These are not all the claims made by the Presidential candidates, so if you are interested in a claim made by one of them, you are encouraged to do your own research.
Here are some tips for fact checking:
Look to see what other people have found while fact checking with sites like Factcheck.org.
Check multiple sources from a range of biases. It will allow you to get a better idea of the entire picture.
Use reliable sources for information. This includes news organizations and government websites.
For more information on fact checking, check out sources like PolitiFact https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/mar/31/politifacts-checklist-thorough-fact-checking/ and the Public Library https://abqlibrary.org/FakeNews/FactCheck
