Economy
Asked whether Americans live in better conditions today than they did four years ago, the Democratic candidate did not directly answer. She accused her opponent of leaving the Democrats with “the worst unemployment rate since the Great Depression.”
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This claim is misleading: the unemployment rate in the United States reached its highest level since the 1930s in April 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. A few months later, at the end of Donald Trump's term, it had returned to 6.4%. It was 4.2 percent last August, a few months before the terms of Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris ended.
The Democratic candidate also accused his opponent of wanting to implement a sales tax that would have a significant impact on Americans' purchasing power, something Donald Trump denied. Still, he admitted he would impose tariffs of at least 10 percent on other countries, which many economists say would amount to higher prices paid by consumers.
Donald Trump, for his part, accused the Biden Administration of opening the door to the highest rate of inflation in the history of the United States, stating that it has reached 21%, even 60% for certain products. This statement is misleading. Inflation peaked at 9.1% in 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, well below the record high of 23.7% reached in 1920.
Immigration and crime
The Republican candidate falsely claimed that “millions of people” were flocking to the United States “from prisons, mental institutions and insane asylums” abroad to commit crimes. He also did not hesitate to repeat his camp's false accusation that migrants are eating “cats and dogs” in an Ohio town, a claim denied by local authorities and police in recent days.
Violent and property crimes are near their lowest levels in decades, according to 2022 FBI data, the most recent available. A study published in June 2023 showed a decline in incarceration rates among immigrants of all nationalities since 1960. Others have shown that immigrants commit fewer violent crimes than US citizens.
Illegal immigration was higher during Donald Trump's tenure than during the two terms of Barack Obama, who preceded him in the White House. But it hit an all-time high earlier this year under Joe Biden's presidency, before falling again after the June signing of an executive order that would have temporarily closed the border with Mexico as soon as a daily limit was reached.
Kamala Harris, for her part, accused Donald Trump of putting political squabbling first, blocking a bill at the beginning of the year that would have strengthened funds allocated to securing the southern border of the United States.
Abortion
The Republican nominee, who appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court, allowing the 1973 Roe v. Wade case to be overturned that gave American women the federal right to abortion, denounced Democrats' “radicalism” on the issue.
In particular, he falsely claimed that Kamala Harris's managing partner, Tim Walz, supported “executing babies after they're born — good execution and no more abortion, because the baby is born.”
No state allows killing a baby after birth, as infanticide is, of course, illegal in the United States. A debate moderator also corrected the Republican candidate after he insisted on making that point.