[gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/0/feeds/voaheadlines/2024/Oct/02/https---www.voanews.com-a-a-look-at-false-and-misleading-claims-during-the-vice-presidential-debate-7807314.html](gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/0/feeds/voaheadlines/2024/Oct/02/https---www.voanews.com-a-a-look-at-false-and-misleading-claims-during-the-vice-presidential-debate-7807314.html)

See also https://text.npr.org/nx-s1-5135675 "NPR fact checked the Vance-Walz vice presidential debate. Here's what we found" by NPR Staff

My own fact check: Both debaters gave credit and blame to Harris for decisions made by Biden. The Constitution gives Vice Presidents only two ways to affect the operation of the national government: they preside over the Senate, and they can break ties in the Senate. That's it. VPs should get no blame or credit for anything they do in their capacity as VP. End of rant.

Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.

A look at false and misleading claims during the vice presidential debate

by Associated Press

The vice presidential candidates, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen.
JD Vance, on Tuesday engaged in a fast-moving, largely civil debate on
a wide range of issues. Here's a look at some false and misleading
claims from the debate.

Iran has not received $100 billion in unfrozen assets under the
Biden-Harris administration

VANCE: "Iran, which launched this attack, has received over $100
billion in unfrozen assets thanks to the Kamala Harris administration.
What do they use that money for? They use it to buy weapons that
they're now launching against our allies."

THE FACTS: The Biden administration agreed last year to unfreeze $6
billion in Iranian assets as part of a deal to free five U.S. citizens
being held by Iran. But administration officials say not a dollar of
that has yet been given to Iran. It was part of a deal negotiated by
the Obama administration, before Biden and Harris took office, that
could have allowed Iran to access frozen assets in exchange for
accepting limits on its nuclear program.

In 2016, Iran said it had received access to more than $100 billion
worth of frozen overseas assets following the implementation of a
landmark nuclear deal with world powers. The money had been held in
banks in China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey since
international sanctions were tightened in 2012 over Tehran's nuclear
program. Then-Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told Congress that only
about $50 billion of the frozen assets would actually be accessible by
Iran.

Walz overstates the cost of insulin before cap

WALZ: "They were charging $800 before this law went into effect."

THE FACTS: Walz overstated how much Americans were paying for insulin
before a new law capped prices at $35 per month for millions of older
Americans on Medicare. A December 2022 study found that people who were
on Medicare or enrolled in private insurance paid $452 yearly on
average before the new law took effect.

Vance links unaffordable housing to immigrants who have come into the
country illegally

VANCE: "You've got housing that is totally unaffordable because we
brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for
scarce homes."

THE FACTS: Most economists blame a long-term decline in the housing
supply for the steady increase in home prices. The number of new homes
under construction plunged from an annual pace of 1.4 million in April
2006 to barely above 400,000 in August 2011, and didn't recover to 2006
levels until 2021.

Vance said at least one prominent economic analysis from the Federal
Reserve supports his claims that immigrants are pushing up housing
costs, but he didn't provide details. He was likely citing a May 2024
blog post by Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of
Minneapolis. Kashkari says immigration's long-run effect on inflation
is "unclear," but immigrants need a place to live and their arrival has
overlapped with higher prices.

There might be upward pressure on home prices in some markets because
of immigrants arriving, but most economists say the issue is a lack of
supply of homes on the market. Homebuilders say they need the
immigrants to build the homes. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a
September news conference that high mortgage rates mean people aren't
listing their homes for sale and there has not been enough supply.

Walz wrongly claims Project 2025 creates pregnancy registry

WALZ: "Their Project 2025 is going to have a registry of pregnancies."

THE FACTS: That's not true. The conservative initiative calls for the
collection of "accurate and reliable statistical data about abortion,
abortion survivors, and abortion-related maternal deaths," but not a
record of every pregnancy that occurs.

More specifically, Project 2025 proposes that the Department of Health
and Human Services require all states to report detailed information
about abortions that are performed within their borders, including the
total number of abortions, the age and state of residence of the
mother, the gestational age of the fetus, the reason for the abortion
and the method used to perform the abortion. It suggests that this data
be separated into categories such as spontaneous miscarriages,
intentional abortions, stillbirths and other medical treatments that
result in the death of the fetus, like chemotherapy.

Vance overstates immigration numbers

VANCE: "We've got 20, 25 million illegal aliens who are here in the
country."

THE FACTS: That figure is highly inflated. U.S. Customs and Border
Protection reports more than 10 million arrests for illegal crossings
from Mexico from January 2021 through September 2024.

That's arrests, not people. Under pandemic-era asylum restrictions,
many people crossed more than once until they succeeded because there
were no legal consequences for getting turned back to Mexico. So the
number of people is lower than the number of arrests.

According to the Department of Homeland Security's latest available
estimate, there were approximately 11 million people living illegally
in the U.S. as of January 2022, 79% of whom entered prior to January
2010.

Vance distorts Minnesota abortion law

VANCE: "It says that a doctor who presides over an abortion where the
baby survives, the doctor is under no obligation to provide lifesaving
care to a baby who survives a botched late-term abortion."

THE FACTS: This claim misrepresents a bill Walz signed into law in
2023, updating language about the care of newborns.

The new language uses the phrase "an infant who is born alive" instead
of "a born alive infant as a result of an abortion." It states that
medical personnel are required to "care for the infant who is born
alive" rather than "preserve the life and health of the born alive
infant."

Both the current version of the law and the 2015 version that was
amended state that "an infant who is born alive shall be fully
recognized as a human person, and accorded immediate protection under
the law."

Infanticide is criminalized in every state, including Minnesota, and
the bill does not change that.

Vance on Trump and Jan. 6, 2021

VANCE: "Remember he said that on January the 6th, the protesters ought
to protest peacefully."

THE FACTS: It's true that Trump told the crowd gathered near the White
House, "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the
Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices
heard."

But Vance ignored the incendiary language Trump used throughout his
speech, during which he urged the crowd to march to the Capitol, where
Congress was meeting to certify President Joe Biden's victory. Trump
told the crowd: "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have
a country anymore." That's after his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, declared:
"Let's have trial by combat."

#debate #election #usa #vice-president #presidential-election #honesty #dishonesty #politics #fact-check #fact-checking #vance #walz