Donald Trump Fact-Checks And ‘Debunks’ Harris’s Out Of Context Claims During Debate

By Blake Wolf, OAN Staff
Wednesday, September 11, 2024 4:37 PM

During Tuesday's presidential debate, Donald Trump fact-checked Vice President Kamala Harris' claims that he encouraged and cited the 2017 Charlottesville riots, saying her claims have already been “false” and “disproven” by many mainstream news networks.

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“When it comes to Charlottesville, as you say, that story has been debunked,” Trump said. “Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Jesse, all of these people covered it. If they write one more sentence, you'll see. It's been debunked in almost every paper, but the papers are still covering it.”

The attacks on Trump during the debate were rooted in the 2017 protests in Charlottesville, North Carolina, where “white supremacists” were “spewing anti-Semitic hatred”, and both Harris and Biden have consistently falsely claimed that Trump supported them at the time.

“Think back to Charlottesville, there were crowds with tiki torches, spewing anti-Semitic hatred, and what did the president say at the time? There were fine people on both sides,” Harris said during the debate.

In August, after the Charlottesville riots, President Trump asserted that “we condemn in the strongest possible terms this terrible hatred, bigotry and violence that took place on so many sides, on so many levels.”

Trump also exposed a lie in which Ms Harris said there would be a “bloodbath” if she did not win the November presidential election – a statement Ms Harris deliberately took out of context, trying to suggest that Mr Trump would call for violence if he lost the election.

“The candidate, Donald Trump, has said in this election that if the outcome is not to his liking, there will be bloodshed. Let's get this over with. Let's not go back to the past. Let's chart a course for the future and not go back to the past,” Harris falsely claimed.

“It was an energy-related word because they destroyed our energy business. That was 'bloodshed,'” Trump explained, quickly after being allowed to respond.

In the original quote cited by Harris, Trump said of the auto industry, “If I don't get elected, the whole country will be a disaster. It's a small handful. The whole country will be a disaster. It's a small handful. But they're not going to sell those cars. They're building giant factories.”

Additionally, Harris continued to claim that the policies behind Project 2025 were personally crafted by Trump, a claim that Trump denied during the debate and said he had nothing to do with the project.

However, on social media platforms, even though this fact has been explained to Democrats, many believe that there is a deep conspiracy and hidden truth on the part of both Trump and the Heritage Foundation, and that Trump will push all the suggestions of the conservative think tank if he is re-elected.

“What you're going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan that the former president plans to implement if re-elected, called 'Project 2025,'” Harris said.

Also noteworthy is that ABC News Debate moderators David Muir and Lindsey Davis interrupted Trump five times to “fact-check” his statements but never did so on Harris' false claims.

on the other hand, New York Post We have provided numerous examples of Harris' false claims. ABC News The moderators refused.At least three of Kamala's more notable comments are worth examining in detail here.

“Kamala's argument #1: “As of today, there is not a single U.S. soldier on active duty in a combat zone in any war zone in the world. For the first time this century.”

Fact check: U.S. troops in the Middle East are in a real war zone, facing attacks from Iran that the Biden-Harris administration has allowed to become increasingly aggressive in using proxies. In January, three U.S. soldiers in Jordan were killed in a drone attack by an Iran-allied group and dozens were wounded in a similar attack.

Kamala's argument #2: “There is no woman anywhere in America who continues to have a pregnancy and seeks an abortion. That's not happening.”

Fact check: As the Daily Signal points out, Minnesota had a law in 2015 requiring doctors to report whether an abortion resulted in the birth of a baby. At least five such cases were reported in 2021, but no steps were taken to keep the baby alive. In 2023, Gov. Tim Walz repealed the reporting requirement as part of a no-late-trimester abortion law.

Kamala's argument #3: “Remember, this is the same guy who took out a full page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of the Central Park Five, five innocent black and Latino boys. This is the same guy who took out a full page ad in The New York Times calling for their execution.”

Fact check: Trump's 1989 ad didn't call for the execution of the Central Park Five; he spoke of the women who had been raped in the park, but didn't mention the suspects' names or who they were. In an ad titled “Bring Back the Death Penalty, Bring Back the Police,” Trump simply lamented how unsafe New York City had become overall, and said criminals needed to be held accountable. His heartfelt cry preceded a public backlash against Gotham's disorder that led to the election of Rudy Giuliani as mayor and more aggressive policing. New York Post Reported.

Harris' campaign chair, Jen O'Malley Dillon, quickly called for a second debate.