Lie detector: JD Vance's and Tim Walz's fibs during the debate
The cordiality and serenity of the Vice Presidential debate surprised viewers and analysts. JD Vance and Tim Walz concentrated on the issues and mostly stuck to discussing policy terms.
Still, their statements also included some misleading comments and upfront lies. AP News fact-checkers followed the exchange and listed some of the most relevant ones.
JD Vance said, "Iran, which launched this attack, has received over $100 billion in unfrozen assets thanks to the Kamala Harris administration."
The Biden Administration negotiated unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian funds for humanitarian uses in exchange for 5 American hostages. The funds are not in Iran but in a Qatari bank account and have not been touched.
Walz: "They were charging $800 before this law went into effect." On average, insurance patients paid around $450 a year for insulin before the Biden Administration's $35 price cap.
Vance: "You've got housing that is totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes."
While the influx of immigrants in specific places can put some pressure on housing, economists agree that the broader reason behind the housing crisis is a lack of supply.
While discussing abortion, Tim Walz said: "Their Project 2025 is going to have a registry of pregnancies." The proposal calls for more data on abortions but never mentions such a registry.
"We've got 20, 25 million illegal aliens who are here in the country," Mr. Vance said. Border Patrol registered 10 million entries between 2021 and 2024, and it does not represent people, just entries, so it could be the same person twice.
According to AP News, the Department of Homeland Security estimates around 11 million people lived illegally in the US as of January 2022. Still, 79% of them entered before January 2010.
JD Vance said that under Minnesota abortion law, "the doctor is under no obligation to provide lifesaving care to a baby who survives a botched late-term abortion." Late-term abortions are used only to save the mother in life-threatening cases.
The new law replaced the phrase "preserve the life and health of the born alive infant" with "care for the infant who is born alive" to allow parents to forgo invasive treatments if they don't guarantee the survival of the baby.
JD Vance: "Remember he said that on Jan. 6, the protesters ought to protest peacefully." Mr. Vance omitted the other phrase used by the former President: "If you don't fight like h**l, you're not going to have a country anymore."