KFF Health News and PolitiFact staffs
When Vice President Kamala Harris walked throughout the controversy stage Tuesday night time to shake the hand of former President Donald Trump, it was the primary time the 2 had met in individual. But that was the uncommon collegial second in a face-off in any other case marked by false and typically weird statements by the previous president.
The debate was hosted by ABC with moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, who often fact-checked Trump. He complained on the Fox News present “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday morning that it was a “three-to-one” contest.
The two presidential candidates lined a variety of points — from job and inflation numbers to abortion and immigration — in exchanges marked by private assaults. As our PolitiFact companions famous, Harris usually straight addressed Trump whereas answering the moderators’ questions. Trump principally stared straight forward. In response to Trump’s claims concerning the Biden administration’s document on crime, Harris cited Trump’s legal conviction in New York and different indictments.
The moderators questioned Trump about whether or not he would try to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, often known as Obamacare — the medical health insurance program he pledged and didn’t repeal and change throughout his earlier administration.
He mentioned, if president, he would “only change it if we come up with something that’s better and less expensive.” He went on to say, “There are concepts and options we have to do that, and you’ll be hearing about it in the not-too-distant future.”
Trump has promised an Obamacare alternative since he was on the campaign trail in 2015. He claimed in the course of the debate that he “saved” the ACA by issuing rules aimed toward decreasing insurance coverage premiums.
Harris’ earlier assist for “Medicare for All,” a proposal to exchange non-public medical health insurance with a government-run well being system, drew questions from the moderators and assaults by Trump.
Abortion was a transparent flash level. Harris referred to as state restrictions on the process enacted since 2022 “Trump abortion bans” and mentioned it was immoral to remove a girl’s means to make selections about her personal physique. She additionally pledged to signal any invoice that will reinstate the protections outlined in Roe v. Wade, which the Supreme Court overturned in 2022.
Trump mentioned that as president he would by no means face the query of signing a nationwide abortion ban as a result of the problem is now being settled in states. “I’m not signing a ban,” he mentioned. “There’s no reason to sign a ban.”
Trump additionally resurfaced claims — repeatedly judged false by PolitiFact and different fact-checking organizations — that Democrats assist abortions up to date of start and the “execution” of infants after start. ABC’s Davis flagged Trump’s assertion, saying that willfully terminating a new child’s life is illegitimate in each state. In addition, the vast majority of Democrats assist abortion entry as much as fetal viability, when the fetus is ready to survive exterior the womb, sometimes round 24 weeks of being pregnant.
Harris introduced up Project 2025, a coverage blueprint created by the conservative Heritage Foundation from which Trump has sought to distance himself.
Moments after the controversy ended, pop celebrity Taylor Swift posted on Instagram that she can be voting for Harris “because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.” Swift’s publish featured a photograph of her together with her cat and was signed “Childless Cat Lady” — a reference to feedback made by JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate.
Our PolitiFact partners fact-checked the controversy in actual time on a live blog, with more coverage here, as Harris and Trump clashed on the financial system, immigration, and abortion.
Excerpts detailing particular health-related claims observe.
Trump: “But the governor before, he said, ‘The baby will be born, and we will decide what to do with the baby.’”
Trump initially referenced a West Virginia governor. He meant Virginia, and corrected himself later within the debate.
Former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat and a doctor, by no means mentioned he would sanction the execution of newborns. What he did say throughout a 2019 radio interview is that in uncommon, late-pregnancy circumstances when fetuses are nonviable, docs ship the newborn, hold it comfy, resuscitate it if the household needs, after which have a “discussion” with the mom.
The situation is that Northam declined to say what that dialogue would entail. Trump places phrases within the then-governor’s mouth, saying docs would urge the mom to allow them to forcibly kill the new child, which is a felony in Virginia (and all different states) punishable by a protracted jail sentence or loss of life.
Trump: “Every legal scholar, every Democrat, every Republican, liberal, conservative, they all wanted [abortion] to be brought back to the states where the people could vote.”
The 1973 Roe v. Wade determination impressed legions of supporters and opponents. Before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned it in 2022, quite a few authorized students wrote briefs urging the court docket to uphold the ruling.
Some authorized students who favor abortion rights have criticized the 1973 ruling’s authorized underpinnings, saying that completely different constitutional arguments, primarily based on equal safety, would have supplied a stronger case. But authorized specialists, together with some who held this view, mentioned these students wouldn’t have advocated for overturning Roe on this foundation.
Trump: On the Affordable Care Act, “I saved it.”
False.
During 2016, Trump campaigned on repealing and changing the Affordable Care Act. While president, he sought to repeal the measure — and failed.
But his administration pursued various policies that hindered its attain and effectiveness, together with chopping tens of millions of {dollars} in promoting and outreach funding. He reduce subsidies to insurance coverage corporations that provided protection on the exchanges. He additionally took regulatory steps to allow inexpensive and fewer complete well being protection — for instance, short-term health plans that didn’t adjust to the ACA.
During the Trump administration, ACA enrollment declined, and the number of uninsured Americans rose by 2.3 million from 2016 to 2019, together with 726,000 kids, based on the U.S. Census Bureau.
Trump: Harris “wants everybody to be on government insurance” for well being care.
This is deceptive.
Harris as soon as co-sponsored a invoice to increase Medicare to Americans of all ages, however she doesn’t at present assist this proposal.
In April 2019, Harris grew to become one of 14 original co-sponsors of the Medicare for All Act of 2019 sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). The laws would have established a nationwide medical health insurance program administered by the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
The invoice would have created an automated, federally run medical health insurance program for all Americans, which might mirror the socialized drugs methods in such international locations because the United Kingdom.
Harris backed the invoice when she was making ready to run within the 2020 presidential primaries and lots of candidates believed that Democratic base voters needed probably the most liberal positions doable.
However, Medicare for All didn’t advance to a vote within the Senate. After her 2020 candidacy ended, Harris targeted as an alternative on bolstering the ACA versus pushing for Medicare for All.