FALSEHOODS AND FUMBLES INMUCH- AWAITED FINAL TRUMP- BIDEN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

A look at how some of the statements on the stage in Nashville, Tennessee, compared with the facts

CORONAVIRUS

TRUMP: “We’re rounding the turn. We’re rounding the corner. It’s going away.”

THEFACTS: No, the coronavirus isn’t going away. It’s coming back. Newcases are on the rise toward their summer peak. Deaths have also been increasing.

TRUMP: “All he does is talk about shutdowns. But forget about him. His Democrat governors Cuomo in New York, you look at what’s going on in California, you look at Pennsylvania, North Carolina. Democrats— Democrats all. They’re shut down so tight, and they’re dying.”

BIDEN: “Look at the states that are having such a spike in the coronavirus. They’re the red states. They’re the states in the Midwest or the states in the Upper Midwest. That’s where the spike is occurring significantly.”

THEFACTS: Neither of them is right. Coronavirus isn’t a redstate problem or a blue- state problem. It’s a public health problem that affects people no matter where they live or what their politics are.

TRUMPon the toll of Covid- 19 in the US:

“So as you know2.2 million people, modelled out, were expected to die.” THEFACTS: Thiswas his first line in the debate, and it is false. The US death toll fromthe pandemicwas not expected to be that high.

Such an extreme projection was merely a baseline if nothing at allwere done to fight the pandemic. Doing nothingwas never an option and publichealth authorities did not expect over 2million deaths.

MIGRANTS

TRUMP: speaking about children whowere separated from parents at the US- Mexico border: “They are sowell taken care of” they’re in facilities that are so clean.”

THEFACTS: Not so.

At the height of the family separations in 2018, Border Patrol facilitieswere cramped well beyond capacity with migrants whowere kept in squalid conditions, according towatchdog reports and the lawyers responsible for a federal settlement that governs howchildren are cared for in immigration custody.

TRUMP: On immigrants who are released fromcustody in the US to wait out their cases being allowed to stay:

“They say they come back, less than 1% of the people come back. We have to send ... Border

Patrol out to find them.”

THEFACTS:

That’s false. There are far fewer no- shows for immigration hearings among those who are released pending their cases. According to Justice Department Statistics, a majority come back for their hearings.

HEALTH CARE

BIDEN: “Not one single person with private insurancewould lose their insurance under my plan, nor did they underObamacare, they did not lose their insurance, unless they chose theywanted to go to something else.”

THEFACTS:

He’swrong about

Obamacare.

Then- President Barack Obama promised if you liked your health insurance, you could keep it under his Affordable Care Act, but that’s not what happened for some.

CLIMATE CHANGE

TRUMP: The Paris accord meant “wewere going to have to spend trillions of dollars.... They did a great disservice. Theywere going to take away our business.”

THE FACTS: The Paris accord, an international agreement that aims to halt the rise in global temperatures, is based on voluntary emission reductions. No nationwas forced to do anything.

EXTREMISTS

BIDEN: “He says about the Poor Boys, last timewewere on a stage here, said— I told them to stand down and stand ready. Come on. This guy has a dog whistle as big as a fog horn.”

THEFACTS: That is not exactly what Trump said and that is not the name of the neo- fascist group.

TRUMP’S TAXES

TRUMPon his taxes: “They keep talking about $ 750, which I think is a filing fee. ... Tens of millions of dollars ( in income taxes) I prepaid.” On his China bank account: “Iwas a businessman in 2013 and I closed the account in 2015.” THEFACTS: Trump is not being honest about his taxes. Reporting by The NewYork Times, which obtained his tax records, contradicts his claims.

HUNTER BIDEN

TRUMP: “Joe got $ 3.5 ( million) from Russia. And it came through Putin because hewas very friendly with the former mayor ofMoscow, and itwas the mayor ofMoscow’s wife.

... Your family got $ 3.5million. Someday you’re going to have to explain why.”

THEFACTS:

There is no evidence of this. Trumpis falsely characterising a report by Republican Sen. RonJohnson, who investigated Biden’s son, Hunter, and his business dealings in Ukraine.