Introduction: Fact check

ABC News moderated the debate at the
National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former

President Donald Trump met for the first
time on Tuesday in the first 2024
presidential debate hosted by ABC News.

The highly charged 90-minute debate
took place at the Constitution Center
in Philadelphia, with Trump and

Harris defending the White House.
As the Democratic and Republican
candidates debate the country’s most

pressing issues, ABC News reports that
their statements were exaggerated,
needed more context or were wrong.

Harris says:

16 Nobel laureates say Trump’s plan will increase inflation and push us into recession

Fact check:

Harris aptly describes what Nobel laureates have been saying about inflation during Trump’s presidency: “The fear that Donald Trump will reignite this inflation is correct. But while the group describes Harris’ program as “much better” than Trump’s, their letter makes no explicit predictions. recession by mid-2025. Instead, the group wrote, “We believe a second Trump term would have a negative impact on America’s economic standing in the world and would have devastating consequences for America’s domestic economy.”

16 Economists George Akerlof, Angus Deaton, Claudia Goldin, Oliver Hart, Eric S. Masquin, Daniel L. McFadden, Paul R. Milgrom, Roger B. Myerson, Edmund S. Phelps, Paul M. Romer, Alvin E. Roth., William F. Sharp, Robert J. Schiller, Christopher A. Sims, Joseph Stiglitz, and Robert B. Wilson.

HARRIS CLAIM:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the required unemployment rate for April 2020 reached 14.8 percent during President Trump’s administration, certainly the highest level since the Great Depression. However, after President Trump left office, the unemployment rate quickly fell to 6.4% in January 2021 as the economy began to regain balance. And the unemployment rate, at 6.4 percent, is still better than the peak of 10 percent during the Great Recession in October 2009.

Excluding the pandemic, the lowest unemployment rate in the Trump administration was slightly higher than the lowest rate in the Biden administration. Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics show both are doing well, with the lowest interest rates under the Trump and Biden administrations at 3.5 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.