Biden to nation: ‘You can’t love your country only when you win’

(NEW YORK) — In the first and only vice-presidential debate of the 2024 election, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance are going head-to-head on the nation’s most pressing issues.

With just over 30 days till Election Day, the debate stage offers both candidates an opportunity to appeal to undecided voters and help solidify the Democratic and Republican platforms.

The high-stakes, 90-minute debate is being held at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City on Tuesday.

As Walz and Vance make their case for a Kamala Harris or Donald Trump-led White House respectively, ABC News is live fact-checking their statements for answers that are exaggerated, need more context or are false.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

WALZ CLAIM: Gov. Walz said, “The persons closest to them, to Donald Trump, said he is unfit for the highest office. That is Senator Vance.”

FACT-CHECK: True

Vance has shifted his view toward former President Trump since he first rose to prominence. Early in his career, Vance made a number of comments that were disparaging toward Trump. The specific comment that Walz seems to be referencing here is from a 2016 New York Times op-ed written by Vance ahead of the release of his book “Hillbilly Elegy.” In the op-ed, Vance wrote, “Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”

In years since the op-ed was published, Vance has said his views on Trump changed.

-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin

VANCE CLAIM: Sen. Vance said, “We’ve got 20, 25 million illegal aliens who are here in the country”

FACT-CHECK: False

During Biden’s administration, immigration officials have encountered immigrants illegally crossing the U.S. border around 10 million times. When accounting for “got aways” — people who aren’t stopped by border officials — the number rises to about 11.6 million.

But encounters don’t mean admissions. Encounters represent events, so one person who tries to cross the border twice counts for two encounters. Also, not everyone encountered is let into the country.

The Department of Homeland Security estimates about 4.2 million encounters have led to expulsions or removals. About 3.9 million people have been released into the U.S. to await immigration court hearings under Biden’s administration, Department of Homeland Security data shows.

-PolitiFact’s Maria Ramirez Uribe

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(Washington, D.C.) — With less than a week before the 2024 presidential election, the infrastructure has “never been more secure,” according to the head of the federal agency tasked with America’s cyber defense.

Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), told ABC News’ Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas that she has “incredible confidence” in the security of the election.

“I understand why some Americans have questions, because they’ve been subjected for years to a fire hose of disinformation, and it has undermined confidence in the election systems and in our democratic institutions, but I have spent so much time on the ground over the past three plus years with state and local election officials who are on the front lines of running and managing and defending election infrastructure, and I can tell you, I have incredible confidence that our election infrastructure has never been more secure,” Easterly said during an interview at CISA headquarters.

“Election officials have never been better prepared to deliver safe and secure and free and fair elections for the people,” she said.

For example, she said that 97% of registered voters will cast a ballot in jurisdictions where they’ll get a paper record that they themselves can verify, which is “incredibly important,” she said.

Voting machines are not connected to the internet and that is a “great source of protection.”

That disinformation is being amplified by foreign adversaries, according to Easterly, who pointed to various examples of disinformation already being debunked — such as a fake video of ballots being destroyed in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

She said foreign adversaries have two goals: to undermine American confidence in the election and sow discord in the country.

“Within a day, the federal government used our tools, our forensic analysis, to affirm that it was a fake video, that it was a Russian manufactured video,” she said. “So at the end of the day, we are going to lean very far forward when we see inaccurate information that could undermine Americans trust in elections.”

CISA is also responsible for advising election officials on the physical security of their election.

“As a retired Army officer, as a combat veteran who has been in very dangerous places where we’ve had flak jackets and, you know, we’ve been behind layers of security, it is disconcerting to me, as an American, to see election offices with bulletproof glass and panic buttons and barbed wire fences,” Easterly said. “That’s not the way it should be in America, and we know that these threats, harassment, bullying, swatting, threats of violence to election officials and their families, election officials of both parties largely stemming from unfounded claims that the 2020 election was rigged.”

She said election workers are not “faceless bureaucrats,” but rather friends and neighbors.

“They’re not doing it for pay or for glory. They’re doing it because they believe in our democracy, and they deserve respect, they deserve gratitude, and they deserve to be safe,” she said,

The director said recent incidents such as the ballot boxes being set on fire in Oregon and Washington and the denial of service attack against the Georgia Secretary of State’s office are expected to happen but voters should be assured there is no impact on their elections.

“What Americans should understand is these incidents will not impact the security or integrity of votes being cast or those votes being counted as cast. And election officials have trained for this, they’ve exercised for it, they’ve prepared for this – all manner of scenarios, whether it’s ballots that need to be replaced or cyber security threats that need to be dealt with, or for criminal activity like fraudulent registrations that need to be investigated And the perpetrators held criminally accountable. Election officials are prepared for this. They’re ready for this to meet this moment.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — With just 36 days until Election Day, the campaign trail is taking a sharp turn toward how Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are responding to the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene and its aftermath.

It’s also one day before the vice presidential debate on Tuesday.

Here’s how the news is developing.

Trump claims Musk will help Helene victims

Standing in front of a destroyed furniture store in Valdosta, Georgia, former President Donald Trump claimed he’s requested help from Elon Musk and will be traveling to North Carolina when conditions clear.

“They don’t have communication. … I just spoke to Elon,” he said. “We want to get Starlink hooked up because they have no communication whatsoever. And Elon will always come through.”

“As you know, our country is in the final weeks of a hard-fought national election. But in a time like this when a crisis hits, when our fellow citizens cry out in need, none of that matters,” Trump said before later suggesting the Biden-Harris administration wasn’t doing enough and falsely claiming that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp couldn’t get ahold of the president.

–ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh

Fact check: Biden and Georgia’s governor have spoken

Trump incorrectly claimed that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and President Joe Biden haven’t been in touch since Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the Southeast, making clear that his already controversial visit to the hard-hit state is a political one.

“I spoke with, for a couple hours, leaders yesterday affected by the hurricane,” Biden said Monday morning. “Governor Kemp of Georgia, Governor Cooper of North Carolina, county officials in the Big Bend region of Florida and other leaders in South Carolina and Tennessee.”

Kemp on Monday acknowledged the call with Biden and said he and Harris had been trying to speak.

–ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett and Molly Nagle

Trump claims Biden and Harris not responding to Georgia disaster

Trump claimed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is having a hard time getting President Joe Biden on the phone and that the federal government is being unresponsive after Hurricane Helene wrecked the parts of the state.

“The Vice President, she’s out some place campaigning and looking for money,” Trump said after landing in Valdosta, Georgia. “They have to be focused over here.”

Biden approved Kemp’s request for an emergency declaration on Thursday and Harris canceled campaign events Monday to return to Washington for a briefing on the storm and the federal response.

NC leaders ask politicians to stay away

Ahead of his visit to Valdosta, Georgia, Trump posted to Truth Social that he will pay his respects to the community, which was devastated by Hurricane Helene, and bring aid.

Trump added that he was going to stop by damaged communities in North Carolina too, but determined it would be too burdensome on local officials.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Rep. Chuck Edwards, who represents Asheville, North Carolina, told ABC Contributing Political Correspondent Rachael Bade on Sunday night that photo-ops were not welcome. Cooper even asked President Joe Biden and Harris to please not visit the state right now.

–ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh

New York Times endorses Harris

The New York Times endorsed Harris for president in an editorial published Monday morning, calling her “the only patriotic choice for president” and later “the only choice.”

“As a dedicated public servant who has demonstrated care, competence and an unwavering commitment to the Constitution, Ms. Harris stands alone in this race,” the Times’ editorial board wrote. “She may not be the perfect candidate for every voter, especially those who are frustrated and angry about our government’s failures to fix what’s broken — from our immigration system to public schools to housing costs to gun violence. Yet we urge Americans to contrast Ms. Harris’s record with her opponent’s.”

–ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim

Trump heads to Georgia devastation, Harris cancels campaign events and heads to DC for FEMA briefing

Trump is scheduled to visit Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday amid storm wreckage in the area.

Trump, who has been criticizing Harris for not visiting communities damaged by Hurricane Helene, will receive a briefing on the damage from the hurricane, help distribute relief supplies and deliver campaign remarks at a local furniture store in Valdosta, the campaign announced on Sunday.

Harris, meanwhile, is canceling her campaign events and heading back from Las Vegas to get a briefing at FEMA headquarters in Washington on what her campaign says are the “ongoing impacts of Hurricane Helene and the federal actions being taken to support emergency response and recovery efforts across several states.”
 

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