Trump lashes out at Zelenskyy after Ukraine’s leader questioned his claim he could end war
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and painted a picture of an “absolutely obliterated” Ukraine as the foreign leader is in the U.S. to present what he calls his “victory plan” to 2024 candidates and President Joe Biden.
At a campaign event in North Carolina, Trump went after Zelenskyy for “making little nasty aspersions” toward him.
While Trump didn’t elaborate on what the comments were, Zelenskyy was recently critical of Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, in an interview with The New Yorker.
Zelenskyy expressed doubt Trump knew how to end the Russia-Ukraine war despite Trump’s assertions, without detail or specifics, that the war never would have happened if he were president and he could end it on the first day of his new administration.
“My feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how,” Zelenskyy told the magazine. “With this war, oftentimes, the deeper you look at it the less you understand. I’ve seen many leaders who were convinced they knew how to end it tomorrow, and as they waded deeper into it, they realized it’s not that simple.”
Zelenskyy also called Vance “too radical” over his position that Ukraine will likely have to cede territory taken by Russia. Zelenskyy said the senator’s “message seems to be that Ukraine must make a sacrifice.”
Trump, in his freewheeling stump speech on Wednesday, claimed Ukraine is “obliterated” with towns and cities gone that can “never be duplicated.” He said “millions and millions” were dead and accused Ukraine of “using young children and old men” as its military experiences a shortage of soldiers.
Trump continued to call Zelenskyy the “greatest salesman on Earth” amid his apparent criticism of the amount of aid the U.S. has given to Ukraine to help the nation fight President Vladimir Putin’s forces, and how Zelenskyy has used the aid.
“Those buildings are down. Those cities are gone. They’re gone. And we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal,” Trump said.
A day prior, at a campaign event in Georgia, Trump expressed little confidence Ukraine could win while praising Russia’s military capabilities.
“But we’re stuck in that war unless I’m president. I’ll get it done. I’ll get it negotiated. I’ll get out. We got to get out. Biden says we will not leave until we win. What happens if they win? That’s what they do, is they fight wars. As somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler. They beat Napoleon. That’s what they do.”
Zelenskyy will hold meetings with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday to present what his “victory plan.” The proposal includes specific figures and amounts of military assistance that he says Ukraine needs to force Russia to stop the war, as well as a list of certain diplomatic and political steps, a source close to Zelenskyy told ABC News.
Trump said last week that he would “probably” be meeting with Zelenskyy but now is not expected to meet with him while he is here in the U.S. this week, sources said, saying Trump’s plans were never firm.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, the top Republican on Capitol Hill, also won’t meet with Zelenskyy, a source familiar with the matter said Wednesday after a meeting had been previously announced. Johnson, who has a mixed record on Ukraine aid, has recently taken issue with Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova organizing a tour for Zelenskyy of an American munitions manufacturing plant in election battleground Pennsylvania.
Vance on Wednesday, during a call with reporters hosted by the Republican National Committee, was asked if he sees an opportunity to discuss with Zelenskyy how a Trump-Vance administration would approach the conflict and if he believed Ukraine should cede land in exchange for the war to end.
Vance said “everything’s going to be on the table” in negotiating an end to the war and that “the biggest problem here is that this war has distracted and consumed a lot of resources at a time when Americans are suffering.”
“I think that the president has said very clearly that, first of all, Russia would have never invaded Ukraine if he had been president, and he’s gonna negotiate an end to the conflict,” he said.
While Trump and Vance voiced skepticism of how much further assistance should be given to Ukraine, President Biden, in his final address at the United Nations General Assembly, urged world leaders not to relent on the issue.
“The world now has another choice to make: Will we sustain our support to help Ukraine win this war and preserve its freedom, or walk away, let aggression be renewed and a nation be destroyed? I know my answer,” Biden said. “We cannot grow weary. We cannot look away and we will not let up on our support for not Ukraine.”
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Hannah Demissie and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Gov. Tim Walz, in his first Sunday show appearance and only fourth national media interview that’s aired since he was selected to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, addressed the mounting pile of false statements that have surfaced since he joined the Democratic ticket in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
Fox’s Shannon Bream, asked the governor why he thought the American people should trust him amid the falsehoods — about being in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre, about his military service, about he and his wife using in vitro fertilization when they’d really used intrauterine insemination — when he could be in the line of succession for commander in chief should Harris win in November.
The factual inaccuracies Walz has racked up came to a head during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate with GOP nominee JD Vance. Walz called himself a “knucklehead” for making those mistakes and then made another gaffe during the broadcast.
When talking about gun control, he said he’s become “friends with school shooters” instead of saying he was friends with the victims of school shootings — something he tried to straighten out later in a gaggle with media: “I sat as a member of Congress, with the Sandy Hook parents and it was a profound movement. David Hogg is a good friend of mine,” Walz said.
Walz said on Sunday that he thought the country “heard him” in his cleanup efforts during the debate, and that he’s not afraid to “own up” when he makes a mistake — insinuating that those falsehoods are better than “disparaging” people the way former President Donald Trump does or denying the results of the 2020 election, like Vance.
“Well, I think they heard me. They heard me the other night speaking passionately about gun violence and misspeaking,” Walz said, saying then that he didn’t think people “care” whether he used IUI or IVF when Trump could pose a threat to both fertility treatments if he returns to the White House.
“Look, I speak passionately. I had an entire career decades before I was in public office… I have never disparaged someone else in this. But I know that’s not what Donald Trump does. They disparage everyone, the personal attacks. I will own up when I misspeak. I will own up when I make a mistake,” Walz said in the Fox interview on Sunday.
“Let’s be very clear — on that debate stage the other night, I asked one very simple question, and Senator Vance would not acknowledge that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. I think they’re probably far more concerned with that than my wife and I used IUI to have our child, and that Donald Trump would restrict that,” he went on.
Walz’s response to his sloppiness with facts has been fine-tuned in the days since the debate. When he spoke to reporters the day after the broadcast, he sought to clean up the issue over when exactly he was in China in 1989, a topic that surfaced last week with reports that he had appeared to falsely claim he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre in June of that year.
“Yeah, look, I have my dates wrong,” he acknowledged on Sunday. During the debate, he wan’t as direct: “All’s that I said on this was I got there that summer and misspoke on this, so I will just that’s what I said… So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protest,” he said.
On Saturday, while speaking at a Cleveland fundraiser, Walz also directly addressed the recent reports that he’d inaccurately told certain stories, spinning the trait in a way that criticized the Trump-Vance ticket over Project 2025.
“Working with high school kids, I speak really quickly, and then I say, I stick my foot in my mouth — I have to go back and correct it again,” Walz said.
“So I said one time — they don’t have a plan. That’s untrue. I misspoke on that. They most certainly do have a plan. It’s called Project 2025,” he continued.
Walz’s “Fox News Sunday” interview comes as the Harris-Walz campaign said the governor would be ramping up his relatively quiet national media strategy in a post-debate blitz. He’s also recorded an interview for a CBS’s “60 Minutes” election special on Harris. He’ll be doing the late night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Monday.
Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Virginia Thomas arrive at the Heritage Foundation, Oct. 21, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — An alleged private message from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife Ginni to the leader of First Liberty Institute, which describes itself as the nation’s largest religious liberty organization, has triggered a wave of criticism from top Democrats, including a new call for the justice to recuse himself from future cases involving that organization.
First Liberty frequently petitions the high court and is behind a number of landmark conservative victories, including those protecting the ability of public school teachers to pray on the job; helping families obtain state funding to attend religious schools; and, forcing private employers to be more accommodating of religious observance.
On a late July conference call with supporters, according to a recording obtained by ProPublica, First Liberty CEO Kelly Shackelford is heard reading aloud an email from Ginni Thomas cheering on the group’s efforts to oppose a White House push to legislate Supreme Court term limits and an enforceable ethics code, prompted in part by controversy last year over her husband’s previously undisclosed financial ties and luxury travel with a GOP billionaire.
“YOU GUYS HAVE FILLED THE SAILS OF MANY JUDGES,” Ginni Thomas apparently wrote to First Liberty head Kelly Shackelford, according to ProPublica. “CAN I JUST TELL YOU, THANK YOU SO, SO, SO MUCH.”
Critics said the message suggests Clarence and Ginni Thomas are beholden to First Liberty and benefit directly from its advocacy.
“The reported comments by Ginni Thomas are deeply problematic,” said Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in a statement Monday. “She’s testified before Congress that she and Justice Thomas do not discuss each other’s work. That defense now rings hollow. Whether she’s inflating her knowledge of judges’ views on ethics reform or telling the truth, her apparent comments on behalf of judicial officers create a clear appearance of impropriety for Justice Thomas.”
Durbin, who has previously called on Thomas to sit out cases stemming from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot because of his wife’s activism, newly demanded the senior conservative justice also recuse himself from future cases involving First Liberty.
The couple did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment. The justice has previously declined to address Democrats’ demands for recusal. First Liberty Institute does not currently have an active case under consideration by the Supreme Court.
Ginni Thomas and the couple’s Republican allies believe Justice Thomas has been the target of a left-wing smear campaign aimed at undermining the conservative-majority court’s credibility. They oppose changes to the Supreme Court’s structure and function and insist the institution must remain insulated from lawmaker meddling.
“People in the progressive, extreme left, upset by just a few cases,” want to change the Court to “really destroy the court, the Supreme Court,” Shackelford says in the recording.
Two members of the court this summer — Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — publicly came out in favor of adopting an enforcement mechanism to ensure compliance with the ethics code. Chief Justice John Roberts opposes such a step on constitutional grounds but said publicly last year the matter should be studied. His position has not changed.
“The path forward is clear: Chief Justice Roberts can use his existing power to implement binding ethics reforms,” Durbin said. “Until he does, I will continue pushing to pass our [Supreme Court Ethics, Reform and Transparency] Act and deliver the ethics reforms that the American people—and our democracy—demand.”
The measure cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2023 but has not yet received a vote by the full Senate.
While Justice Thomas signed on to the court’s ethics code in late 2023 — which says a justice must avoid the mere appearance of a conflict of interest — it does not apply to spouses, who are not forbidden from engaging in political activity as private citizens. Ginni Thomas has spent decades publicly advocating for conservative causes and was a high-profile supporter of the “Stop the Steal” effort to overturn results of the 2020 presidential election.
Some legal scholars have pointed out that Ginni Thomas was taking a position on court-related legislation long shared — and publicly expressed — by members of the court from both ends of the ideological spectrum.
Neither the recording nor Ginni Thomas’ email has been independently obtained by ABC News.
(PHILADELPHIA) — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump met for the first time Tuesday in their first presidential debate of the 2024 election, hosted by ABC News.
The high-stakes, 90-minute debate is being held at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center, with Trump and Harris arguing their case for the White House.
As the Democratic and Republican nominees debate the most pressing topics facing the nation, ABC News is live fact-checking their statements for answers that are exaggerated, need more context or are false.
Please check back for ongoing updates.
HARRIS CLAIM: 16 Nobel laureates say Trump’s plan would increase inflation and land us in a recession
FACT-CHECK: Mostly true
Harris correctly describes what the Nobel laureates said about inflation during a Trump presidency: “There is rightly a worry that Donald Trump will reignite this inflation.” But while the group describes Harris’ agenda as “vastly superior” to Trump’s, their letter doesn’t specifically predict a recession by the middle of 2025. Rather, the group wrote: “We believe that a second Trump term would have a negative impact on the U.S.’s economic standing in the world and a destabilizing effect on the U.S.’s domestic economy.”
The 16 economists are George Akerlof, Angus Deaton, Claudia Goldin, Oliver Hart, Eric S. Maskin, Daniel L. McFadden, Paul R. Milgrom, Roger B. Myerson, Edmund S. Phelps, Paul M. Romer, Alvin E. Roth, William F. Sharp, Robert J. Shiller, Christopher A. Sims, Joseph Stiglitz and Robert B. Wilson.
-PolitiFact’s Louis Jacobson
HARRIS CLAIM: Trump wants “20% tax on everyday goods” that would cost families “about $4000 more a year”
FACT-CHECK: True, but needs context
Trump has proposed a universal “10-20%” tariff on all U.S. imports, from cars and electronics to wine, food products and many other goods. He has also proposed a 60% tariff on imports from China. Vice President Harris called the plan “Trump’s sales tax,” though the former president has not explicitly proposed such a tax. Independent economists, however, say the proposed import tariffs would unquestionably result in higher prices for American consumers across the board.
The precise financial impact on families is hard to predict and estimates vary widely — from additional annual costs per household of $1,700 to nearly $4,000, depending on the study. Trump has not called for any tax hikes for American families.
He has proposed exempting Social Security benefits and tips from taxation, as well as extending individual tax cuts enacted in 2017.
-ABC News’ Devin Dwyer
TRUMP CLAIM: Trump says “We have inflation like very few people have ever seen before. Probably the worst in our nation’s history.”
FACT-CHECK: False, but it was very high
It’s true that early in Joe Biden’s presidency the annual inflation rate peaked at roughly 9 percent (June of 2022), but that’s not the highest it’s ever been. There are several examples of the inflation rate being much higher than 9 percent in the U.S, including in the immediate aftermath of WWII and during the oil embargo and shortages of the late 70’s and early 1980s.
But, there are several examples of the inflation rate being much higher than 9 percent in the U.S., including in the immediate aftermath of WWII and during the oil embargo of the late 70’s and early 1980s when the inflation rate peaked at 14.5 percent. The inflation rate as of July 2024 is at 2.9 percent annual inflation, the lowest it has been in 3 years. It should also be noted that President Biden has falsely claimed that he inherited a high rate from his predecessor. In fact, inflation was at 1.4 percent when he took office.
*Data for this fact check was gathered from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, or St. Louis Fed
HARRIS CLAIM: Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression
FACT-CHECK: Needs context
The unemployment rate peaked at 14.8% in April 2020 when Trump was in office – that was indeed the highest level since the Great Depression, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But unemployment rapidly declined to 6.4% in January 2021 by the time Trump left office, as the economy started to rebalance. And that 6.4% unemployment rate is still better than the 10% peak during the Great Recession in October 2009.
If you eliminate pandemic statistics, the lowest unemployment rate under Trump was just slightly higher than the lowest point under Biden. Both were good: 3.5% under Trump and 3.4% under Biden at their lowest respectively, according to data provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and Bureau of Labor Statistics.
HARRIS CLAIM: Trump “killed” bill that would have secured border
FACT-CHECK: True
Earlier this year, a bipartisan group of senators unveiled a $20 billion plan to substantially bolster security along the U.S.-Mexico border. It would have added hundreds of border patrol and ICE agents and asylum officers; funded construction of new border wall; expanded detention facilities; ended “catch and release;” effectively closed the border entirely when illegal crossings surge; and raised the bar for asylum claims, according to the bill.
The influential Border Patrol union, which has previously endorsed Trump, publicly backed the bill. But hours after the draft legislation was unveiled on Feb. 5, Trump urged his party to oppose the bill, even as many Republicans have spent years lobbying for some of the security measures included in the deal.
“I’ll fight it all the way,” Trump told supporters at a Las Vegas rally Feb. 8. “A lot of the senators are trying to say, respectfully, they’re blaming it on me. I say, that’s okay. Please blame it on me.” Trump openly invoked election-year politics as a motivation for his position: “This Bill is a great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party. It takes the HORRIBLE JOB the Democrats have done on Immigration and the Border, absolves them, and puts it all squarely on the shoulders of Republicans,” Trump wrote on social media. The bill failed a key Senate procedural vote in May, with all but one Republican voting against it, including all those involved in crafting the deal.
TRUMP CLAIM: Haitian migrants eating pets in Ohio
FACT-CHECK: False
According to the city of Springfield, Ohio, these claims are false. A city spokesperson tells ABC News there have been “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals in the immigrant community.”
Rumors that migrants from Haiti are stealing and eating animals there have run rampant after a series of claims spread widely online, amplified by social media posts from leading political figures in recent days.
“Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes. Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic,” the spokesperson added.
The House Judiciary GOP X account used AI tools to show Trump holding cats and ducks, portraying him as a savior of animals.
One of the main images circulating online, showing a man holding a dead goose, was taken not in Springfield but in Columbus, Ohio, two months ago. The resident who captured the image told ABC News he was surprised to see his image used to ” push false narratives.”
According to the Springfield News-Sun, the Springfield Police Department has not received any reports of pets being stolen and eaten. The city even created a webpage debunking some claims.
Migrants have been drawn to the region because of low cost of living and work opportunities, the city says on its site. The city estimates there are around 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants living in the county, and that the rapid rise in population has strained housing, health care, and school resources. But the city also says that the migrants are in the country legally and that many are recipients of Temporary Protected Status from the federal government.
HARRIS CLAIM: Trump ‘intends on implementing’ Project 2025
FACT-CHECK: Needs context
Conservative allies and former advisors to Donald Trump published a 900-page policy blueprint in April 2023 to help a new Republican administration transition to power. The effort – dubbed Project 2025 – was organized by the Heritage Foundation, a prominent right-wing think tank. It details proposals for staffing the government and restructuring federal agencies, writing regulations, managing the economy and ensuring national security.
Harris claims Trump “intends on implementing” the “detailed and dangerous” plan if he wins a second term. But Trump denies any association with Project 2025, saying on social media in July: “I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it,” and also publicly denounced its substance as “seriously extreme” and developed by the “severe right.”
“I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” Trump posted on social media. Many of the document’s priorities, however, are broadly championed by Trump, including construction of a border wall, mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and banning transgender athletes from women’s sports, among other things.
Dozens of former members of his administration were involved in the project, including former cabinet secretaries and West Wing aides. Many of the same people helped craft the Republican Party platform, ABC News has reported. Speaking at a Heritage Foundation event in April 2022, Trump said: “This is a great group and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do… when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.”
HARRIS CLAIM: ‘If Donald Trump were to be reelected, he will sign a national abortion ban.’
FACT-CHECK: False
Trump has said he has “no regrets” in selecting the Supreme Court justices who overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. But he also repeatedly has promised that if elected, he will not sign a federal abortion ban into law and will leave the issue up to the states. One open question this year had been whether he would enforce the Comstock Act, an 1873 law that prohibits mailing materials used in abortions.
Among other things, the law would make it illegal to ship the drug mifepristone, which is used to terminate early pregnancies. The Biden administration has said the law is unenforceable because the drug has medical uses other than abortion, and it would be impossible to know how the drug was being used. Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, and other conservatives have called for the enforcement of the law.
In an August interview with CBS News, Trump said that while “we will be discussing specifics of it,” he will not enforce the Comstock Act.
TRUMP CLAIM: Trump said ‘they didn’t fire anybody having to do with Afghanistan.’
FACT-CHECK: True, but needs context.
It is accurate that no one with a direct role in the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021 has been held publicly accountable.
Trump appears to be specifically referring to a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members. U.S. Central Command ultimately concluded that the bombing was not preventable and that members of a Marine sniper team were mistaken when they told others they had the suicide bomber in their sights.
Trump, congressional Republicans and several Gold Star families say they believe these investigations have not gone far enough.
TRUMP CLAIM: Kamala Harris wants to ban fracking
FACT-CHECK: Needs context
It’s true that Harris once called to ban fracking altogether, but she has since said she changed her policy view. During a CNN town hall on climate change in 2019 when she was still a Senator, Harris said, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” Fracking is short for “hydraulic fracturing,” and it’s a technique used in the extraction of oil and natural gas from underground rock formations.
Harris also said she backed California’s efforts to stop the practice in her home state when she was the state’s attorney general. However, she eventually changed her view on fracking when she became Biden’s running mate in 2020. During an October 2020 segment on ABC’s The View, Harris said neither she nor Biden would ban fracking. Harris reiterated that she would not ban fracking during the ABC News Presidential Debate.
TRUMP CLAIM: Trump said ‘I’d like to give you 10,000 National Guard soldiers. They rejected me. Nancy [Pelosi] rejected me.’
FACT-CHECK: False
The final report by the bipartisan Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol determined there was “no evidence” to support the claim that Trump gave an order “to have 10,000 troops ready for January 6th.”
The report quoted President Trump’s Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, who directly refuted this claim under oath, saying, “There was no direct order from the President” to put 10,000 troops to be on the ready for January 6th.
Instead, the report noted that when Trump referenced that number of troops, it was not to protect the Capitol but that he had “floated the idea of having 10,000 National Guardsmen deployed to protect him and his supporters from any supposed threats by left-wing counter-protesters.”
HARRIS CLAIM: If elected, Trump would be immune from criminal prosecution
FACT-CHECK: Partly true
Vice President Harris claimed Trump would be “immune from any misconduct” and have “no guard rails” after a landmark Supreme Court decision in June.
The court did rule the core powers, which include the ability to make treaties, veto bills, nominate cabinet members, appoint ambassadors, act as Commander-in-Chief of the military, and grant pardons.) The court also said that presidents enjoy “at least presumptive immunity” for other “official acts” – defined broadly as actions within the “outer perimeter” of official responsibilities but not “manifestly or palpably beyond his authority.”
While the decision is widely construed as granting broad protection for a president, the court said presidents are “not above the law” and enjoy no “absolute” immunity, leaving room for a narrow set of cases where a current or former president could face criminal prosecution. There is also no immunity for “unofficial” acts, the court said.
Trump faces a pair of active federal criminal cases against him brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith. The Supreme Court decision does not mean those prosecutions cannot move forward, but it has significantly delayed proceedings and made it more difficult to convict Trump. If he were to win a second term, Trump’s Justice Department could dismiss the Special Counsel and effectively end the cases against him.
TRUMP CLAIM: Trump said he ended the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and ‘Biden put it back on day one.’
FACT-CHECK: Mostly false
The Nord Stream 2 is an undersea pipeline that would have allowed Russia to increase natural gas exports to Western Europe while bypassing Ukraine and depriving Kyiv billions of dollars in access fees. It’s true that in 2019, Trump announced sanctions that halted the pipeline’s construction. But by that point, the pipeline was nearly complete with a majority of the project occurring under Trump’s presidency, according to a 2020 analysis by the Congressional Research Service.
Biden later waived sanctions against the pipeline’s builder at the request of Germany in 2021, but reimposed penalties the following year as Russia invaded Ukraine.
HARRIS CLAIM: Trump’s deal with the Taliban is to blame for the chaotic withdrawal in Afghanistan.
FACT-CHECK: Needs context
The top government watchdog on the Afghanistan war blames Trump’s 2020 deal with the Taliban as “the single most important factor” in the rapid collapse of Afghanistan’s forces a year later. But the same office also says Biden’s decision to stick with a firm withdrawal date of U.S. troops was a factor as well.
Trump’s deal with the Taliban called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces by May 2021 and release 5,000 of its fighters from Afghan prisons so long as they agreed not to attack U.S. forces. According to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the agreement was seen by Afghan forces as a “signal that the U.S. was handing over Afghanistan to the enemy as it rushed to exit the country.” Trump also had reduced U.S. troop levels to the lowest point in the 20-year war, and Afghan forces weren’t prepared to take over, according to the inspector general.
Biden aides say the poor security situation when he took office in January 2021 put the newly elected president in an almost impossible position. Biden could have surged U.S. troops to the country to try to bolster the weakened Afghan government. But doing so would have extended what was already the nation’s longest war and put American forces at risk of renewed attacks by the Taliban. According to the inspector general, Biden’s announcement that he would stick with a 2021 withdrawal date contributed to the poor morale among Afghan troops, paving the way for a government collapse and subsequent Taliban takeover.
TRUMP CLAIM: Harris and Walz support abortion ‘in the seventh month, the eighth month, the ninth month… And probably after birth.’
FACT-CHECK: False
Trump has claimed that Democrats in some states allow for the killing of an infant after birth. This is false.
There is no state that allows the killing of a baby after birth. Infanticide is illegal in all 50 states. His false claim stems from a refusal by many Democrats to support any legal restrictions on abortion, and he specifically references comments by former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a physician, who once said that in rare, late-pregnancy cases when fetuses are nonviable, doctors deliver the baby, resuscitate it if the mother wishes, and then have a “discussion” with the mother.
While most states that allow abortion do so only up until fetal viability, there are several states – including Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Gov. Tim Walz’s home state of Minnesota — that do not impose a legal limit on abortion procedures. Advocates for abortion rights say the absence of legal consequences after fetal liability doesn’t mean doctors will try to terminate full-term, healthy pregnancies.
In fact, access to late term procedures is limited, costly and medically complex — typically done only when a woman’s life is threatened or the fetus isn’t expected to survive. Many Democrats say they want to pass legislation that would codify the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which protects abortion rights up until viability.
TRUMP CLAIM: Trump said he lost the 2020 election on a ‘technicality’ because judges determined he lacked standing in election lawsuits.
FACT-CHECK: False
Trump lost the 2020 election after Biden won 306 electoral votes, compared to Trump’s 232 electoral votes.
After losing the 2020 election, Trump and his allies filed more than 60 lawsuits to challenge the outcome of the election — the overwhelming majority of which were dismissed or dropped. Many of the cases were dismissed because the plaintiffs in the cases could not prove a strong enough connection to the action they were challenging. Not having “standing” is a common and legally justifiable reason for a case to be dismissed.
TRUMP CLAIM: The Biden administration left $85 billion worth of ‘brand new beautiful military equipment behind’ in Afghanistan that was seized by the Taliban.
FACT-CHECK: False
This is not accurate, as $83 billion is an estimate of the entire amount spent by the US in security assistance in Afghanistan since 2001.
Still, the Defense Department’s Inspector General estimates $7.12 billion worth of U.S.-funded equipment was seized by the Taliban when the U.S. withdrew. According to the government watchdog, that amount includes 78 aircraft, some 9,500 air-to-ground munitions, 40,000 vehicles, 300,000 weapons and nearly all night-vision, surveillance, communications and biometric equipment provided to Afghanistan forces.
HARRIS CLAIM: ‘Trump took out a full page ad calling for their execution’
FACT-CHECK: True
Not long after the Central Park Five were arrested, Trump placed full-page ads in New York newspapers urging New York to bring back the death penalty. “These muggers and murderers” should be “forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes,” said the ad, above Trump’s signature.
-PolitiFact’s Aaron Sharockman
HARRIS CLAIM: Trump exchanged love letters with Kim Jong Un
FACT-CHECK: False
Trump did exchange letters with Kim Jong Un in August 2018 after the two leaders held a summit together in Singapore in June 2018. Trump tweeted thanking the North Korean leader “for your nice letter – I look forward to seeing you soon.” The White House at the time said Trump sent a reply to the North Korean leader, but the White House did not provide details about what was in Kim Jong Un’s letter or what was in Trump’s reply.
In August 2019, Trump said he received a “very beautiful letter” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when speaking to reporters.
In September 2018, Trump told a crowd at a campaign rally that there was once tough talk between the two leaders, “and then we fell in love.”
“And then we fell in love, okay? No, really – he wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters,” Trump said at the rally. Trump did often speak favorably of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during and after his presidency.
HARRIS CLAIM: Biden-Harris made historic investments in clean energy
FACT-CHECK: Needs context
The U.S. budget for clean energy investments (over $559 billion as of August 2023) is the largest in the world, according to the World Economic Forum. About a third of that investment is going toward low-carbon electricity projects, and about a quarter is aimed at developing low-carbon, efficient transportation, according to WEF. In the first quarter of 2024, the U.S. “continued its record-setting growth” with a new high of $71 billion invested in clean energy and transportation, according to Clean Investment Monitor.
At the same time, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported in March that the U.S. is now producing more crude oil than any country ever has — and has been for the past six years in a row. In December 2023 the U.S. reached a new monthly record high of more than 13.3 million barrels per day, according to the EIA.
The Harris-Walz campaign told ABC News that the trillion-dollar amount cited by the vice president is based on the total spending of the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. In a statement, they told us “Vice President Harris was proud to cast the tie-breaking vote on the largest ever investment to address the climate crisis and under the Biden-Harris Administration, America is more energy secure than ever before with the highest domestic energy production on record.”
Even if you take the lowest estimate for federal spending under the IRA, 780-800 billion dollars, adding the funds allocated in the CHIPS and BIL laws does exceed the $1 trillion figures that Harris has cited in her campaign speeches. All three laws include provisions that address climate change.
TRUMP CLAIM: Trump suggested he ‘probably took a bullet to the head’ because of Harris.
FACT-CHECK: False
Trump suggested that the July 13 assassination attempt may have been because of Harris. The FBI has not established a motive that explains why Thomas Matthew Crooks fired on Trump.
Trump said, “This is the one that weaponized, not me. She weaponized. I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me. They talk about democracy, I’m a threat to democracy. They’re the threat to democracy.”
During the most recent update on the investigation in a briefing with reporters on Aug. 28, FBI Executive Director Robert Wells said, “At this time, the FBI has not identified a motive nor any co-conspirators or associates of Crooks with advanced knowledge of the attack.”
“We continue to see through our analysis a mixture of ideologies. So I would say that we see no definitive ideology associated with our subject, either left-leaning or right-leaning. It’s really been a mixture and something that we’re still attempting to analyze and draw conclusions on,” FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office Kevin Rojek said at the same briefing.
While they do not know what motivated Crooks, the FBI does believe he had a mindset to carry out some kind of attack and looked at Trump’s Butler rally, about an hour from his home, as a “target of opportunity.”
“Regarding the subject’s mindset, so we saw, through our analysis of all his – particularly his online searches – a sustained detailed effort to plan an attack on some events, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets. And then when this event was announced, the Trump rally was announced early in July, he became hyper-focused on that specific event and looked at it as a target of opportunity,” Rojek said. “Again, I want to stress that we continue to analyze all the evidence associated with his accounts, with his online search activity. And we have a clear idea of mindset, but we are not ready to make any conclusive statements regarding motive at this time.”
TRUMP CLAIM: Trump said ‘Ashley Babbitt was shot by an out-of-control police officer that should have never, ever shot her. It’s a disgrace.’
FACT-CHECK: Misleading
The U.S. Capitol Police Office of Professional Responsibility in August 2021 cleared the officer involved in the shooting of Ashli Babbitt, saying that officer would “not be facing internal discipline.”
An internal investigation found the actions of the officer were “lawful and within Department policy,” it said.
Babbitt was seen on video on Jan. 6 attempting to kick through a window near the House Speaker’s Lobby, shortly after Babbitt entered the Capitol. She was subsequently shot and killed by the officer.
The agency said they’d reviewed all available evidence in connection with the shooting including video and radio calls, and Capitol Police stood by the officer and said his actions saved the lives of lawmakers and family members.
HARRIS CLAIM: Harris said, ‘As of today, there is not one member of the United States military who is an active duty in a combat zone, in any war zone around the world, the first time this century.’
FACT-CHECK: False
Harris appears to be using a narrow definition of what constitutes a combat zone, because there are U.S. military troops in the Middle East who have come under deadly fire over the last year.
There are currently 2,500 U.S. military troops in Iraq and more than 900 U.S. military personnel in Syria who are on a mission to support local forces to prevent a resurgence by ISIS. While the troops in both countries are mostly involved in an advisory role some of them are also engaged in risky counterterrorism missions against ISIS. But the real threat to these troops over the past year were the repeated attacks against U.S. bases in both countries by Iranian-backed militia groups that launched more than 170 rocket and drone attacks.
But it was an attack on a U.S. base in neighboring Jordan this past January that has proven to be the most costly. Three U.S. Soldiers were killed and 34 others were wounded when a drone launched by those militia groups made it past air defense systems. That attack led the Biden administration to order large-scale retaliatory airstrikes against the Iranian-backed militia groups.
TRUMP CLAIM: Trump said, ‘Iran was broke under Donald Trump. Now Iran has $300 billion because they took off all the sanctions that I had.’
FACT-CHECK: Mostly false, needs context
Trump claimed that if he was in office, Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel never would have happened because the terror group’s chief sponsor, Iran, “had no money for terror.” However, Iran has been Hamas’ principal backer for decades, including through the Trump presidency. Records retrieved from inside Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces and verified by independent news outlets indicate Tehran funneled tens of millions of dollars during the Trump administration.
Two of Trump’s top advisers for Middle Eastern affairs also claimed that Iran was supplying Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups with $100 million each year in an op-ed published in 2019. Trump also said that Iran gained $300 billion because the Biden-Harris administration “took off all the sanctions I had” on Iran.
The current administration has maintained and even levied new sanctions against Iran, but during its attempt to renegotiate an Obama-era nuclear deal that Trump exited in 2018, the U.S. did ease the enforcement of some sanctions and restore a U.N waiver that allowed companies from other countries to conduct non-proliferation work at Iranian nuclear sites.
According to shipping data, Iran’s oil exports — its chief source of revenue — have climbed during the last four years. But experts estimate than Tehran has been able to accrue around $100 billion at most during President Biden’s term, which is substantially less than Trump’s figure of $300 billion.
HARRIS CLAIM: Harris said, ‘The former president said climate change is a hoax’
FACT-CHECK: True
Trump certainly has a lengthy record of using the word “hoax” to describe climate change — mostly before and during his first run for president.
On Dec. 30, 2015, Trump told the crowd at a rally in Hilton Head, South Carolina, “Obama’s talking about all of this with the global warming and… a lot of it’s a hoax. It’s a hoax. I mean, it’s a money-making industry, okay? It’s a hoax, a lot of it.” On Jan. 25, 2014, Trump tweeted, “NBC News just called it the great freeze — coldest weather in years. Is our country still spending money on the GLOBAL WARMING HOAX?”
On Jan. 29, 2014, Trump tweeted: “Snowing in Texas and Louisiana, record setting freezing temperatures throughout the country and beyond. Global warming is an expensive hoax!” That same day, he tweeted, “Give me clean, beautiful and healthy air – not the same old climate change (global warming) b——-! I am tired of hearing this nonsense.”
Trump also called climate change a “hoax” on the Jan. 6, 2014, edition of Fox & Friends. In addition, he said on the Sept. 24, 2015, edition of CNN’s New Day, “I don’t believe in climate change.” And on Jan. 18, 2016, Trump said that climate change “is done for the benefit of China, because China does not do anything to help climate change.”
TRUMP CLAIM: Trump claims Europe giving billions less to Ukraine than the U.S.
FACT-CHECK: False
Trump said the U.S. has committed “250 billion or more” in aid to Ukraine, claiming that European countries meanwhile have paid $150 billion less, despite being more directly affected by the war.
“You take a look at what’s happening, we’re in for 250 to 275 billion. They’re into 100 to 150,” Trump said.
In reality, while the U.S. is easily the largest single donor to Ukraine, European countries collectively have given significantly more and their share recently has increased.
According to Kiel Institute’s Ukraine aid tracker, the U.S. has so far committed nearly $109 billion to Ukraine in military and humanitarian aid, with roughly $25.7 billion still to be allocated.
European countries have committed more than $196 billion — that is $87 billion more than the U.S., according to the Kiel Institute tracker. However, $85 billion of that also remains to be allocated.
Media reporting often says the U.S. has committed $175 billion to Ukraine through Congressional approvals. But in reality, much of those funds are not destined for Ukraine, but instead goes to the Department of Defense for procurement, operations and maintenance, as well as other programs, according to the Kiel Institute.
The U.S. remains the crucial supporter of Ukraine and is irreplaceable in terms of military equipment and ammunition, which other NATO allies lack in sufficient amounts. When hard-right pro-Trump Republicans in Congress delayed a new aid bill for months, Ukraine began to suffer severe ammunition shortages.
