VP debate fact check: The facts behind what Harris and Pence said

Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris tussled Wednesday in the first and only vice presidential debate before Election Day on 3 November, coming as the coronavirus sidelined President Donald Trump at the White House.

A look at how the running mates' statements from Salt Lake City stack up with the facts:

PENCE, on the conclusions of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation: “It was found that there was no obstruction, no collusion. Case closed. And then, Senator Harris, you and your colleagues in the Congress tried to impeach the president of the United States over a phone call.”

THE FACTS: That’s a mischaracterization of Mr Mueller’s nearly 450-page report and its core findings.

Mr Mueller did not absolve the president of obstructing the investigation into ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. Instead, his team examined roughly a dozen episodes in which the president sought to exert his will on the probe, including by firing his FBI director and seeking the ouster of Mr Mueller himself. Ultimately, he declined to reach a conclusion on whether Trump had committed a crime, citing Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president. That’s not the same as finding “no obstruction.”

On collusion, Mr Mueller said he did not assess whether that occurred because it is not a legal term.

He looked into a potential criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign and said the investigation did not collect sufficient evidence to establish criminal charges on that front.

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PENCE: “Joe Biden wants to go back to the economic surrender to China, that when we took office, half of our international trade deficit was with China alone. And Joe Biden wants to repeal all of the tariffs that President Trump put into effect to fight for American jobs and American workers.”

THE FACTS: The tariffs were not the win claimed by Mr Pence.

For starters, tariffs are taxes that consumers and businesses pay through higher prices. So Pence is defending tax increases. The tariffs against China did cause the trade deficit in goods with China to fall in 2019. But that’s a pyrrhic victory at best as overall U.S. economic growth slowed from 3 per cent to 2.2 per cent because of the trade uncertainty.

More important, the Trump administration has not decreased the overall trade imbalance. For all trading partners, the Census Bureau said the trade deficit was $576.9bn last year, nearly $100bn higher than during the last year of Barack Obama’s presidency.

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HARRIS, on Trump’s tax cuts: “On Day 1, Joe Biden will repeal that tax bill.”

THE FACTS: No, that’s not what Mr Biden proposes. He would repeal some of it. Nor can he repeal a law on his own, much less on his first day in office. Harris also said Mr Biden will not raise taxes on people making under $400,000. If he were to repeal the Trump tax cuts across the board, he would be breaking that promise.

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HARRIS, on the coronavirus: “The president said it was a hoax.”

THE FACTS: That’s misleading.

She’s referring to a campaign rally on 28 February in South Carolina in which the president said the phrases “the coronavirus” and “this is their new hoax” at separate points. Although his meaning is difficult to discern, the broader context of his words shows he was railing against Democrats for their denunciations of his administration’s coronavirus response.

“Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus,” he said at the rally. “You know that, right? Coronavirus. They’re politicizing it.” He meandered briefly to the subject of the messy Democratic primary in Iowa, then the Russia investigation before returning to the pandemic. “They tried the impeachment hoax. ... And this is their new hoax.”

Asked at a news conference the day after the rally to clarify his remarks, Mr Trump said he was not referring to the coronavirus itself as a hoax.

“No, no, no.” he said. ”‘Hoax’ referring to the action that they take to try and pin this on somebody, because we’ve done such a good job. The hoax is on them, not – I’m not talking about what’s happening here. I’m talking what they’re doing. That’s the hoax.”

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PENCE, on the Rose Garden event after which more than 11 attendees tested positive for Covid-19: “It was an outdoor event, which all of our scientists regularly and routinely advise.”

THE FACTS: His suggestion that the event followed public-health safety recommendations is false. The event, introducing Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, drew more than 150 people and flouted safety recommendations in multiple ways. And it was not all outside.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says large gatherings of people who have traveled from outside the area and aren’t spaced at least 6 feet apart pose the greatest risk for spreading the virus.

That’s exactly the type of high-risk event the White House hosted.

Guests were seated close together, not 6 feet apart, in rows of chairs outside. Many were captured on camera clapping backs, shaking hands and talking, barely at arm’s length.

The CDC also “strongly encourages” people to wear masks, but few in the Rose Garden wore them. There was also a private reception inside the White House following the Rose Garden ceremony, where some politicians, including North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who has since tested positive, were pictured not wearing masks.

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PENCE: “The both of you repeatedly committed to abolishing fossil fuel and banning fracking … President Trump has made clear we’re going to continue to listen to the science” on climate change.

THE FACTS: Mr Pence is correct when he says Ms Harris supported banning fracking, incorrect when he says Mr Biden does, and false when he says Mr Trump follows the science on climate change.

At a CNN climate change town hall for Democratic presidential candidates last year, Ms Harris said, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking. Starting with what we can do from Day One on public lands.” Now, as Mr Biden’s running mate, she is bound to his agenda, which is different.

Mr Biden has an ambitious climate plan that seeks to rapidly reduce use of fossil fuels. He says he does not support banning hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, however, and says he doubts such a ban is possible.

As far as Mr Trump and climate, his public comments as president all dismiss the science on climate change – that it’s caused by people burning fossil fuels, and it’s worsening sharply. As recently as last month, Mr Trump said, “I don’t think science knows” what it’s talking about regarding global warming and the resulting worsening of wildfires, hurricanes and other natural disasters. He’s mocked the science in many public comments and tweets.

His regulation-cutting has eliminated key Obama-era efforts to reduce fossil fuel emissions.

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PENCE: “President Trump and I have a plan to improve health care and to protect preexisting conditions for all Americans.”

THE FACTS: There is no clear plan. People with preexisting conditions are already protected by the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, and if the Trump administration succeeds in persuading the Supreme Court to overturn it, those protections will be jeopardy.

The president has signed an executive order declaring it the policy of the US government to protect people with preexisting conditions, but Trump would have to go back to Congress to work out legislation to replace those in “Obamacare.”

Various Republican approaches offered in 2017 would have undermined the protections in the ACA, and Trump has not offered details of how his plan would work. Although Mr Trump has been in office nearly four years, he has yet to roll out the comprehensive health proposal he once promised.

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PENCE: “He suspended all travel from China the second-largest economy in the world. Joe Biden opposed that decision, he said it was xenophobic and hysterical.”

THE FACTS: Trump’s order did not suspend “all travel from China." He restricted it, and Biden never branded the decision “xenophobic.” Dozens of countries took similar steps to control travel from hot spots before or around the same time the US did.

The US restrictions that took effect on 2 February continued to allow travel to the US from China’s Hong Kong and Macao territories for months. The Associated Press reported that more than 8,000 Chinese and foreign nationals based in those territories entered the US in the first three months after the travel restrictions were imposed.

Additionally, more than 27,000 Americans returned from mainland China in the first month after the restrictions took effect. US officials lost track of more than 1,600 of them who were supposed to be monitored for virus exposure.

Biden has accused Trump of having a record of xenophobia but not explicitly in the context of the president’s decision to limit travel from China during the pandemic. Mr Trump took to calling the virus the “China virus” and the “foreign virus” at one point, prompting Mr Biden to urge the country not to take a turn toward xenophobia or racism in the pandemic.

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HARRIS, on the effects of the pandemic: “One in five businesses, closed.”

THE FACTS: That’s not accurate, as of now. We don’t know yet how many businesses have permanently closed — or could do so in the months ahead.

What we do know is that the National Federation of Independent Business said in August that 1 in 5 small businesses will close if economic conditions don’t improve in the next six months.

Many small businesses survived in part through the forgivable loans from the Payroll Protection Program. Larger employers such as Disney and Allstate insurance have announced layoffs, as have major airlines. Restaurants that survived the pandemic with outdoor eating will soon face the challenge of cold weather. So it’s too soon to tell how many businesses have closed or will.

Associated Press writers Josh Boak, Colleen Long and Amanda Seitz contributed to this report.

EDITOR'S NOTE — A look at the veracity of claims by political figures.

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