Trump and Biden's first presidential debate of 2024, fact checked
Here's the fact check of some of the statements made by President Biden and former President Donald Trump during the first 2024 presidential debate, which took place in Atlanta on Thursday, June 27. The two tangled on topics including immigration, the economy, abortion and their respective records. Mr. Biden seemed to ramble during many of his responses.
CBS News covered the debate live as it happened.
Trump claims "we had the greatest economy in the history of our country": False
Trump: "We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. And we have never done so well. Every- everybody was amazed by it. Other countries were copying us."
Details: Trump's claim is false that during his presidency the U.S. had the greatest economy in the history of the country by many of the common metrics used to judge economic performance. The claim struggles when looking at GDP. If the 2020 pandemic is excluded, growth after inflation under Trump averaged 2.49%, according to figures from the World Bank. This is far from the GDP growth under Democratic President Bill Clinton of 3.88%, according to World Bank data. Including the time period after COVID spread, that average drops to 1.18%.
Trump's claim also falls short when compared to historical figures. Growth between 1962 to 1966 ranged from 4.4% to 6.6%. In 1950 and 1951, GDP ranged between 8.7% and 8%.
Under Mr. Biden, annual GDP growth is averaging 3.4%, according to the Associated Press.
*An earlier version of this fact check misstated World Bank figures for growth after inflation under Trump at 2.65%, rather than 2.49%, and 1.45%, instead of 1.18%, and also rounded the growth number for Clinton. This has been updated.
Unemployment
Trump's claim is also false even when evaluating the unemployment rate. In February 2020, a month before the COVID pandemic affected the economy, the unemployment rate stood at 3.5% — which was the lowest since December 1969 — but not the lowest ever. When Trump's term ended, the unemployment rate was 6.3%.
In 1953, the unemployment rate fell as low as 2.5%. Under Mr. Biden, the unemployment rate is 4%, according to the most recent data from May 2024.
In January 2023 and again in April 2023, the unemployment rate was 3.4%, lower than the best month during Trump's term.
Stock market performance
On Jan. 19, 2021, the S&P 500-stock average closed at 67.8% above where it had been the day before Trump was inaugurated in 2017.
According to Investopedia, at the end of President Barack Obama's first term in office, the S&P closed 84.5% higher. Additionally the S&P gained 79% during President Bill Clinton's first term, and 70% during President Dwight Eisenhower's first term. So far, under President Biden, the S&P 500 has increased almost 40%, according to calculations on June 13.
By Laura Doan and Hunter Woodall
Biden claims he's the only president this century that doesn't have troops dying anywhere in the world: False
Biden: "I'm the only president this century that doesn't have any — this decade — that doesn't have any troops dying anywhere in the world."
Details: At least 16 U.S. service members have died while serving overseas during Mr. Biden's presidency. Thirteen U.S. service members died in an attack at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan in August 2021. Three soldiers were killed in an attack in Jordan in January of this year.
By Layla Ferris
Trump claims he did not refer to U.S. soldiers who were killed as "suckers and losers": False
Trump: "First of all, that was a made-up quote. 'Suckers and losers,' they made it up."
Details: Current and former U.S. military service members have detailed to CBS News multiple instances when Trump made disparaging remarks about members of the U.S. military who were captured or killed, including referring to the American war dead at the Aisle-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 as "losers" and "suckers."
A senior Defense Department official and a former U.S. Marine Corps officer with direct knowledge of what was said detailed how Trump said he did not want to visit the cemetery because it was "filled with losers." These accounts were backed independently by two other officials — a former senior U.S. Army officer and a separate, former senior U.S. Marine Corps officer.
In another conversation on the trip, Trump referred to the 1,800 Marines who died in the World War I battle of Belleau Wood as "suckers" for getting killed. The Atlantic was first to report Trump's comments in 2020. His former chief of staff John Kelly later confirmed to CNN the essence of what Trump had said.
By James LaPorta and Sierra Sanders
Biden claims 40% fewer people are crossing border illegally, better than when Trump was in office: Partially true
Biden: "I've changed it in a way that now you're in a situation where there 40% fewer people coming across the border illegally; it's better than when he left office."
Details: Since Mr. Biden issued a proclamation banning most migrants from asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border in early June, illegal crossings there have dropped. In the past week, daily illegal border crossings have averaged roughly 2,000, according to internal Department of Homeland Security data obtained by CBS News. That's a 47% drop from the 3,800 daily average in May.
During the height of a spike in migration faced by the Trump administration in 2019, Border Patrol recorded an average of 4,300 daily illegal crossings, government data show. But there were months during the Covid-19 pandemic when the Trump administration averaged fewer than 2,000 illegal border crossings.
By Camilo Montoya-Galvez
Trump claims migrants coming to U.S. and "killing our citizens at a level...we've never seen before": Misleading
Trump: "People are coming in and killing our citizens at a level like we've never seen before."
Details: Some migrants who are believed to have entered the U.S. along the southern border in recent years have been charged with murder and other heinous crimes in different parts of the country. They include the suspect in the high-profile murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.
But while the data on this question is not comprehensive, available studies have found that migrants living in the country illegally do not commit crimes at a higher rate than native-born Americans.
Government statistics also show a very small fraction of migrants processed by Border Patrol have criminal records in the U.S. or other countries that share information with American officials.
By Camilo Montoya-Galvez
On COVID, Trump claims more people died under Biden administration than his: True, but needs context
Trump: "Remember, more people died under his administration — even though we had largely fixed it — more people died under his administration than our administration, and we were right in the middle of it, something which a lot of people don't like to talk about. But [Biden] had far more people dying in his administration."
Details: More than 460,000 people had died from COVID-19 by the end of the week that Biden was inaugurated in 2021, while more than 725,000 have died in the three years since then, according to data from the CDC. However, research has found that the counts of COVID-19 deaths, especially in the early days of the pandemic, were likely undercounted.
By Julia Ingram and Jui Sarwate
In discussing abortion, Trump claims former Virginia governor, a Democrat, supported killing babies: False
Trump: "If you look at the former governor of Virginia, he was willing to do this — he said 'we'll put the baby aside and we'll determine what we'll do with the baby'...meaning we'll kill the baby."
Details: In a 2019 radio interview then-governor of Virginia Ralph Northam, in discussing late-term abortions, addressed a hypothetical scenario in which a fetus was severely deformed or wasn't otherwise viable. He said, "the infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired."
Northam did not say the fetus should be killed. Killing a newborn baby — or infanticide — is illegal in every state, and not a single state is trying to change that.
By Laura Doan and Daniel Klaidman
Trump claims Biden "went after" his political opponent in New York "hush money" case to damage him: False
Trump: "[Biden] basically went after his political opponent (Trump) because he thought it was going to damage me, but when the public found out about these cases, 'cause they understand it better than he does, he has no idea what these cases are, but when they found out about these cases, you know what they did? My poll numbers went up, way up."
Details: There is no federal jurisdiction over a state case. The Manhattan district attorney's office is a separate entity from the U.S. Department of Justice. The department does not supervise the work of the Manhattan D.A.'s office, does not approve its charging decisions, and it does not try the D.A.'s cases.
By Pete Villasmil
Trump claims he brought insulin prices down for seniors: Misleading
Trump: "I'm the one that got the insulin down for the seniors. I took care of the seniors."
Details: During Trump's time as president, Medicare created a voluntary program in 2020 between some plans and insulin manufacturers that agreed to cap out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 per month. Around half of Medicare Advantage or stand-alone prescription drug plans ended up participating by 2021.
David Ricks, CEO of insulin drugmaker Eli Lilly, has taken credit for pioneering the idea with Trump administration officials at a congressional hearing and in an interview. In the same interview with STAT, Seema Verma, former Medicare agency chief in the Trump administration, gave Ricks the credit for the cap: "He is an unsung hero. He was actually the mastermind of all of this."
Medicare ended the policy in 2023, after Mr. Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, which capped insulin costs for Medicare beneficiaries — not just for the portion of plans participating in the program. The law capped insulin costs at the same amount of $35 per month.
By Alexander Tin and Hunter Woodall
Trump claims Biden wants open borders: False
Trump: "He wants open borders. He wants our country to either be destroyed or he wants to pick up those people as voters."
Details: When he took office, Mr. Biden reversed numerous Trump-era immigration policies, including a program that required migrants to await their asylum hearings in Mexico. U.S. Border Patrol has also reported record numbers of migrant apprehensions along the southern border during Mr. Biden's presidency. But Mr. Biden has never endorsed or implemented an "open borders" policy.
In fact, Mr. Biden has embraced some restrictive border policies that mirror rules enacted by his predecessor. In 2023, his administration published a regulation that disqualified migrants from asylum if they crossed into the country illegally after not seeking protection in a third country.
Earlier this month, Mr. Biden enacted an even stricter policy: a proclamation that has partially shut down asylum processing along the border. His administration has also carried out over 4 million deportations, expulsions and returns of migrants since 2021, according to government data.
Only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections. Most who cross into the U.S. illegally are not on a path to permanent legal status, let alone citizenship. Even those who apply and win asylum — a process that typically takes years to complete — have to wait five years as permanent U.S. residents before applying for American citizenship. There's no evidence to suggest that the Biden administration's border policy is based on a desire to convert migrants into voters.
By Camilo Montoya-Galvez
Biden claims Trump wants to get rid of Social Security: False
Biden "[Trump] wants to get rid of Social Security. He thinks there's plenty to cut in social security. He's wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare, both times."
Details: Trump has repeatedly said he will try to protect Medicare and Social Security. Trump said in a March 21 Truth Social post that he would not "under any circumstance" allow Social Security to "be even touched" if he were president. Trump had said in a CNBC interview on March 11 that "there is a lot you can do" in terms of "cutting" spending under Social Security. Mr. Biden said the comments were proof Trump aimed to make cuts in the programs, but a Trump campaign spokesman said Trump was referring to "cutting waste and fraud," not Social Security entitlements.
By Layla Ferris
Trump claims Biden has the "largest deficit" in history of U.S.: False
Trump: "But he's (Biden) got the largest deficit in the history of our country."
Details: The national deficit was the largest it had been in over two decades under Trump's administration, not Mr. Biden's, according to data from the U.S. Treasury. The deficit peaked in fiscal year 2020 at $3.13 trillion, and declined to $1.7 trillion by the end of fiscal year 2023.
By Julia Ingram
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- Presidential Debate
- Joe Biden
- Donald Trump
Arden Farhi is the senior White House producer at CBS News. He has covered several presidential campaigns and the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations. He also produces "The Takeout with Major Garrett."
