Although he Joe Biden’s poor performance in Thursday’s presidential debate grabbed headlines, That did not overshadow the bombardment of lies that Donald Trump launched during the meeting in Atlanta.
According to the criteria of
According to newspapers such as The New York Times and Washington Postas well as an analysis made by EL TIEMPO, The former Republican president lied at least 30 times, or once every three minutes, during the hour and a half that the exchange lasted.
While some were exaggerated, most bordered on shamelessness. Here we recount the main ones.
1. ‘Democrats are willing to kill babies’
According to Trump, Democrats are “radicals” against abortion because they are willing to kill babies “in the eighth, ninth month and even after birth.”
Of course, in no state, not even when abortion was allowed nationally under Roe v. Wade (the Supreme Court decision that allowed it in 1973 but was overturned two years ago) it is possible to take the life of a baby that has already been born.
Trump also distorts the concept of Roe vs. Wade, which established that abortions in the eighth or ninth month were only possible when the mother’s life was in danger. In fact, it is so rare that only 1.3 percent of these types of procedures occur beyond week 21 or 5 months of pregnancy.
2. ‘Leaving the decision on abortion up to the states is something everyone wants to see happen’
In defending his stance on abortion — leaving the decision to the states — Trump argued that it was something that everyone, including Democrats and pundits, wanted to happen. “Everyone, without exception, Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, everyone wanted it. Every legal scholar in the world, the most respected, wanted it back to the states,” the former president said.
To say that this was the intention of democrats and liberals, who to this day continue to fight for the right to be restored, is absurd. Likewise, the fact of pointing out that this is what the jurists thought.
In fact, the Dobbs v. case file Jackson Women’s Health Organization (the one that ended up ending Roe v. Wade) is full of writings from jurists who say it would be a mistake to overturn decades of legal precedent.
3. ‘The only jobs the Biden administration has created have been for illegal immigrants’
The former president alleged that the only jobs that have been created under the Joe Biden administration have been to employ “illegal immigrants.” and restoring those that were lost during the covid pandemic.
From the outset, The Biden administration has created more than 12 million jobs, double the number created under Trump without even considering those who were lost when the pandemic broke out during his administration.
Nearly 7 million of those have gone to Americans. And while immigration has added some 5 million jobs, the vast majority of those jobs have been for legal migrants, refugees and temporary residents such as students.
4. ‘Biden has allowed the entry of millions of people from other countries who have escaped from prisons and mental institutions’
According to Trump, President Biden has allowed the entry of millions of people from other countries who have escaped from prisons and mental institutions and they are destroying the country.
Although there are anecdotal details of some Venezuelans who have escaped from prisons, there is no record that any country is letting them out, much less from medical institutions. In fact, according to a report by the London Institute for Crime and Justice, the world’s prison population, rather than decreasing, has continued to increase.
5. ‘The president is destroying the health and social security system by offering benefits to illegal immigrants’
Trump in turn alleged that Biden is destroying the health system and the social security system because he is offering benefits to immigrants and illegals.
In fact, it’s quite the opposite. While immigrants contribute to both systems – a portion of their paychecks go into these pockets – they receive none of the benefits. In fact, even in the case of illegal immigrants, they have contributed more than $30 billion to Medicare and Social Services coffers without receiving anything in return.
6. ‘Newly arrived immigrants are staying in luxury hotels and stealing jobs from Americans’
The former president also alleged that newly arrived immigrants are being housed “in luxury hotels” and stealing American jobs.
That is also false. The vast majority have been placed in shelters and even temporary camps. Most economists also indicate that the jobs being filled by immigrants are not the ones that Americans want. This is demonstrated by the unemployment rate, which is at 4 percent, one of the lowest in history.
In fact, these same economists predict that If Trump were to carry out the expulsion of immigrants he has promised, inflation would probably skyrocket and be the prelude to a sharp recession.
7. ‘Biden has been terrible to African Americans and considers them super predators’
The president has never used that word to refer to African Americans, a term that was used at one point by Hillary Clinton, his rival in the 2016 elections.
8. Trump highlighted his environmental numbers as the best on that front.
Regarding environmental protections and the quality of the country’s air and water, The former president said that under his administration the best numbers were achieved on this front.
Instead, his administration slashed funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, which is charged with protecting the environment, and gutted at least 70 Obama-era regulations intended to tighten controls on emissions and pollution.
9. ‘Biden wants to quadruple everyone’s taxes’
However, the Democratic president has been saying for years that he would only increase taxes for those who earn more than $400,000 a year, that is, about 1.6 billion pesos. In the US, only 2 percent of the population has incomes above that figure.
10. ‘China pays Biden, gets money from China’
Joe Biden makes his tax returns public every year and there has never been any indication that he receives funds from China or any other country.s. Trump, on the other hand, refuses to reveal his.
11. ‘More people died from Covid during his government than during mine, and we had the worst of it’
Since the pandemic broke out in the US in 2020, more than 1.2 million people have died. While it is true that 60 percent of them perished during Biden’s first three years, the remaining 40 percent died in the 10 months that Trump was in the White House before handing over the reins. That is, a much higher percentage month by month.
12. According to Trump, under his presidency the American economy experienced the best moment in history
Even though the former Republican president claims that the country’s economy was doing well before the pandemic broke out in 2020, his historical comparison is completely false.
At least other presidencies in the last 80 years produced much better numbers than Trump claims. Notable examples include Presidents Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton.
While gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of 2.4 percent in 2017, 2.9 percent in 2018 and 2.3 percent in 2019 (the Trump years before Covid), it expanded by 4.5 percent annually between 1997 and 1999 (the Clinton years).
And much more during the years after World War II (8.7 percent in 1950 and 8 percent in 1951).
Furthermore, just as Biden is struggling with the effects of inflation unleashed by the covid recovery (which started with Trump), The former Republican president cannot simply ignore that in his last year the economy, rather than growing, contracted by 3.5 percent and that was the starting point for the current administration.
SERGIO GÓMEZ MASERI
Correspondent EL TIEMPO
Washington
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