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President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump will face off Thursday evening for the first time in 4 years, giving every ample alternative to fling accusations about the different’s positions. Some will hew near the information, however there’ll most definitely be ample exaggeration or statements missing satisfactory nuance.

The two candidates haven’t been shy of their critiques and assaults on one another on the marketing campaign path.

The presumptive nominees have sparred over immigration coverage and the state of the economic system. Mr. Trump has portrayed the nation, hyperbolically, underneath Mr. Biden as lawless. Mr. Biden has typically omitted context whereas describing Mr. Trump’s views on abortion rights and the Affordable Care Act.

Here’s a truth examine of a few of their current claims on home points.

Mr. Trump misrepresented abortion legal guidelines and crime ranges throughout the nation.

What Was Said

“It’s hard to believe they have some states passing legislation where you can execute the baby after birth.”
— Mr. Trump in an interview on Fox News in June

False. No state has handed a legislation permitting the execution of a child after it’s born, which is infanticide.

Since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional proper to abortion, about 20 states have enacted protections enshrining the proper in state constitutions and shielding these searching for or offering abortions in the state from restrictions in different states. None of those new legal guidelines enable for “executing” the child after delivery.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump marketing campaign, cited broad help amongst the Democratic Party, together with from Mr. Biden, for a invoice that assured abortion rights nationwide. Opponents stated the invoice would enable unfettered entry to abortions, together with ones that occurred later in being pregnant. The invoice doesn’t decriminalize infanticide.

Abortions later in being pregnant basically are very uncommon: In 2021, lower than 1 p.c of abortions occurred after 21 weeks’ gestation, based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In much more exceedingly uncommon circumstances the place the fetus has abnormalities and a low chance of survival and labor is induced, the household might ask medical doctors to offer consolation care, moderately than resuscitation, based on steerage from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

What Was Said

“The level of crime in the cities, in these big cities, is out of control. Nobody has ever seen anything like it.”
— Mr. Trump on the “All-In” podcast in June

False. Violent crime and property crime are close to the lowest stage in a long time, regardless of public notion to the opposite. And whereas there was a rise in crime throughout the pandemic, together with the first two years of Mr. Biden’s presidency, violent crime was increased in 2020 underneath Mr. Trump than underneath Mr. Biden to date.

The violent crime fee was 380.7 per 100,000 folks in 2022, based on police companies’ knowledge gathered by the F.B.I. That was a decrease fee than in all however three years — 2013, 2014 and 2015 — since 1985. Preliminary evaluation from the F.B.I. urged that violent crime decreased 15.2 p.c in the first quarter of 2024 from the similar interval in 2023, with a fair better drop of 18 p.c in cities with multiple million folks.

The property crime fee was 1,954.4 per 100,000 folks in 2022. That was 6.6 p.c increased than the fee in 2021 and the first time in additional than 20 years that the property crime fee had elevated — however it was nonetheless the second-lowest fee since 1985. Property crime decreased 15.1 p.c in the first quarter of 2024 from the similar interval in 2023, based on the F.B.I.’s preliminary evaluation.

The Council on Criminal Justice, a suppose tank in Washington, has analyzed uncooked weekly crime stories from 38 cities to attempt to develop extra up to date statistics than in the official F.B.I. stories. It discovered that homicides, assaults and carjackings fell, however shoplifting and motorcar theft elevated in 2023.

Ms. Leavitt pointed to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey, which confirmed a rise in violent and property crime from 2021 to 2022. But the crime charges in 2022 nonetheless stay under crime charges from the Nineties and 2000s.

Mr. Biden overstated Mr. Trump’s views on abortion and the Affordable Care Act.

What Was Said

“Listen to what he said in Time magazine article. He said states — quote — ‘States should monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate the abortion bans.’ Monitor women’s pregnancies? Prosecute them?”
— Mr. Biden at a May fund-raiser in Atlanta

“He said there has to be ‘punishment’ for women exercising their reproductive freedom.”
— Mr. Biden at an April rally in Florida

This is exaggerated. Mr. Biden is overstating Mr. Trump’s remarks in the first occasion and omitting that he retracted his assertion in the second.

In April interviews with Time journal, Mr. Trump repeatedly stated abortion restrictions ought to be left to the states. He didn’t endorse or oppose attainable efforts by states to prosecute violations of abortion bans. Asked whether or not states ought to monitor ladies’s pregnancies and prosecute violators, Mr. Trump didn’t say that they need to. He stated that “they might do that” and that “the states are going to say.” His views are “totally irrelevant,” he added, as a result of the states make these choices.

The Biden marketing campaign argued that Mr. Trump’s statements amounted to approval.

Mr. Biden additionally evoked feedback Mr. Trump made in a March 2016 city corridor on MSNBC when a number repeatedly pressed him on his views about punishments for ladies who get abortions in states the place the process is banned.

“The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment,” Mr. Trump finally replied.

The host, Chris Matthews, requested, “For the woman?”

“Yeah, there has to be some form,” Mr. Trump responded.

Hours later, Mr. Trump walked again his remarks in a press release. If abortion had been unlawful in a state or nationally, he stated, then “the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman. The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb.”

The subsequent day, Mr. Trump urged that he misspoke and stated he was speaking about the Catholic Church’s views.

In the years since these feedback, Mr. Trump has not once more endorsed punishments for ladies. Asked by Time journal this April whether or not he was comfy with states punishing ladies who entry abortions after a ban, Mr. Trump stated that “the states are going to have to be comfortable or uncomfortable, not me.”

James Singer, a spokesman for Mr. Biden’s marketing campaign, pointed to Mr. Trump’s reward for the Supreme Court’s choice to overturn a federal proper to abortion and that “the abortion bans he unleashed are punishing women nationwide.”

Ms. Leavitt from the Trump marketing campaign referred to as Mr. Biden’s claims a “desperate attempt to scare voters” and reiterated that Mr. Trump believes that states, and voters in these states, ought to determine abortion legal guidelines.

What Was Said

“He still wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.”
— Mr. Biden at a June fund-raiser in Connecticut

This wants context. Mr. Trump campaigned in 2016 on repealing and changing the Affordable Care Act, however failed to take action. Though Mr. Trump continues to criticize the well being care legislation as an costly “disaster,” he has just lately urged he would possibly enhance it moderately than repeal the legislation altogether.

The Biden marketing campaign pointed to earlier statements from Mr. Trump. In November, he stated that he desires to “replace” the Affordable Care Act and that the Republican Party “should never give up” of their efforts to hunt another.

But at a rally in January in Iowa, Mr. Trump promised “much better health care at a lower price for you, and that will be either working on Obamacare or doing something new.”

In March, he renewed the vow, saying on social media, “I’m not running to terminate the ACA.” He added that he was working to make the well being care legislation “much, much, much better for far less money.”

Mr. Trump has not launched any particulars on what this could entail. His present proposals for well being care are imprecise, and he has repeatedly damaged guarantees to disclose a plan.

On his marketing campaign web site, he pledged to “stop all Covid mandates and restore medical freedom, end surprise medical billing, increase fairness through price transparency, and further reduce the cost of prescription drugs and health insurance premiums.” He additionally promised to guard “patients with pre-existing conditions.”

Both candidates sought credit score for a $35 value cap on insulin.

What Was Said

“Low INSULIN PRICING was gotten for millions of Americans by me, and the Trump Administration, not by Crooked Joe Biden. He had NOTHING to do with it.”
— Mr. Trump in a June social media publish

This is exaggerated. The Trump administration began a Medicare pilot program in 2020 underneath which insurers might provide plans that capped the value of insulin at $35 a month. In 2022, Mr. Biden signed into legislation a provision that required the price restrict and expanded it to way more Medicare plans.

The Trump administration’s program was voluntary and utilized solely to Medicare prescription drug protection plans, generally known as Part D. KFF, a well being care nonprofit previously generally known as the Kaiser Family Foundation, estimated that a few third of plans selected to take part in 2022, masking about 800,000 enrollees.

The Inflation Reduction Act, the local weather change, well being and tax legislation Mr. Biden signed in 2022, expanded the $35 cap to all Medicare Part D plans, masking about 3.3 million enrollees, and additionally added a $35 cap to co-pays underneath Medicare Part B, which offers medical protection. The Department of Health and Human Services estimated that about 1.5 million enrollees stood to learn from the legislation.

What Was Said

“We finally got to the point where, for example, those of you who know someone who has diabetes and needs — and need the insulin, it used to cost an average 400 bucks a month. It now costs $35 a month.”
— Mr. Biden at a June marketing campaign occasion

This is exaggerated. The Health Care Cost Institute, a analysis nonprofit, estimated that per particular person spending on insulin doubled from 2012 to 2016, to $5,705 a 12 months, or about $475 a month. But that’s an estimate for all folks with Type 1 diabetes, not simply Medicare beneficiaries, and it doesn’t embody drug rebates or coupons.

Patients’ out-of-pocket spending on insulin was $434 on common for all of 2019 — not monthly — and $449 per 12 months for Medicare enrollees, based on the Health and Human Services Department.

The company estimated that on common, beneficiaries might save about $500 yearly underneath the Inflation Reduction Act’s expanded value cap — a considerable discount, however not the 1000’s of {dollars} Mr. Biden urged.

Mr. Trump made outlandish claims about local weather change and renewable vitality.

What Was Said

“They kill the birds. They kill the whales. But on the ocean floor, surveys for their construction are causing tremendous problems with the fish and the whales and everything else.”
— Mr. Trump at a May rally in New Jersey

This lacks proof. Mr. Trump has lengthy been an ardent critic of wind generators and insisted, hyperbolically, for greater than a decade that they’re a prime driver of avian deaths. Now, he has claimed with no proof the generators are killing whales, too.

By one estimate, as many as 328,000 birds die every year flying into wind farms, however different issues — inanimate and dwelling — pose a far better menace. Cats kill as many as 4 billion birds yearly in the United States, fossil gasoline energy crops 14.5 million and collisions with buildings as many as 988 million.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and marine biologists have stated they’re unaware of any whale deaths brought on by offshore wind generators, surveys or building.

“There are no known links between large whale deaths and ongoing offshore wind activities,” the company stated in a current F.A.Q.

Patrick Halpin, a professor of marine geospatial ecology at Duke University, reiterated that time. “There has been no evidence presented to date that indicates that offshore wind development on the U.S. Atlantic shelf is directly or indirectly contributing to increased whale mortalities,” he stated.

An unusually massive variety of Atlantic humpback whales — greater than 220 — have died between Maine and Florida since 2016.

Ms. Leavitt, from the Trump marketing campaign, famous that the first offshore wind farm in Rhode Island grew to become operational in 2016.

But that’s correlation and doesn’t show causation. Recent analysis means that vessel strikes and ship actions in areas the place whales forage — not offshore wind farms — are the essential driver.

There are three operational offshore wind farms on the east coast, in Rhode Island, Virginia and New York. Permits have been authorized for seven different initiatives, and building largely started in 2023 or later. Whales have died in each states with wind farms present process building in addition to in states that should not have any initiatives underneath building, comparable to New Jersey, North Carolina and Maine.

Mr. Trump’s claims that surveys assessing offshore feasibility are inflicting deaths can be unsupported.

The sonar used to map the ocean flooring and sound emitting from generators should not robust sufficient to break whales, stated Robert Kenney, a marine analysis scientist emeritus at the University of Rhode Island who has researched endangered whales for many years. Although building noises can disturb whales, vitality firms are required to mitigate the impression and mute the noise. Dr. Kenney has additionally famous that noises from oil exploration could be a lot louder than wind farm surveys.

What Was Said

“They say that the seas will rise over the next 400 years, one-eighth of an inch, which means basically you have a little more beachfront property, OK?”
— Mr. Trump in a June interview on Fox News

False. Mr. Trump is vastly understating the impression of local weather change. Sea ranges have risen eight to 9 inches since 1880 and by an eighth of an inch per 12 months over the final three a long time.

How precisely rising sea ranges will impression coastlines and islands is tough to foretell. Still, scientists estimate that underneath a worst-case state of affairs, sea ranges might rise by as a lot as 10 meters, or practically 33 ft, by 2300 — greater than 3,100 instances what Mr. Trump stated.

Angelo Fichera contributed reporting.