US Presidential Debate 2020: Unpacking Trump and Biden’s 'lies'

The fiery first US presidential debate – where US President Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election, and his challenger Joe Biden exchanged barbs – was also a show of tall claims and baseless facts from both the candidates.

Read more: Trump, Biden clash in first presidential debate

A news report published in The New York Times scrutinised the war of words and separated the false claims made by both candidates, who will contest countrywide polls on November 03.

Trump caught red handed

“Clean Power Plan driving energy prices through the sky.”

Responding to the moderator’s question about why he rolled back the Clean Power Plan, a set of Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency regulations designed to combat planet-warming pollution from coal-fired power plants, Trump claimed that the initiative was costly.

False.

According to the NYT, most of the Clean Power Plan was never implemented: it was temporarily halted by a 2016 Supreme Court order and never reinstated before the Trump administration effectively rolled it back last year.

“I’m OK with electric cars too. I’m all for electric cars. I have given big incentives for electric cars.”

In another bid to woo voters and exhibit strong support for environment-friendly initiatives, Trump offered his backing for electric cars as evidence that he cares about reducing carbon emissions.

False.

The president has actually tried to do away with tax incentives for consumers who buy them, the NYT report read, highlighting that in 2019, the president’s budget called for eliminating a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles, which his administration said would save $2.5 billion over a decade.

However, in 2018, Trump also threatened to punish General Motors over its plan to cut jobs by dangling the possibility that he could end the federal tax credits that have helped underwrite that automaker’s electric-vehicle fleet. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has also said that he believed the subsidy was unnecessary and that the segment of the industry should stand on its own.

“I paid millions of dollars. Millions of dollars.”

President Trump once again claimed that he paid millions of dollars and denied tax evasion.

False.

However, a bombshell NYT report has unveiled that Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes. That was the case even though he reported earning some $15 million for the year, through a variety of sources.

Read more: NYT report reveals President Trump paid very few taxes in years leading to presidency

But on his federal tax return, Trump offset those earnings by reporting losses from his businesses and claiming a range of tax credits, including one that allowed him to reduce his liability under the alternative minimum tax from $7.4 million to $750, the report underscored

“Every year, I get the call. California is burning. California is burning. If that was cleaned, if you had forest management, you wouldn’t be getting those calls.”

In response to the moderator’s question about human pollution, gas, and greenhouse gases contributing to global warming, Trump replied: “Every year, I get the call. California is burning. California is burning. If that was cleaned, if you had forest management, you wouldn’t be getting those calls.”

False.

Trump’s remarks come at odds with the scientific conclusions of the most recent United States National Climate Assessment reports, which are published by 13 federal scientific agencies and which stand to date as the most comprehensive and authoritative scientific assessment of the causes and impacts of climate change in the United States.

Biden's lies

“We left him a booming economy. And he caused the recession.”

The former vice president, now the Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, claimed that he left the economy all flourishing.

False.

The NYT report underlines that when former President Barack Obama and Biden left office, the economy was healthy, though growth had dipped below 2% in 2016 in part because of a contraction in business investment stemming in part from a plunge in oil prices ripping through America’s energy industry. Unemployment had fallen steadily.

But, under Trump’s leadership, economic growth accelerated from 2016, spurred by the fiscal stimulus of tax cuts and increased government spending, and continued monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve.

However, there is no evidence Trump’s actions caused the recession. Every major wealthy country in the world has experienced a sharp economic contraction along with its outbreak of the virus.

“We have a higher deficit with China now than we did before.”

Biden also claimed that the trade deficit with China has increased under Trump’s presidency.

False.

So far this year, the trade deficit in goods with China is running below last year’s levels, as the United States imports fewer products. But while Trump has lowered the trade deficit with China, deficits with other countries have grown and the overall trade deficit is once again trending up, read the NYT report.

Moreover, the deficit fell sharply between 2018 and 2019 as Trump’s trade war suppressed commerce between the world’s largest economies.

The overall United States trade deficit shrank last year for the first time in six years. So far this year, it is once again increasing sharply – as both imports and exports remain below pre-pandemic levels.