During Tuesday’s vice presidential debate between Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, each candidate made questionable, and sometimes downright false assertions.
Here’s a look at some that stood out:
‘Illegal’ Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio
What Vance said: "Look, in Springfield, Ohio, and in communities all across this country, you've got schools that are overwhelmed, you've got hospitals that are overwhelmed … because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes."
Many of the Haitians immigrants in Springfield have the legal right to live and work in the United States under a designation called Temporary Protected Status, which allows the Department of Homeland Security secretary to grant people from certain nations the right to stay in the U.S. if circumstances in their home country make it unsafe for them to return. Vance’s claim drew a rebuke from debate moderator Margaret Brennan, who attempted to correct him in real time.
“Just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary protected status,” Brennan said, before eventually cutting the candidates’ microphones when their back and forth on the issue continued.
Project 2025 and a ‘registry of pregnancies’
What Walz said: "Their Project 2025 is going to have a registry of pregnancies."
Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for the next Republican presidential administration, does not specifically propose the creation of a federal registry for women who are pregnant. Neither Trump nor Vance have advocated any such idea, nor were they officially involved with the writing of the document despite their ties with those who did.
‘Never supported a national ban’ on abortions
What Vance said: "I never supported a national ban. I did during, when I was running for Senate in 2022, talk about setting some minimum national standard."
During Vance’s 2022 run for U.S. Senate in Ohio, he declared that he was open to a national abortion ban, noting that, unless one was implemented, people seeking an abortion in a state where the procedure is illegal would be able to travel to a state where it’s legal.
"I certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally," Vance said in January 2022 on a podcast.
Visiting China during the Tiananmen Square uprising
What Walz said: "All I said on this was, I got there that summer and misspoke on this. That is what I have said. So, I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests, went in and from that I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance."
Multiple outlets reported this week that Walz offered incorrect recollections when recounting trips he took to China as a teacher in the 1980s. Specifically, Walz has claimed that he was in Hong Kong in 1989 when the Chinese government cracked down and massacred student-led protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website, first reported that Walz was actually in Nebraska during the time of the military crackdown in Beijing.
Climate change and carbon emissions
What Vance said: "This idea that carbon emissions drives all of the climate change, well, let's just say that's true just for the sake of argument, so we're not arguing about weird science."
There is virtually unanimous agreement among scientific experts that greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, are causing climate change.
Trump paid no federal tax for 15 years
What Walz said: "Donald Trump hasn't paid any federal tax in the last 15 years."
While an investigation conducted by the New York Times found that Trump paid no income taxes in 10 of the 15 previous years, the paper also reported that he paid $1.1 million in federal income taxes during the first three years of his presidency.
Saving the Affordable Care Act
What Vance said: "When Obamacare was crushing under the weight of its own regulatory burden and health care costs, Donald Trump could have destroyed the program. Instead, he worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care."
Trump made no secret of his disdain for Obamacare, the healthcare law known colloquially by the name of his predecessor, and often promised to repeal it. As president he pursued that goal, and the law only survived because a vote to end it failed by a single vote, that of Sen. John McCain of Arizona, in the Senate. His administration also backed failed efforts to have the Affordable Care Act struck down by the Supreme Court, and when he campaigned for reelection in 2020, he again promised to repeal the law.