VP Debate: Fact-checking JD Vance’s claims

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

For the first time in this presidential race, Donald Trump’s running mate – Ohio Senator JD Vance – has exercised relative restraint while speaking publicly. During Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate against Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Vance made less erratic comments than usual. He largely managed to look like the kind of guy who could order a sandwich or even a donut without any problem, a departure from the image he has projected thus far. Indeed, the overall performance has been described as “unusually normal,” but given Vance’s propensity for wild, nonsensical statements, it was never going to be completely normal. When the topic of immigration came up, Vance rushed into a fact-check and chatted with moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan until the station turned off his microphone.

The catalyst for Vance’s fastidious interlude was the baseless conspiracy theory with which Vance pressured Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, whom he accused of stealing and eating their neighbors’ pets. This is not true and has never been true, as local law enforcement and government officials have repeatedly emphasized. Nevertheless, leading Republicans (up to and including Trump) have clung to this fabrication, creating real problems for the approximately 20,000 Haitian immigrants in Springfield: Parents have pulled their children from school amid incidents of hate speech, vandalism and bomb threats . Speaking about immigration, Walz gestured to the rumor without repeating it, saying Vance had “created narratives” that “vilified a lot of people who were here legally.” The reference kicked off an exchange about allegedly illegal immigrants, prompting Brennan to clarify that “Springfield has a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary protected status.” Vance didn’t like that.

“Margaret, the rules were you weren’t going to check the facts,” he said, slamming Brennan and O’Donnell as they tried to shift the questions to economics. “Since you’re fact-checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s really going on.” Vance then summarized the steps involved in one official route for migrants to legally enter the country while awaiting asylum hearings. When Walz interjected that “those laws have been on the books since 1990,” Vance again blamed Harris before his voice suddenly dropped by several decibels. “Gentlemen, the audience can’t hear you because your microphones are dead,” Brennan said. “We have so much we want to achieve. Thank you for explaining the legal process.”

Still, Vance is right that CBS moderators weren’t tasked with fact-checking the debate in real time, so we can do a little bit of that now. On immigration, Vance also exaggerated Harris’ role in border policy, clinging to the idea that she was President Biden’s “border czar.” As CNN explains, Harris has never held a security role related to the country’s southern border; its mission was diplomatic in nature, to help the government understand and address the factors fueling migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. With that in mind, Vance’s accusations that Harris “introduced fentanyl into our communities at record levels” and allowed drug cartels to use children as mules are also obviously false.

Remarkably, Vance also claimed that Trump “saved Obamacare, which it did disastrously” until he came to power. The opposite is true: Time and time again, the Trump administration tried to torpedo the Affordable Care Act, without ever offering an alternative for the approximately twelve million Americans who relied on marketplace health insurance when he took office. After his efforts to repeal the law failed, Trump turned to administrative sabotage that systematically weakened the ACA, a campaign that ultimately left millions of people without insurance. In another surprising twist, Vance also insisted that he has “never supported a national abortion ban,” despite saying – during his 2022 congressional session – that he would “certainly want abortion to be illegal nationally,” and that he was “sympathetic” to “some kind of federal response” that prevented people from traveling between states for abortions Roo v. Wading had fallen over. Until Trump tapped Vance to be vice president, the senator’s website stated that he was “100 percent pro-life” and in favor of “eliminating abortion,” as CNN notes. We could go on, but this man has spoken at length about his views on abortion. He doesn’t believe in it.

Another thing Vance doesn’t believe: Climate change, a real phenomenon that scientists agree is largely man-made and largely due to CO2 emissions from an over-reliance on fossil fuels. Vance’s boss has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax,” and during the debate, Vance also seemed to cast doubt on whether it’s happening. Saying that he had seen “some of our Democratic friends” talking about “the idea that carbon emissions are causing climate change,” Vance took a skeptical tone. “Let’s say that’s true, just for the sake of argument, so we don’t have to argue about weird science,” he said. It’s true. And 195 of the world’s leading climate scientists agree.

Of course, Walz – who delivered a less impressive performance than Vance – stumbled upon a few facts of his own. The Democrat falsely claimed that the right-wing Project 2025, if passed, would require people to register their pregnancies during a second Trump term. While Project 2025 outlines a series of extreme restrictions on abortion and contraception, it does not outline plans for a federal pregnancy registry. Walz also stumbled over his earlier (and apparently inaccurate) claim that he had been in Hong Kong for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, but managed to punch Vance during the Capitol riot.

As the pair discussed the riot that broke out on January 6, 2021, over Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election, Vance said Trump had “peacefully transferred power.” He also repeatedly dodged questions about whether he would seek to challenge the results of this year’s election, as he did in 2020, “even if every governor certifies the results,” as they did in 2020. Vance continued to deviate, blaming any threats to our democracy. about Big Tech and Harris’ desire “to censor people who engage in misinformation” online. Walz reminded Vance that “January 6 was not Facebook ads,” and asked Vance directly, “Did (Trump) lose the 2020 election?” To which Vance replied: “Tim, I’m focused on the future. Has Kamala Harris Censored Americans From Expressing Their Opinions In The Wake Of The 2020 COVID Situation?

Which, as Walz put it, “is a damn non-answer.”