The first presidential debate of the election season gave us a lot to digest, but one of the hardest things to swallow was Donald Trump’s constant lying. Whenever he spoke we all had the same perpetually confused expression as Biden. Lying is not a new behavior for Trump, that man lies as easily as breathing, but it does demonstrate exactly why he should be allowed anywhere near the White House ever again.
It’s actually incredible the amount of fake news he was able to peddle in 90 minutes. If we were to list and debunk all of his lies this article would be longer than the entire debate so we’ve just picked eight of the worst examples.
Trump’s great economy
Donald Trump made the claim that under him, the American economy was the best it had ever been in the history of the country. While growth was pretty decent, at 2.67%, according to AP News it’s nowhere near the best it’s ever been, for example, under Bill Clinton there was a 4% economic growth between 1993 and 2001. And that’s being generous and not including Trump’s last year in office which saw $3.1 trillion borrowed by the government and a massive recession caused by covid.
Joe Biden opened up the country to prisons and asylums
There isn’t any evidence to support that people are coming from prisons and asylums all over the world like Trump claims. While there have been recent highly publicized murders committed by individuals supposedly in the US illegally there are no statistics to suggest a spike in crime committed by migrants. Although there have been fewer border arrests in recent months indicating the opposite of what Trump is claiming.
Everyone wanted Roe v. Wade brought back to the states
This one is just an obvious fib, there are certainly people throughout the history of the country who wanted to see control over abortion brought back to the states. But everyone? How can he stand there and honestly say this is something everyone wanted? He even claims it’s what the Founding Fathers would have wanted! I know he’s old, but I don’t think he’s old enough to have asked them their thoughts to be honest.
Late stage abortions
While we’re on the subject, what else did Trump say about it? Well, he claimed that the democrats would allow late term abortions “they will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month, and even after birth.” I feel like it’s not even necessary to debunk this one, but anyway, we have a word for abortions after birth, it’s called murder, and it’s very much illegal in every state.
As for the eight and nine month argument, that’s more bull, around 1% of abortions take place after 21 weeks, but according to ourbodiesourselves.org there is no such thing as an abortions at such a late stage as Trump is claiming.
Jan. 6 insurrection
Initially the former president tried to avoid the question entirely but when pressed on the matter Trump seriously downplayed what actually happened on Jan. 6, he claimed that it was only a small “number of people.” Of course, the video footage and all the coverage on that day is all that is needed to disprove his statement. The MAGA crowd have always tried to dispute the facts of what happened that day, of course Trump is no different.
Nancy Pelosi turned down Trump’s offer to deploy the national guard
Shifting the blame for the events of Jan. 6, Trump went on to point the finger at Nancy Pelosi, claiming that he offered her 10,000 national guardsmen. “I offered it to her and she now admits that she turned it down.” Once again, this is simply not true, according to an article from AJC Politics, Pelosi does not direct the National Guard, and furthermore, she and Mitch McConnell did call for military assistance, including the National Guard.
Biden wants to raise taxes by four times
Yet another falsehood peddled by the former president. Biden intends to prevent tax increases for people making less than $400,000. An article from AP News reports that the president’s budget focuses on taxing corporations and the wealthy while offering tax breaks for families and lower health care costs.
The environment
Trump claimed that during his presidency the country “had the best environmental numbers ever.” It’s not clear what that means exactly, but he claims we had clean water and clean air with him in office. This is why CNN fact-checking this stuff would have come in handy, as they could have easily called him out.
During his four years the former president rolled back more than 100 environmental rules according to an article from NY Times. The Trump administration reversed many of Obama’s limits on carbon dioxide emissions as well as other air and water pollution rules. Trump saying the environment was better off with him in office shows how deluded he is.
