During Vice President Kamala Harris’s interview session with the National Association of Black Journalists, on-stage fact-checking was nonexistent, but PolitiFact assigned itself to do the task online. Unfortunately, the difference between PolitiFact’s treatment of Harris’s NABJ appearance and Trump’s was just as stark as the candidates’ appearances themselves.
Back in July, PolitiFact gave Trump one half-true, two mostly false, five false, and two pants on fire ratings. That’s zero on the true side, one in the middle, and nine on the false side. Harris, meanwhile, received two true, three mostly true, one half-true, and one false rating. That’s a total of five statements on the right, one in the middle, and one on the wrong side of the truth-o-meter.
The typical defense to such lopsided results is to simply say that Trump gets more false ratings because he spreads more falsehoods, but there were at least three significant statements from Harris that deserved to be on the false side in addition to her claim that unemployment was at its highest point since the Great Depression when she and Biden took office.
During the part of the discussion on whether Harris would use executive action to create a commission to study reparations, she declared, “We just need to speak truth about history in spite of the fact some people are trying to erase history and trying to teach our children otherwise.”
Fact-check: Nobody is trying to erase history. Not subscribing to The 1619 Project’s factually challenged view of history is not “trying to erase” it.
On the situation regarding bomb threats in Springfield, Ohio, Harris claimed, “A whole community put in fear... When you have that kind of microphone in front of you, you really ought to understand at a very deep level how much your words have meaning."
Harris, on JD Vance, Springfield, and bomb threats "when you have that kind of microphone in front of you, you really ought to understand at a very deep level how much your words have meaning"
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) September 17, 2024
Fact Check: Again, missing pic.twitter.com/Nb5KuAX9pX
Fact-check: Gov. Mike DeWine, who has fiercely condemned the rumor that Haitian migrants are eating people’s pets, claimed, “We have people unfortunately overseas who are taking these actions. Some of them are coming from one particular country.”
For the final question of the session, Harris was asked if she has faith in the Secret Service in the aftermath of the second assassination attempt against Trump. Harris replied that she does, but claimed to be concerned for people without Secret Service protection, including for LGBT people in Florida with their “Don’t Say Gay” laws.
Fact-check: It is not illegal to say “gay” in Florida or any other state. They merely ensure that all classroom instruction is age-appropriate.
PolitiFact did a similar trick after the Democratic National Convention. Trump’s false claims are labeled as such while Harris’s are mostly ignored, leading to the talking point that Democrats are much more truthful.
