2020 U.S. Election: Fact Check of Trump / Biden Final Debate

President Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden have clashed in their second and final presidential debate of the election campaign.

They exchanged arguments and accusations about everything from the coronavirus pandemic, to the economy and even the “caging” of children of migrants who cross the border from Mexico. Reality Check has removed some of the claims.

Verdict: The coronavirus is not going away: Cases and hospital admissions are increasing, and deaths remain high.

The White House’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has challenged the president’s claim that the United States is turning the corner, calling the latest statistics “disturbing.”

About 60,000 new coronavirus cases are reported per day in the US, compared to 50,000 per day in early October.

according to the Covid Tracking Project.

Hospital admissions have also increased by more than 30% since the beginning of October.

Confirmed deaths have remained at around 800 a day through October.

Verdict: That is not correct. Coronavirus cases are increasing in both Republican (red) and Democratic (blue) states.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden hinted that the rise in infections was centered in the Republican-controlled states.

Covid-19 cases are on the rise in more than 40 US states, and these include Republican and Democratic-controlled states.

North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Wisconsin have seen the most coronavirus cases per capita over the past week, according to the New York Times.

The Dakotas are run by Republican governors, but both Montana and Wisconsin have Democratic governors, although all of these states voted for President Trump in 2016.

Biden also pointed to spikes in Republican Midwestern states, but the state of Illinois, which voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and has a Democratic governor, is also seeing an increase in coronavirus cases.

Verdict: this is misleading.

The figure is mentioned in a study published by Imperial College London in March in the event of an “unmitigated epidemic.”

But the study describes 2.2 million deaths from Covid-19 in the US Not as the “expected” number but as what would occur “in the (unlikely) absence of control measures or spontaneous changes in individual behavior. “.

So far, there have been more than 223,000 deaths from Covid-19 in the US.

Verdict: You are correct about the number of commutations during the Obama administration, but not about the reduction in federal prison.

President Obama commuted (or changed to less severe) the sentences of about 1,700 inmates and another 212 received clemency.

But in 2016, the last year Obama and Biden were in office, there were 16,500 fewer inmates in the federal prison system compared to 2009.

Verdict: This implies that these figures are annual increases, that is not correct.

President Trump said he had been tough on Russia and insisted that he had increased defense spending by NATO members.

Since 2016, European countries and Canada have increased investment in their defense budgets by $ 130 billion. But this has been for several years and not every year.

According to a NATO report: “By the end of 2020, the European allies and Canada will have spent an additional US $ 130 billion on defense since 2016. This figure will rise to 400 billion by the end of 2024.”

Verdict: That is not quite correct.

After increasing in 2017, the trade deficit with China, the gap between imports and exports, fell dramatically after 2018, following the tariffs imposed by Washington on Chinese products.

It stood at around $ 308 billion in 2019, down slightly from $ 310 billion in 2016.

According to data from the US Census Bureau, the first six months of 2020 registered a deficit of 130,000 million dollars in goods and services with China, that is, 34,000 million dollars less than in the first half of 2019 and almost $ 53 billion less than in the first half of 2018..

Verdict: This needs context. It’s true that some migrant children were detained at chain-link sites under President Obama, but the law said they couldn’t be held for more than 72 hours.

There were heated exchanges about the Trump administration’s controversial policy that led to the separation of children from their parents at the United States border.

Trump said it was the Obama administration that built “the cages” that are used to contain them.

When Barack Obama and Joe Biden were in office, wire-fenced facilities were built to house the large numbers of unaccompanied children who crossed into the United States from Mexico, before being transferred elsewhere.

Jeh Johnson, the head of Homeland Security during the Obama administration, referenced this issue in 2019: “Very clearly, the link in the chain, the barriers, the partitions, the fences, the cages, whatever you want to call them, you don’t They made up January 20, 2017, okay. “(This is President Trump’s inauguration date).

But he said their detention should be temporary, noting that, according to the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, children could only stay in these facilities for 72 hours before being transferred to health authorities.

Verdict: You’re right about clean air but not about water.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says the United States currently has the cleanest air on record.

Over the past several decades, air quality, a measure of six major pollutants, has improved significantly in the United States.

Yet when it comes to water, the United States ranks 26th in the world for sanitation and drinking water, according to Yale University.

In this ranking, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have the cleanest water.

Verdict: He has had to clarify previous statements about fracking, although his policy is to oppose new sites on federal land.

President Trump repeated his claim that Joe Biden wants to ban fracking, the controversial process of drilling underground and using high-pressure water to expel gas.

In March 2020, during a Democratic debate, Biden said, “No more, there is no new fracking.”

He later clarified it: “I said I would not make new leases on federal land.”

Biden’s campaign site says Democrats would protect “America’s natural treasures by … banning new oil and gas permits on public lands and waters.” But they are not opposed to fracking in general.

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