FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims during the vice presidential debate

Vice presidential candidates Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance engaged in a lively, largely civil debate Tuesday on a wide range of topics. Here’s a look at some false and misleading claims from the debate.

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Iran did not receive $100 billion in unfrozen assets under the Biden-Harris administration

VANCE: “Iran, which launched this attack, has received over $100 billion in unfrozen assets thanks to the Kamala Harris administration. What are they using this money for? They use it to buy weapons that they now use against our allies.”

THE FACTS: The Biden administration agreed last year to release $6 billion in Iranian assets as part of a deal to release five U.S. citizens held by Iran. But government officials say not a single dollar has gone to Iran. It was part of a deal negotiated by the Obama administration before Biden and Harris took office that could have given Iran access to frozen assets if it accepted restrictions on its nuclear program in return.

In 2016, Iran said it had gained access to frozen assets abroad worth more than $100 billion after implementing a landmark nuclear deal with world powers. The money has been in banks in China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey since international sanctions were tightened over Tehran’s nuclear program in 2012. Then-Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told Congress that only about $50 billion of the frozen assets were actually accessible to Iran.

Walz overstates the cost of insulin before the cap

WALZ: “Before this law went into effect, they were charging $800.”

THE FACTS: Walz overstated how much Americans paid for insulin before a new law capped prices at $35 a month for millions of older Americans on Medicare. A December 2022 study found that people on Medicare or enrolled in private insurance paid an average of $452 per year before the new law took effect.

Vance links unaffordable housing to immigrants who came to the country illegally

VANCE: “You have housing that is completely unaffordable because we have brought millions of illegal immigrants into the country to compete with Americans for scarce housing.”

THE FACTS: Most economists blame a long-term decline in housing supply for the steady rise in home prices. The number of new homes under construction fell from 1.4 million annually in April 2006 to just over 400,000 in August 2011 and did not recover to 2006 levels until 2021.

Vance said at least one prominent Federal Reserve economic analysis supported his claim that immigrants are driving up housing costs, but he did not provide details. He was likely citing a May 2024 blog post by Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Kashkari says the long-term impact of immigration on inflation is “unclear,” but immigrants need a place to live and their arrival has come with higher prices.

Immigration could put upward pressure on home prices in some markets, but most economists see the problem as a lack of supply of homes on the market. Home builders say they need the immigrants to build the homes. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a news conference in September that high mortgage rates mean people aren’t putting their homes up for sale and there isn’t enough supply.

Walz falsely claims that Project 2025 is creating a pregnancy registry

WALZ: “Your 2025 project will have a pregnancy registry.”

THE FACTS: That’s not true. The conservative initiative calls for the collection of “accurate and reliable statistical data on abortion, abortion survivors, and abortion-related maternal deaths,” but not the recording of every pregnancy that occurs.

More specifically, Project 2025 proposes that the Department of Health and Human Services require all states to report detailed information about abortions performed within their borders, including the total number of abortions, the mother’s age and state of residence, and gestational age of the fetus, the reason for the abortion and the method of performing the abortion. It is proposed that these data be divided into categories such as spontaneous miscarriages, intentional abortions, stillbirths and other medical treatments that result in fetal death, such as chemotherapy.

Vance exaggerates immigration numbers

VANCE: “We have 20, 25 million illegal immigrants here in the country.”

THE FACTS: This number is grossly inflated. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports more than 10 million apprehensions for illegal border crossings from Mexico from January 2021 to September 2024.

These are arrests, not people. Under pandemic-era asylum restrictions, many people crossed the border more than once until they were able to do so because there were no legal consequences for returning them to Mexico. So the number of people is less than the number of arrests.

According to the latest available estimate from the Department of Homeland Security, approximately 11 million people were living in the United States illegally as of January 2022, 79% of whom entered before January 2010.

Vance distorts Minnesota abortion law

VANCE: “It is said that a doctor who presides over an abortion in which the baby survives has no obligation to provide life-saving care to a baby who survives a botched late-term abortion.”

THE FACTS: This claim misrepresents a bill signed by Walz in 2023 that updates language on newborn care.

The new language uses the phrase “an infant born alive” instead of “an infant born alive as a result of an abortion.” It states that medical personnel are obliged to “take care of the child born alive” and not “preserve the life and health of the child born alive”.

Both the current version of the law and the 2015 amended version state: “An infant born alive shall be fully recognized as a human person and shall receive immediate protection under the law.”

Infanticide is criminalized in every state, including Minnesota, and the bill does not change that.

Vance on Trump and January 6, 2021

VANCE: “Remember he said that the demonstrators should protest peacefully on January 6th.”

THE FACTS: It’s true that Trump told the crowd gathered near the White House, “I know that everyone here will soon march to the Capitol to peacefully and patriotically make your voice heard.”

But Vance ignored the inflammatory language Trump used throughout his speech, in which he urged the crowd to march to the Capitol, where Congress was meeting to certify President Joe Biden’s victory. Trump told the crowd: “If you don’t fight like hell, you won’t have a country anymore.” This came after his lawyer Rudy Giuliani declared: “Let’s have a trial by combat.”

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Associated Press writers Melissa Goldin in New York and David Klepper, Chris Rugaber, Ellen Knickmeyer and Josh Boak in Washington contributed.