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Live fact-checking Kamala Harris' town hall on CNN

Elections

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, speaks Oct. 23, 2024, during a CNN town hall in Aston, Pa., as moderator Anderson Cooper listens. (AP)

Louis Jacobson

By Louis Jacobson October 23, 2024

Samantha Putterman

By Samantha Putterman October 23, 2024

PolitiFact fact-checked Vice President Kamala Harris on CNN as she spoke with voters in a town hall outside of Philadelphia.

Former President Donald Trump was invited to hold a town hall on the network but declined. There are no future debates planned for the campaign.

ELECTION UPDATES: Follow along for our latest updates, fact-checks and analysis

Live Harris town hall fact-checks

	
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See links in the live blog for sources.

stated on April 9, 2025 in remarks at a White House event:

In 2024, “China made $1 trillion off trade with the United States.”

false

false

stated on April 2, 2025 in a speech announcing tariffs:

“Egg prices came down 50%”

half-true

half-true

stated on April 1, 2025 in a Senate floor speech:

"The consumer confidence in this country has gone way down."

true

true

stated on April 1, 2025 in a post on X:

Kilmar Armado Abrego-Garcia “was a convicted MS-13 gang member.”

false

false

stated on March 26, 2025 in an interview with Newsmax:

“We have automobile plants being built at levels we've never seen … and they're going up fast.”

barely-true

barely-true

Harriet Hageman

stated on March 16, 2025 in a podcast interview:

The federal Education Department has a “budget of about $280 billion a year. Less than 25% goes to educating our students.”

false

false

stated on February 28, 2025 in an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan:

“Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”

false

false

stated on March 17, 2025 in a Truth Social post:

Former President Joe Biden’s pardons of lawmakers on the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack “are hereby declared void, vacant, and of no further force or effect,” because “they were done by autopen.”

false

false

Karoline Leavitt

stated on March 11, 2025 in a White House press briefing:

“Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people.”

false

false

stated on March 10, 2025 in a speech:

“Under the previous administration … the cost of a median-price home in America more than doubled, and that was just in four years.”

mostly-true

mostly-true

stated on March 9, 2025 in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union":

“The number of full-time jobs (was) dropping almost the entire Biden administration.”

false

false

stated on March 7, 2025 in on social media:

During President Joe Biden’s four years in office, “31% of U.S. job growth” came from public-sector jobs.

false

false

stated on March 4, 2025 in on-air remarks:

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is “polling very well. It’s very popular.”

barely-true

barely-true

stated on February 24, 2025 in an interview on CNN:

“We've never audited government for 100 years.”

pants-fire

pants-fire

stated on February 20, 2025 in a Senate floor speech:

“The single biggest driver of our national debt since 2001 has been Republican tax cuts.”

half-true

half-true

X posts
stated on April 6, 2025 in a post:

Photos and videos show Washington, D.C., protests against White House adviser Elon Musk are “staged & paid — bussed in, scripted, clocked out.”

By Grace Abels • April 11, 2025
Donald Trump
stated on April 9, 2025 in remarks at a White House event:

In 2024, “China made $1 trillion off trade with the United States.”

By Louis Jacobson • April 11, 2025
TikTok posts
stated on April 9, 2025 in una publicación en TikTok:

“China cancela la venta de TikTok” y “a partir de finales de abril los usuarios estadounidenses tendrán que pagar una tarifa mensual obligatoria para seguir usando TikTok".

By Maria Briceño • April 11, 2025
Donald Trump
stated on April 9, 2025 in a memo:

The 2020 election was “rigged” and Chris Krebs, former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director, “baselessly” dismissed “election malfeasance.”

By Maria Ramirez Uribe • April 10, 2025
Donald Trump
stated on April 8, 2025 in a speech:

The U.S. is “taking in almost $2 billion a day in tariffs.”

By Amy Sherman • April 10, 2025
Brooke Rollins
stated on April 6, 2025 in an interview:

“We had an agriculture export deficit that increased from zero when President Trump left to $49 billion” under former President Joe Biden.

By Maria Ramirez Uribe • April 9, 2025
Donald Trump
stated on April 9, 2025 in a Truth Social post:

On enacting country-by-country tariffs April 9.

By Amy Sherman • April 9, 2025
Ruben Gallego
stated on March 24, 2025 in a podcast episode:

Men “have the lowest college attainment rate ever.”

By Claire Cranford • April 9, 2025
X posts
stated on April 7, 2025 in posts on X:

Says Kevin Hassett, National Economic Council director, said on April 7, “Trump is considering a 90-day pause in tariffs for all countries except China.”

By Madison Czopek • April 8, 2025
Viral image
stated on April 4, 2025 in a Facebook post:

Video shows South African news outlet reporting Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “purchased a controlling stake” in a mine.

By Ciara O'Rourke • April 4, 2025

	
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