Fact check: Kamala Harris’s CNN town hall in Pennsylvania

In a CNN town hall, Vice President Kamala Harris faced questions about her policy approach from voters.

Voters at the October 23 event in Delaware County, Pennsylvania pressed Harris on why her administration did not act sooner to curb irregular migration, what she planned to do to restrain inflation and US military aid to Israel.

Harris several times warned voters of the risk of former President Donald Trump’s return to power, including her most prominent public voicing of the idea that Trump is a fascist.

Moderator Anderson Cooper asked Harris, “Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?”

Harris responded, “Yes, I do.”

At one point, an audience member asked, “What would you do to ensure not another Palestinian dies due to bombs being funded by US tax dollars?”

Harris responded that “far too many innocent Palestinian civilians have been killed. It’s unconscionable.” She added that she sees “an opportunity” with Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, whom Israel considered the architect of Hamas’s October 7 attack, to “end this war, bring the hostages home, bring relief to the Palestinian people, and work toward a two-state solution where Israel and the Palestinians in equal measure have security, where the Palestinian people have dignity, self-determination, and the safety that they so rightly deserve”.

Trump, who declined CNN’s invitation for a town hall, rallied supporters at an event hosted by Turning Point Action in Duluth, Georgia.

Cooper drew Harris out on a couple of personal reflections, including the grief she felt when her mother passed away from cancer more than a decade ago and her faith.

Harris recalled that when she heard the news that President Joe Biden would give up the Democratic nomination, she “instinctively understood the gravity of the moment” and sought out spiritual guidance from her pastor, Reverend Amos C. Brown of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco.

“There’s a part of the scripture that talks about Esther, ‘such a time as this’, and that’s what we talked about,” she said. “And it was very comforting for me.”

Here are fact-checks of some of what Harris said in the town hall.

Trump called Americans “the enemies within” – “he’s talking about journalists, judges, nonpartisan election officials.”

It is true that Trump has used the “enemies within” language. In a Fox News interview on October 13, Trump said he believes “the enemy from within” would cause Election Day chaos and suggested that, if it is a problem, the National Guard or military might be used against them.

Pressed on whom he identifies as “the enemy”, Trump has named leading Democrats and others who disagree with him. In Pennsylvania on Monday, Trump closed a rally by repeating his assessment of evilness.

“They are so bad and frankly, they’re evil,” Trump said. “They’re evil. What they’ve done, they’ve weaponised, they’ve weaponised our elections.”

“The former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff has said (Trump) is ‘a fascist to the core’.”

Harris correctly characterised comments that retired General Mark A. Milley made to author Bob Woodward in his new book “War”.

Milley, who served as joint chiefs of staff chairman under Trump, told Woodward that Trump is “a fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country”.

Milley’s comments echoed that of another high-ranking Trump administration official, retired US Marine Corps General John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff.

In an October 22 report, The New York Times quoted Kelly as saying a definition of fascism “accurately described Mr. Trump”.

Harris speaks during a CNN town hall in Aston, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, as moderator Anderson Cooper listens. [Matt Rourke/AP Photo]

“Part of (Trump’s) plan is to put in place a national sales tax of at least 20 percent on everyday goods and necessities, and that, by economist estimates, independent economists, would cost you, as the American consumer and taxpayer, an additional $4,000 a year.”

Trump has talked about raising tariffs across the board by 10 percent to 20 percent, so the 20 percent figure Harris cited is on the upper end of what Trump has said. Tariffs are also not technically part of the tax code, but their effect on consumers would be similar by costing them more money.

The $4,000 figure Harris cited is on the upper end of independent estimates.

Two estimates we found broadly support Harris’s $4,000 amount. Two others show a smaller – though still significant – effect, in the $1,700 to $2,600 range.

“It is the case in the United States of America that billionaires, on average, pay less taxes as a percentage than teachers and firefighters and nurses.”

This talking point, often repeated by Harris and other Democrats, is wrong.

Under current law, the 25 highest-earning billionaires paid a 16 percent tax rate on average, estimates show, while the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid an average rate north of 25.6 percent.

More than 91 percent of households earning from $50,000 to $100,000 a year – the category that includes most teachers, firefighters and nurses – paid effective tax rates of 15 percent or less, often much less.

Texas’s abortion law provides “for prison, for life for healthcare providers” and some state laws “make no exception, even for rape or incest”.

Harris criticised Trump over strict abortion laws that have been enacted in states across the country since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, saying laws like that in Texas threaten healthcare providers with “prison for life” and that some states “make no exception, even for rape or incest”.

This is correct. The penalty for violating Texas’s abortion law, which is an outright ban, could include life in prison, a fine of $100,000 and loss of a medical licence.

The law in Texas, which includes an exception for the life of the pregnant woman, is the same in nine US states that do not allow exceptions for rape or incest. The others are Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee.

“There is no question that the American people increasingly are losing confidence in the Supreme Court.”

The most recent Gallup data, for September 2024, showed 44 percent approval of the Supreme Court, which is close to an all-time low since Gallup has been asking this question in 2000. Disapproval stood at 51 percent, which is nearly the highest during that period.

Disapproval is being driven by the views of Democrats. The court’s approval rating has nosedived among Democrats since the justices overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, hovering at about 10 points below its previous low.

Republicans currently have a 56 percent favourable rating for the court, which is above average for the past quarter century.

“How much of that wall did he build? I think the last number I saw is about 2 percent.”

This is accurate for new wall construction, but does not factor in replacement. The US-Mexico border is approximately 3,200km (2,000 miles) long. Trump’s administration built 84km (52 miles) of new primary border barriers – the first impediment people encounter if they are trying to cross the southern border with Mexico – where there were none before. That barrier can block access for people on foot or for vehicles.

The Trump administration built 737km (458 miles) of primary and secondary border barriers, US Customs and Border Protection data shows. The majority were replacements of smaller, dilapidated barriers.

“As of today, we have cut the flow of immigration by over half.”

This is supported by fiscal year 2024 data. Border Patrol encounters with migrants at the southwest border peaked in December 2023 – at about 250,000. In September, the latest month available and the end of fiscal year 2024, there were about 54,000 encounters, a 78-percent drop, US Customs and Border Protection data shows.

Encounters refer to occasions when immigration officials stop someone at the border; a single person could be stopped more than once and counted more than once, and encounters do not mean that the person is let into the US.