Fact checking Trump’s false claims at debate – from ‘eating pets’ to ‘executing babies’

The Independent debunks five of the former president’s most bizarre (and baseless) claims made during his debate with Harris

“Kamala Harris,” the vice president said as she strode across the debate stage and shook Donald Trump’s hand. “Let’s have a good debate.”

“Nice to see you,” he replied. “Have fun.”

It marked the first time the presidential nominees had ever met face-to-face as they took to the stage in Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center on Tuesday night for the debate moderated by ABC News.

But Harris and Trump’s amicable start was short lived, with the former president quickly spiraling into a slew of personal and policy-based attacks – many of which the former president has been baselessly claiming since the vice president stepped up on the Democratic ticket in July.

From Haitian immigrants devouring cats and dogs to the execution of babies after birth, Trump made a series of falsehoods and wild claims.

Here, The Independent has debunked Trump’s five most bizarre (and baseless) claims of the night:

‘Executions after birth’

At one point when speaking about abortion, Trump falsely claimed that Democrats support killing babies after birth.

“[Harris’s] vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth – it’s execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born – is okay,” Trump said.

Trump and Harris kicked-off the debate with a handshake on Tuesday evening (AFP via Getty Images)

This is false. Infantacide is illegal across all 50 states.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has also never claimed that it’s “okay” to execute a baby after it has been born. Last year, he signed an abortion bill into law in the state, which rules that an infant born alive following an abortion shall be fully recognized as a human being and falls under the full protection of the law.

ABC News’s moderator Linsey Davis swooped in and fact-checked Trump, noting that “there is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born”.

‘Pet-eating immigrants’

On Monday, Trump’s running mate JD Vance claimed that Springfield, Ohio, residents are having their “pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country”.

Harris was left dumbfounded after Trump claimed that Haitian migrants are eating pet animals (AFP via Getty Images)

Trump continued peddling the conspiracy on Tuesday night.

“They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there… it’s a shame,” he said.

“Talk about extreme,” a dumbfounded Harris muttered.

The bizarre story appears to stem from a local Facebook group, claiming that Haitian immigrants were killing and devouring cats and decapitating ducks.

But the false assertions have already been debunked by Springfield authorities, who confirmed on Monday that there has been no reports of pets being stolen and eaten in the community.

Project 2025

“I have nothing to do with Project 2025,” Trump said. “That’s out there. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it.”

Trump declared that he has nothing to do with Project 2025 – a key line of attack for the Harris campaign (AFP via Getty Images)

Trump’s affiliation with the Heritage Foundation think tank, which devised the so-called “wish list” of demands for a potential Trump second term is well documented – including a keynote address to his “friends” at the group’s president club meeting in October 2017.

Six of Trump’s former cabinet secretaries have reportedly assisted with writing the 900-page manifesto and an additional 140 of his former staffers are said to have helped work on Project 2025.

Paul Dans, an architect of Project 2025 and the former chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management under Trump, told CNN on Monday that he’d be “honored to be asked by the president” to work with him for another term.

He also said that he’d visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort “several” times and last shook hands with the former president in February.

Despite the clear ties, Trump and the Heritage Foundation continue to deny that the former president has any involvement with Project 2025.

‘Proof’ 2020 election ‘rigged’

The former president claimed that there was “so much proof” that the 2020 election was rigged – a lie that Trump has been pushing ever since President Joe Biden beat him in the race for the White House.

Trump once again lambasted that the election was rigged. Harris alluded to him being stuck in the past (AFP via Getty Images)

Following Biden’s win, Trump and his allies filed a flurry of more than 60 lawsuits contesting the election.

Almost all the suits were dropped due to either a lack of evidence or failure to show fraud.

Judges and officials appointed by Trump also found no evidnce of election fraud.

In another falsehood about the 2020 election, the former president claimed “no judges looked at” the lawsuits filed.

“They said we didn’t have standing. A technicality. Can you imagine a system where a person in an election doesn’t have standing? The president of the United States doesn’t have standing. That’s how we lost,” he said.

The border crisis

When hitting out at Harris over immigration and the US’s southern border with Mexico, Trump stated that the number of migrants crossing the border have reached record highs over the past few years.

The Biden-Harris administration oversaw record numbers of migrants flood the US-Mexico border - but Trump’s numbers were off (AFP/Getty)

While this is correct, Trump’s numbers were vastly overinflated as he claimed that “millions [and] millions of people are pouring into our country monthly”.

Figures from the Customs and Border Protection reveal that the agency has had eight million encounters with migrants at the US-Mexico border since Biden became president in 2021. Approximately half of which were turned away, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The highest monthly migrant encounter tally was recorded in December, with the CBP processing 300,000 migrants.

Even taking into account an estimated 1.7 million migrants that have evaded apprehension since the start of fiscal year 2021, Trump’s estimates are wildly off.