We fact-checked some of the statements made by President Biden and former President Donald Trump during their first presidential campaign. 2024 Presidential Debatewill take place in Atlanta on Thursday, June 27th at 9pm ET.
Watch CBS News' live coverage of the debate.
Trump claims we have the greatest economy in the history of our country, but that's false
Trump“We had the strongest economy in our history. We'd never had a stronger economy than we'd had in a long time. Everybody was amazed by it. Other countries were copying us.”
detailPresident Trump's claim that during his presidency the United States had the best economy in history by many of the common metrics used to judge economic performance is false. A look at GDP contradicts that claim. The 2020 pandemic Excluding inflation, post-inflation growth averaged 2.67% under the Trump administration, a far cry from the 4% GDP growth under Democratic President Bill Clinton, according to World Bank figures. If you include the post-COVID-19 period, that average falls to 1.45%.
Trump's claims fall short when compared with historical figures: growth rates between 4.4% and 6.6% from 1962 to 1966; GDP between 8.7% and 8% in 1950 and 1951.
Under Biden, annual GDP growth has averaged 3.4%, according to the Associated Press.
unemployment
Even when assessing the unemployment rate, Trump's claims are false. In February 2020, one month before the coronavirus pandemic began to impact the economy, the unemployment rate was 3.5%, the lowest since December 1969, but not the lowest in history. At the end of Trump's term, the unemployment rate was 6.3%.
The unemployment rate fell to 2.5% in 1953. The latest data, from May 2024, shows that under Biden, the unemployment rate is at 4%.
The unemployment rate for January 2023 and April 2023 was 3.4%, lower than the highest month during President Trump's term.
Stock Market Performance
On January 19, 2021, the S&P 500 stock average closed 67.8% higher than the day before President Trump's inauguration in 2017.
According to Investopedia:, At the end of President Barack Obama's first term, the S&P closed up 84.5%. Additionally, during President Bill Clinton's first term, the S&P was up 79% and during President Dwight Eisenhower's first term, the S&P was up 70%. So far, the S&P 500 is up nearly 40% under President Biden, according to calculations as of June 13.
By Laura Doan and Hunter Woodall
Biden claims to be the only president in the world this century who has not lost a soldier, but this is false.
Biden: “I'm the only president this century, this decade, that hasn't had a soldier killed anywhere in the world.”
detailAt least 16 U.S. soldiers have died while serving overseas during Biden's term in office. In August 2021, 13 U.S. soldiers were killed in an attack at Kabul airport in Afghanistan. In January of this year, three soldiers were killed in an attack in Jordan.
Leila Ferris
Trump claims he didn't call slain soldiers “idiots and losers”: False
Trump: “First of all, it's a myth. Idiots and losers, they made it up.”
detailCurrent and former US military personnel recounted to CBS News multiple instances when Trump made derogatory remarks about captured or killed US troops, including calling fallen soldiers at the Aire-Marne American Cemetery in France “losers” and “idiots” in 2018.
A senior Pentagon official and a former Marine officer with direct knowledge of the comments recounted how Trump said he didn't want to visit the cemetery because it was “full of losers.” Those comments have been independently corroborated by two other officials, a former Army official and another former Marine official.
In another conversation during the trip, Trump called the 1,800 Marines who died at the Battle of Belleau Wood in World War I “murdered fools.” The Atlantic magazine first reported Trump's comments in 2020. Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly later confirmed the gist of Trump's remarks to CNN.
James LaPorta and Sierra Sanders
Biden claims that illegal border crossings are down 40% since Trump was president, which is partially true.
Biden: “I changed the policy, and we're now in a situation where we have 40% fewer people crossing the border illegally. We're in a better situation than when he left office.”
detail: Biden declaration Illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border have been declining since the government shut out most asylum seekers at the border in early June, averaging about 2,000 illegal crossings per day over the past week, down 47% from an average of 3,800 per day in May, according to internal Department of Homeland Security data obtained by CBS News.
At the height of the migrant surge faced by the Trump administration, the Border Patrol recorded an average of 4,300 illegal crossings a day, according to government data, but there have been months during the coronavirus pandemic when the Trump administration averaged fewer than 2,000 illegal crossings.
Camilo Montoya Galvez
Trump claims that more people have died from COVID-19 under Biden than under his administration. That's true, but we need context.
Trump: “You have to remember, more people died under his administration than under our administration, even though we largely fixed the problems. More people died under his administration than under our administration. And we were right in the middle of it. It's something a lot of people don't want to talk about. But [Biden] Far more people died under his administration.”
detailMore than 460,000 people had died from COVID-19 by the end of the week Biden was inaugurated in 2021, and more than 725,000 died in the three years since, according to CDC data, but studies have found that the number of COVID-19 deaths, especially early in the pandemic, was likely undercounted.
By Julia Ingram and Jui Sarwate
