Walz misrepresents Trump’s positions
Verify the facts: Walz misrepresents Trump’s positions on abortion and the economy.
The governor of Minnesota and Democratic nominee for vice president Tim Walz made untrue statements on Sunday regarding the position of former President Donald Trump on abortion and the status of the economy after Trump left office.
A fact check of the two assertions is provided here. The campaign for Harris and Waldz chose not to respond.
Walz asserts a fake abortion
During a Sunday Fox News interview, Walz was questioned regarding the abortion laws in Minnesota. He talked about the topic before turning to Trump, the Republican front-runner. “Donald Trump is calling for a nationwide ban on abortion,” he stated.
First of all, Walz’s assertion is untrue. Trump is not “calling for” the outlawing of abortion nationally. Since the spring, President Trump has stated that he prefers state-by-state control over federal regulation of abortion rights. Furthermore, last week, Trump pledged to veto any federal abortion ban that Congress might enact.
Everybody knows that I would veto a federal abortion ban under any circumstances, as it is the responsibility of the states to make decisions based on the will of their voters, or the people. Last week, Trump posted on social media.
However, he is not endorsing a federal prohibition in the course of this campaign.
In March, Trump made a suggestion that he would declare his support for a 15-week nationwide ban. On the other hand, he declared in April that he preferred state autonomy over abortion laws.
Since then, he has stuck to that stance.
Moreover, he has declared time and time again since April that he would not sign a federal prohibition.
He reiterated this stance during the presidential debate last month.
When Walz points out that Trump declined to commit to vetoing a federal ban during the debate last month, it is fair game.
(Trump claimed, “I will not have to,” implying that Congress would never enact such a ban.).
Furthermore, we do not comment on Walz’s assertion that Trump “will” enact a nationwide ban because predictions about the future cannot be verified.
Walz has brought up Project 2025 on multiple occasions.
This was a conservative think tank project that engaged a number of former Trump administration officials though Trump was not one of them.
Some critics fear that the project’s proposal for the enforcement of an outdated statute that forbids the distribution of abortion-related drugs and devices could effectively outlaw abortion in the absence of new legislation.)
But Walz here went beyond recounting the history or predicting the future, making a claim about what Trump is apparently “asking for” at present. Furthermore, that assertion is false.
On Sunday, Walz’s staff shared the false claim video on his social media platforms, reiterating the allegation in the captions.
Walz’s incorrect economic assertion
Walz added in the Sunday interview that residents in Ohio, a state he visited Saturday.
Understand when (Trump) left office, we had more people unemployed, percentage-wise, than the Great Depression.”
First the facts: This is untrue.
When Trump departed office in January 2021, the unemployment rate stood at 6.4%.
A far cry from its peak of 14.8% in April 2020 during the pandemic.
On the other hand, during the Great Depression, which ran roughly from 1929 to 1939, the unemployment rate was above 20%, and for nearly the whole 1930s.
It was above 10%.
During her September debate with Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris made a similar, if less outrageous, incorrect statement when she said.
Donald Trump left us the greatest unemployment since the Great Depression.” That was not accurate, even with the important qualification “since”; as recently as 2014, the jobless rate was higher than 6.4%.
