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By Aila Slisco
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Former President Donald Trump was fact-checked at multiple points after commenting during his contentious presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump and Harris clashed face-to-face for the first and possibly only time during the debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. After Harris approached Trump for a handshake, the debate began at a relatively slow pace before quickly intensifying when the candidates discussed hot-button issues like abortion rights, immigration and crime.
The first fact-check arrived during a discussion on abortion. Trump falsely claimed that a former governor of West Virginia was in favor of legalizing "execution" of babies after they are born, while also falsely claiming that Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz has said "execution after birth is OK."
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After Trump finished speaking, ABC News debate moderator Linsey Davis pushed back by correctly pointing out that "there is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born."
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Trump campaign via email on Tuesday night.
During a discussion on immigration, Trump was fact-checked by co-moderator David Muir after repeating a false viral claim about illegal immigrants abducting and "eating the pets of the people that live" in Springfield, Ohio.
"I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio, and ABC News did contact the city manager there," Muir said. "He told us they had no credible reports of pets or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals in the immigrant community."
Trump objected to Muir's fact-check, arguing that the baseless claim was true because he had "seen people on television" making the claim, before suggesting that the denial was "a good thing to say for a city manager."
Muir fact-checked Trump again minutes later after the former president claimed that crime rates are "through the roof" but down in the rest of the world.
"President Trump, as you know, the FBI says that overall violent crime is actually coming down in this country," Muir said, prompting Trump to claim that the FBI statistics are "defrauding statements."
Muir fact-checked Trump one more time, after the former president falsely claimed that there was "so much proof" that he did not legitimately lose to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
"We should just point out here as clarification ... 60 cases in front of many judges, many of them Republican, looked at it and said there was no widespread fraud," Muir said.
While Trump and Harris both made at least some claims that could have been fact- checked during the debate, supporters of Trump raged on social media over Muir and Davis, alleging they were being unfair to the former president.
"It is laughable how ABC choreographed this to help VP Harris but it isn't working because it is so obvious," conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
"David Muir is criticizing and attacking Trump more than Kamala is," wrote journalist Glenn Greenwald. "Kamala can relax because the ABC "moderators" are handling the debate for her."
"Do these moderators think they're running for President against Trump? Because they're sure acting like it," wrote Abigail Jackson, a staffer for Republican Senator Josh Hawley.
Separately from the actions of Muir and Davis during the debate, ABC News fact- checked the performance of both candidates online Tuesday.
Among the 11 Harris claims fact-checked online, two were rated "false," two "true," one "partly true," one "mostly true," four "needs context," and one "true, but needs context."
Trump was fact-checked online eight times, with six of the claims being rated "false," one "mostly false" and one "true, but needs context."
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