Closing Arguments of the Presidential Campaign
After months of campaigning, President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden made their final pitches to voters at campaign rallies in key swing states and on TV airwaves.
Here we fact-check claims the candidates made in rallies on Nov. 1 and 2, and in a few of the TV ads they are airing in the waning hours before Election Day.
We reviewed Trump’s rallies in Michigan, North Carolina, Iowa and Florida and Biden’s rallies and remarks in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Trump Campaign TV Ads
The Trump campaign has spent $10.5 million on TV and digital ads in the final week of the campaign, according to data collected by Advertising Analytics. The campaign is still spending heavily on misleading ads attacking Biden on taxes, health care and protests for racial justice.
Taxes. Since Oct. 29, the campaign has spent nearly $1 million on an ad that shows Biden, in February, saying, “if you elect me, your taxes are going to be raised, not cut.” Then it shows Biden, in October, saying, “And here’s how it works. I’m going to raise taxes.” But in neither case was he talking about raising taxes for everyone.
Biden has pledged not to directly raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000 a year. The most recent estimate by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center on Oct. 15 calculates that the net result of all of Biden’s tax proposals in 2022 would be, on average, a tax cut for the bottom 80% of households, with the top one-tenth of 1% of earners bearing 70% of Biden’s proposed tax increases.
Health insurance. In recent days, more than $4 million has been spent on a Republican National Committee/Trump ad that claims “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ government-run health care plan” could “give benefits to illegal immigrants.” But Biden doesn’t support the Medicare for All plan proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders. Biden, in addition to private health insurance, has proposed offering a Medicare-style public option only as a choice. The ad cites a conservative think tank’s argument that a public option would lead to a government health care system, but that’s not what Biden has proposed. He has also said immigrants living in the U.S. illegally should be able to buy health insurance plans, not get them for free.
Violent protests. In addition, the Trump campaign has spent more than $400,000 to run an ad that says, “While America’s cities burned, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris fan the flames, refusing to strongly condemn violence, supporting bail funds that helped let rioters, looters and dangerous criminals out of jail.”
Butandboth have condemned violent protests, riots and looting. As early as late May, for example, Bidenasaying: “Protesting such
