WILKES-BARRE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Former President Donald J. Trump spoke for nearly two hours Saturday before a crowd in Luzerne County.
Newswatch 16 went through the speech Trump delivered at Mohegan Arena in Wilkes-Barre Twp. to try and analyze his claims, ranging from the history of the 2020 race to Vice President Kamala Harris’s statements on natural gas drilling.
Here’s a brief rundown:
1. Trump said Harris was the “first one out last time.”
Answer: False.
Harris was one of many early contenders for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential race, which current President Joe Biden won.
Harris, then a Senator from California, joined the field in January of 2019 and announced by that December she would suspend her campaign.
That was certainly early in the 2020 race, but she wasn’t even the first to drop out that month. Her campaign came to an end after the December 2019 announcements from Democrats Joe Sestak and Steve Bullock ceasing their respective bids for the presidency.
2. Harris is anti-fracking.
Answer: Needs context.
In a CNN Townhall in October 2019, Harris’s opinion on hydraulic fracturing — “fracking” — was clear.
“There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris said.
She didn’t hesitate to affirmatively reply to a follow-up asking if she would ban offshore drilling, which drew applause from the audience.
In 2024, the now-presumptive Democratic nominee, rather than just appealing to the party’s left wing, is faced with persuading a more politically moderate swath of the electorate to win the presidency. Perhaps predictably, her stance on an issue that is politically fraught in must-win Pennsylvania has moderated.
Harris’s campaign now insists she will not ban fracking, according to the Associated Press.
Harris backs Biden’s plan to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which does not include a ban on fracking, the AP reported. Indeed, U.S. natural gas and crude oil production have hit record monthly highs.
3. Trump is winning by “a lot” in Pennsylvania.
Answer: False.
Polls collected by FiveThirtyEight show Trump and Harris running pretty much neck-and-neck in Pennsylvania.
In fact, the latest polling average shows that Harris has a slight lead to Trump — 46% to 44.7%.
4. Trump says he doesn’t know the judge in his Florida criminal case.
Answer: Needs context.
In his remarks, Trump laced into the left for allegedly “playing to the refs” by criticizing judges and U.S. Supreme Court justices for handing down adverse rulings.
Trump, who himself has a history of attacking the courts, had kind words for the federal judge overseeing his criminal case in Florida for allegedly mishandling classified documents.
That federal judge, Aileen Cannon, threw the criminal case out of court last month on grounds that the special counsel who filed the charges, Jack Smith, had been illegally appointed by the Justice Department. Smith later appealed.
In his speech Saturday, Trump praised Cannon without saying her name, caveating that he does not actually know the judge.
While it is possible that the pair do not know each other personally, Trump left out the fact that he nominated Cannon to the federal bench in 2020.
5. Trump said his administration oversaw the defeat of the Islamic State.
Answer: Largely true.
According to the U.S. State Department, the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS achieved the territorial defeat of ISIS on March 23, 2019 with the liberation of Baghuz, Syria. ISIS lost 95% of its territorial holdings between 2014 and 2017, but its loss of Baghuz represented a significant blow.
The group, though, is not entirely defeated and still clandestinely operates. ISIS-Khorasan remains a presence in Afghanistan, according to the State Department.
6. Mortgage rates went from 2% to 10%.
Answer: Misleading.
Trump’s remark that mortgage rates have climbed from 2% to 10% is an exaggeration.
There’s truth to his statement that interest rates on 30-year fixed rate mortgages have jumped in recent years, but the rise is not as dramatic as he claimed.
Freddie Mac data shows that rate averages from over the last 10 years bottomed out in August 2021 at 2.77% and hit a high in November last year at 7.76%.
As of Thursday, the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.49%.