WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Note: The above video is from an earlier story.
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke for a little more than 20 minutes Friday night during her visit to Luzerne County, a former Democratic bastion in must-win Pennsylvania that went for Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential race.
Four years later, Harris stopped to try and lock up the state's 19 electoral votes.
Newswatch 16 went through her comments and picked out a few claims to fact check. Here's what we found:
Claim: Harris said that “Democrats, Republicans and independents are supporting our campaign.”
Answer: Needs context.
Harris quickly shored up Democratic support in the days following President Joe Biden’s decision in July to drop out of the race.
She is also supported by the coterie of Republicans who oppose former President Donald Trump — including more than 230 alumni of both Bush administrations and the campaigns of Senators Mitt Romney and John McCain. The former staffers recently signed an open letter that called Trump’s potential restoration “simply untenable.”
Trump, meanwhile, seems to have an edge with independent voters. An NPR/PBS News/Maris poll released Tuesday shows that Trump leads Harris 49 percent to 46 percent among the coveted demographic. That marks a 14-point shift in Trump’s favor since August.
Claim: Harris blasted Trump’s proposal of imposing tariffs on imported goods as having the practical impact of a new sales tax that will cost average American families $4,000 per year.
Answer: Half-true.
Why: Politifact, the fact-checker owned by the journalism nonprofit Poynter Institute for Media Studies, looked at Harris’s claim that economists predict will feel the impact of Trump’s tariffs to the tune of $4,000.
They found that tariffs would likely strain household budgets, but economists differed on how much. Of the four estimates Politifact cited, two supported Harris’ $4,000 claim while two others showed a “smaller, though still significant, impact,” the fact checker said.
Claim: Harris said a policy analysis by Goldman Sachs finds the economy would grow under her proposals and shrink under Trump’s.
Answer: Exaggerated.
Why: The report does project that tariffs and tighter immigration would cut into economic growth. However, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Davis Solomon, says it is much ado about nothing. Solomon later went onto CNBC and said he thought the report “blew up into something that was bigger than it was intended to be” because the difference is two-tenths of 1%.
Claim: More than 20 states currently have an abortion ban
Answer: Mostly true.
Why: Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, some states started enforcing abortion bans. As of now, according to three organizations tracking state abortion laws — the Center for Reproductive Rights, the New York Times and Planned Parenthood — 14 states have outright bans and eight more have tight restrictions.