I am now retired, but in a previous Life I worked in high technology and aerospace, mostly in Program Management and Purchasing. Working with spreadsheets was my daily activity for nearly three decades.
Following Tuesday’s debate, I used those skills to create a multi-tab Excel spreadsheet that documented reporting from ten news sources (listed below) plus a tab for a falsehood I noted that was not reported elsewhere.
The TLDR version of my wading through the media playground is: 57 Lies by Donald Trump, 1 lie by Kamala Harris.
Now for the background on my effort and the results.
Donald Trump told 57 lies during the 90 minutes. Although he repeated some of them many times, I recorded them as ONE lie. They were normally stated as false by several sources.
Kamala Harris told 1 lie during the 90 minutes. By that I used the same parameters used on iDJT: A statement that was not misspeaking or saying someone else “says”. The statement was referenced as “false” by four of the fact checks.
That actual falsehood will be provided following the short discussion of my methodology, which should help explain what my information is based on.
It was interesting to see the difference between the sites – and to learn that CNN had the most robust fact checking overall. CNN documented 25 total lies by Trump.
The other nine sites varied from a few to many falsehoods reported – but none were as extensive as CNN. I was also struck by several sites (NY Times, and WaPo) who seemed to bend over backwards to cast several of Harris’ comments with framing of “true, but, hey, it almost was deceptive although true.” Damning by faint praise, indeed.
The only lie Trump told that was noted by 100% of the fact checkers, not surprisingly, was the racist “Haitians are eating cats and dogs” bull shit.
I was somewhat surprised that yours truly spotted one lie by Trump that I did not see documented by the ten news organizations. That will also be in the summary below.
As I said in my three prior diaries about the lies that were expected during the debate, I will be sending a donation to the Harris/Walz campaign based on the total lies documented.
I will NOT, however, be sending a donation for $1.00 to the Trump/Vance crew, as I stated I would in the first diary. Instead, I will reduce my contribution to the Democratic candidates by $1.00.
I have no desire to get on iDJT’s mailing list or funding his lawyers’ padded bills.
Here are links to my three previous diaries on donating based on verifiable lies:
First: A modest proposal from an Old "Newbie" (dailykos.com)
Second: A Modest Proposal Redux (dailykos.com)
Third: Did Donald J. Trump Ju$t Cost 25 Ko$ Reader$ $ome Money? (dailykos.com)
To date, the three diaries (through their respective polls) had a total of 39 other folks here who said that they would contribute based on the total lies.
There were also about twelve (total) who said in the comments that they were going to participate. I have no idea how many of them also said “Yes” in the polls, but that was heartening.
The responses were not binding, but…
If 40 (including me) Daily Kos readers donate $56.00 we will be working together to the tune of
$2,280.00 DONATED TO HARRIS/WALZ
Personally, I think my time has been well spent, and more than worthwhile!
Please consider joining those of us (ME, at least!) and help Kamala Harris and Tim Walz continue the work that Joe and Kamala have put in over the time they have been in office.
Play Along At Home! Here are the ten sites I used for the research:
CNN Fact check: Donald Trump, Kamala Harris debate on ABC News | CNN Politics
Fact Check FactChecking the Harris-Trump Debate - FactCheck.org
Polita Fact PolitiFact | Fact-checking Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s first 2024 presidential debate
NPR Fact check of the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump : NPR
Washington Post Fact-checking the first presidential debate between Harris and Trump - The Washington Post
NBC Fact-checking the presidential debate between Harris and Trump (nbcnews.com)
BBC Key claims from the Trump-Harris debate fact-checked. (bbc.com)
Associated Press FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims made during Trump and Harris' debate | AP News
New York Times Debate Fact Check: Harris and Trump on the Economy, Immigration and Abortion - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
and
CBS Fact checking debate claims from Trump and Harris' 2024 presidential faceoff - CBS News
If there are any stone-cold data nerds out there, please send me a Kos Mail so we can discuss my providing a copy of the spreadsheet. On the other hand, the links above will enable you to make your own hashing of the data. Be sure to set aside about ten hours, though!
The single falsehood that I am counting as a Kamala Harris lie is:
Her statement that Trump left the Biden/Harris Administration with the “worst unemployment since the Great Depression”.
While the Covid recession DID result in the highest unemployment since that era, it had decreased by January 20, 2021 to a still dismal 6.4%. It has continued to decline under Biden/Harris and is now at 4.2%. (The lowest was in 1953, when it was 2.5%)
