Vice President Debate Fact Check: What JD Vance and Tim Walz Got Right and Wrong About Abortion and Immigration

PolitiFact fact-checked the first 2024 vice presidential debate in New York City between Republican Senator JD Vance and Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

CBS News hosted the debate, moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O'Donnell and “Face the Nation” anchor Margaret Brennan.

PolitiFact has fact-checked Vance 20 times since 2018 and Walz 6 times since August 2024. Tonight we will draw on this archive to verify the accuracy of the candidates' statements.

Please check back as this story is updated and refresh this page to make sure you get our latest fact checks.

Vance: Trump 'saved' the Affordable Care Act

INCORRECT.

The Trump administration cut millions of dollars in marketing and enrollment aid for the law's health plans and supported failed congressional and judicial efforts to repeal the law. In June 2020, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to overturn the law in a case brought by more than a dozen Republican-led states; The high court rejected it.

During Trump's presidency, the number of people enrolled under the Affordable Care Act fell by more than 2 million, and the number of uninsured Americans increased by 2.3 million from 2016 to 2019, including 726,000 children, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. This includes three years of Trump's presidency.

Walz: “Donald Trump has paid no federal taxes in the last 15 years. The last year as president.”

A congressional committee has released parts of Trump's tax records from 2015 to 2020. In some years, Trump paid no federal income tax. But not every year.

Trump's 2018 tax return reported total income of $24.4 million and taxable income was $22.9 million. Trump and his wife Melania paid $999,466 in federal income taxes. In 2019, the Trumps paid $133,445 in federal income taxes.

The New York Times reported in 2020 that Trump often failed to pay income taxes before he was elected president, largely because he “claimed to have lost far more money than he earned.”

Trump's tax records since 2020 have not been released.

Vance: “We have 320,000 children that the Department of Homeland Security has essentially lost.”

This is not what is in a federal regulatory report.

The claim relates to a federal oversight report on unaccompanied minors – children who came to the US without parents and guardians. The report mentions 32,000 children who failed to appear for their immigration court hearings and 291,000 children who were not served a “notice to appear” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A “Notice to Appear” is a charging document issued by authorities and filed with immigration court to begin deportation proceedings. The report says that by not sending these notices to the children, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is limiting their chances of verifying their safety after they are released by the federal government.

The report prompted Republican lawmakers and conservative news outlets to say that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had “lost” the children or that they were “missing.” However, this claim was not made in the report.

Walz: “Your 2025 project will have a pregnancy registry.”

INCORRECT.

Project 2025 recommends that states submit more detailed abortion reports to the federal government. What is called for is more information about how and when abortions occurred, as well as more statistics on miscarriages and stillbirths.

The handbook neither mentions nor calls for a new federal agency tasked with registering pregnant women.

PolitiFact managing director Aaron Sharockman, chief correspondent Louis Jacobson, chief correspondent Amy Sherman, staff writers Grace Abels, Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu, Maria Briceño, Jeff Cercone, Madison Czopek, Marta Campabadal Graus, Samantha Putterman, Sara Swann, Loreben Tuquero, Maria Ramirez Uribe, researcher Caryn Baird, KFF Health News managing editor Stephanie Stapleton and KFF Health News senior correspondent Stephanie Armor contributed to this story.

Our debate fact checks draw on both new and previously published work. Whenever possible, we link to previous work. In some cases, a fact check review tonight may be different than in previous versions. In these cases, either the details of what the candidate said or the way the candidate said it differed enough that we rescored it.