Fact-check: the last US presidential debate
President Donald Trump and his rival Joe Biden argued over the COVID-19 pandemic, the trade war with China or the racial issue in the United States, during their last debate before the November 3 election.
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Referring to the coronavirus, Donald Trump said: "we expected 2.2 million deaths, according to a model (note: of the epidemic). We shut down the world's largest economy in order to fight this horrible disease ”.
Where does this figure come from?
The figure of 2.2 million deaths - which the president had previously cited in defense of his health response - comes from a report by the Imperial college's COVID-19 Response Committee. This figure is, according to this report, the total number of deaths the epidemic could have caused in the United States if absolutely no action had been taken.
The United States, like other countries, has imposed lockdowns and Americans have, to varying degrees, observed social distancing measures.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the pandemic has claimed more than 223,000 lives nationwide.
Joe Biden told him: “There are now 1,000 deaths a day. 1,000 deaths per day ”.
This is not totally fair. Over the past few months, there have indeed been many days when the death toll exceeded a thousand. For example, an AFP report based on national data and those from Johns Hopkins University shows that as of Friday, 1,035 deaths were recorded in 24 hours.
However, the results vary from day to day. Over the last seven days, the results were 990, 854, 420, 509, 661, 796 and 1,103 deaths, or an average of 762 deaths per 24 hours.
RELATIONS WITH CHINA
“China is paying, they are paying billions and billions of dollars,” said Trump, apparently referring to the money from the tariffs imposed on China by his administration.
Mr. Biden retorted that it was American “taxpayers' money”.
The Democratic candidate's answer is correct. As the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center notes, a customs tax "is almost always paid directly by the importer (usually a business) and never by the exporting country."
Speaking of US-China trade relations, Mr. Biden said of the president, "He caused the (trade) deficit with China to increase, not decrease."
This is not correct. The trade deficit rose to $ 344 billion in 2019, after rising to $ 418 billion in 2018. Compared to 2016, the last year of the Obama administration when the deficit was $ 347 billion, it has lowered.
Since the start of his tenure, the White House tenant's customs policy has been aimed at reducing the trade deficit and ending what he calls unfair trade practices.
According to a truce reached on June 15, 2020, China has pledged to import at least 200 billion US goods for two years, more than the level of 2017.
THE RACIAL QUESTION
Discussing the racial issue, a hot topic in the United States following the deaths of several African-American citizens killed by police, Mr. Trump accused the former Democratic Vice President of calling black men "super predators" when he was a senator.
It's wrong. The term "super predators" dates back to a crime law co-authored by Mr. Biden. But it was Hillary Clinton who used this formula in defending this text.
Joe Biden maintained Thursday night that he did not use that expression. Before the Senate, however, he spoke of "predatory" criminals during a speech in favor of this law.
