Fact check: Was Kamala Harris truthful in interview with Black journalists?

During her interview with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris criticised former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Republican Senator JD Vance, for spreading misinformation about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.

In the presidential debate held last week, Trump claimed that immigrants in the Midwestern state were eating residents’ pets.

“When you have that kind of microphone in front of you, you really ought to understand how much your words have meaning,” Harris said on Tuesday. “I learned at a very young stage of my career that the meaning of my words could impact whether someone was free or in prison.”

On Israel’s war on Gaza, Harris reiterated that Israel has a right to defend itself, following Hamas’s October 7 attack last year, but didn’t have a straight answer for co-moderator and Politico White House Correspondent Eugene Daniels’ question about how her policies would differ from President Joe Biden’s. Harris said “We need to get this deal done,” referring to freeing captives and a ceasefire deal.

The discussion took place at US public radio station WHYY in downtown Philadelphia and featured Daniels, theGrio White House correspondent and Managing Editor of Politics Gerren Keith Gaynor and WHYY Fresh Air programme co-host Tonya Mosley as moderators.

Harris’s interview happened days after Trump was targeted in an apparent assassination attempt. Harris said she spoke to Trump earlier in the day.

“There’s no place for political violence in our country,” Harris said.

In addition to these topics, the moderators tried to get specifics from Harris about her positions on the economy and healthcare. We fact-checked several of her claims.

Economy

‘Worst unemployment since the Great Depression’

When Harris and Biden took office, replacing Trump, the US had “the worst unemployment since the Great Depression”.

False.

Harris had also made this claim during the presidential debate against Trump. She’s wrong. The US unemployment rate spiked to a post-Great Depression record of 14.8 percent in April 2020, as the pandemic escalated. Trump was in office then. But by December 2020, before Biden and Harris took office, the unemployment rate fell to 6.4 percent – high for recent history but well below numerous spikes during recessions.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris criticised former President Donald Trump during her interview with members of the National Association of Black Journalists [Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo]

‘Lowest Black unemployment rate in generations’

Harris: “We have the lowest Black unemployment rate in generations.”

Half True.

The Black unemployment rate in August, the most recent month available, was 6.1 percent. That’s low by historical standards, though it’s up from a record low of 4.8 percent set in April 2023.

Black unemployment was also low under Trump, which was not “generations” ago. Trump set a record low of 5.3 percent in September 2019 which was later eclipsed by the record low under Biden.

Reduced Black child poverty ‘by half’

Harris: “When we expanded the Child Tax Credit a couple years ago, we reduced Back child poverty by half.”

Mostly True.

The White House, after Biden made a similar claim in February 2023, said Black child poverty fell from 17.2 percent in 2020 to 8.3 percent in 2021, a 52 percent drop. The drop from 2019, the White House said, was 60 percent.

The White House cited supplemental poverty numbers from the Census Bureau. The supplemental poverty measure, introduced in 2011, updated the official poverty measure, which was based on cash resources. The supplemental poverty measure includes cash and non-cash benefits and accounts for government programmes designed to aid low-income families.

Biden’s American Rescue Plan increased the child tax credit from $2,000 to $3,600 for children younger than six and to $3,000 for children aged six to 17. Beneficiaries, which included families with very low incomes that weren’t required to file tax returns, received up to half the credit in monthly payments from July 2021 to December 2021.

The provision lapsed after that, facing opposition from Republicans and independent Senator Joe Manchin, who said expanding the credit would worsen inflation. When the expanded tax credit expired, child poverty spiked. Supplemental child poverty rose from 12.1 percent in December 2021 to 17 percent in January 2022 – a 41 percent change. This meant 3.7 million more children were living below the poverty line in 2022 compared with 2021.

Creating new jobs

Harris: “As of today, we have created over 16 million new jobs, over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs.”

Mostly True.

Non-farm employment has increased by about 15.9 million jobs from January 2021 to August 2024, the period that Biden and Harris have been in office. Manufacturing employment has risen by 739,000.

However, there are a few caveats.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the federal agency that calculates how many people are working, said in August that the initial statistics may have overstated job gains by 818,000. This revision was part of the bureau’s annual effort to fine-tune initial data that the agency acknowledges is imperfect.

That would reduce the job gains to about 15 million jobs, not 16 million. But for now, the old numbers Harris was using are the official ones. Any changes would be finalised early next year.

Another caveat is that no president can claim full credit for job gains on their watch (or job losses). Many factors that go into employment changes stem from developments beyond presidents’ control, including the health of the global economy.

Healthcare

Black people are ’60 percent more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes’

Harris: “We know Black folks are 60 percent more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes.”

True.

Black adults in 2018 were 60 percent more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to be diagnosed with diabetes by a physician, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows. In 2019, Black adults were 2.5 times more likely to be hospitalised with the condition and have associated long-term complications. The group was also twice as likely as non-Hispanic white people to die from the disease, the data shows.

The American Diabetes Association also found that the prevalence of diabetes in non-Hispanic Black people is 11.7 percent, versus 7.5 percent in non-Hispanic white people.

One 2018 Northwestern University study found that biological risk factors for diabetes, such as body mass index (BMI), fasting glucose level and blood pressure, accounted for most of the health disparities in Black communities. Differences between Black people and white people in neighbourhood, psychosocial, socioeconomic and behavioural factors were also linked with diabetes, although to a lesser degree, researchers said.

Twenty-five percent of Black families or individuals ‘carry medical debt’

Harris: “One in four Black families or individuals … carry medical debt.”

Mostly True.

Estimates vary, but several research groups found percentages broadly in line with what Harris said. The Urban Institute found a rate of 22.5 percent, the Commonwealth Fund cited a 28 percent figure, and the Brookings Institution said the rate is 27 percent. (All three organisations are think tanks.)

KFF, a healthcare research group, found a lower percentage: 13 percent.

Black women ‘three to four times more likely to die from childbirth’

Harris: “Black women are three to four times more likely to die in connection with childbirth than other women.”

True.

Black women in the US have a maternal mortality rate of 49.5 for every 100,000 live births – nearly three times higher than their non-Hispanic white counterparts – according to the CDC.

The US has the highest maternal mortality rate among economically comparable nations, data shows, with an overall rate in 2022 of 22.3 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

Reasons behind the country’s high maternal mortality numbers and its racial disparity include a lack of healthcare coverage, no guaranteed paid parental leave, less robust postpartum care and racial discrimination.