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Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a town hall event hosted by Univision Noticias on Oct. 10 at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. (AP)
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In a Univision town hall, Vice President Kamala Harris made statements about her opponent Donald Trump’s business record, his stances on Social Security and whether he’d “terminate” the U.S. Constitution. We fact-checked her statements.
Vice President Kamala Harris responded to the concerns of undecided Latino voters at a town hall by Univision Noticias organized Oct. 10.
Harris outlined the policies she wants to execute as president and criticized her opponent, Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump, at the event in Las Vegas, moderated by TelevisaUnivision journalist Enrique Acevedo.
Univision plans to interview Trump in a similar format on Oct. 16 in Miami.
The audience asked Harris whether she would provide more pathways to legalization of immigrants, how she would get people to doctors faster and how she would address high prices.
Here, we analyze some of Harris’ statements.
"Project 2025, which is his plan (Trump) if he is elected president again, Google it and you'll see the plan that he has that includes getting rid of Medicare, Social Security."
False.
In previous campaigns and before his presidency, Trump said he was willing to cut Social Security. But in his current presidential campaign, he says he will not eliminate Social Security or Medicare. He has only proposed changes to Medicare.
In a March interview with CNBC, Trump said that "there’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting." But he quickly backtracked, and his CNBC comment stands at odds with essentially everything else Trump has said during the 2024 presidential campaign. His campaign website says not "a single penny" should be cut from Social Security.
Project 2025 is a 900-page handbook of policy proposals for the next Republican administration created by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025; he said on Truth Social that he "knows nothing" about the manual.
The manual proposes changes to Medicare. For example, it wants Medicare Advantage, Medicare's private insurance offering that requires prior authorization for medical services, to be the default option for enrollees, instead of original Medicare. The handbook does not propose eliminating Social Security.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris responds to a question from Ivett Castillo, of Las Vegas, during a town hall event hosted by Univision Noticias on Oct. 10 at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. (AP)
"My opponent got handed $400 million on a silver tray and filed for bankruptcy six times."
Trump received the present-day equivalent of $413 million from his father or his father's estate over his lifetime, according to a 2018 New York Times report about the Trump family’s finances.
The Times wasn’t specific about how much Trump would have received from his father by the time he entered the real estate business with the family company; it appears to be somewhere from $1 million to $2 million after adjusting for inflation. But Trump always had a reasonable expectation of inheriting a share of his father's business.
Trump’s companies have filed for bankruptcy six times.
"Trump has said he will be a dictator on Day 1."
Trump said he was being sarcastic. In 2023, during the Republican primary, some Trump critics within the party raised concerns that if Trump is reelected he would be a dictator.
During a Dec. 5, 2023, town hall, Fox News host Sean Hannity gave Trump a chance to reject the idea. Instead of denying it outright, Trump said he would be a dictator only on "Day 1." Trump added: "We are closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that I am not a dictator, okay?"
In an April interview with Time magazine, Trump was asked about the comment made on Fox News. He said it "was said in fun, in jest, sarcastically."
"Latinos are 70% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes."
The data we found is a bit lower. Hispanic adults were 60% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes than non-Hispanic white adults, 2022 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, right, holds the hand of Ivett Castillo of Las Vegas on Oct. 10 at the end of a town hall event hosted by Univision Noticias at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. (AP)
Trump said he would "terminate" the Constitution of the United States.
Trump said this, then changed his tune.
On Dec. 3, 2022, Trump said on Truth Social that voter fraud could be the basis for the "termination" of all rules of the Constitution. (PolitiFact rated Trump's claim that voter fraud allows for the overturning of the Constitution's rules and regulations as Pants on Fire.)
But in another post Dec. 5, 2022, he said, "The Fake News is actually trying to convince the American people that I said I wanted to ‘terminate’ the Constitution."
PolitiFact Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman, Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson and Staff Writer Samantha Putterman contributed to this report.
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