Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a long list of old lies in her “closing argument” speech in Washington, DC, on Tuesday night, defying fact-checkers and repeating false claims that had already been debunked during the campaign.
Here are the most egregious of Harris’s false claims:
1. Then-President Donald Trump “sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people.” Trump did not send a “mob”; he told his supporters to march “peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol. Rioters were already there — but they were not “armed” with guns. Only five rioters were ultimately charged with firearms crimes — but they did not use their guns during the riot. Few were “armed” with anything. And many of the protesters believed they were protecting an election, not overturning one, according to a Harvard study.
2. “He has an enemies list of people he intends to prosecute.” No such list exists, and Trump has pointed out that despite campaign rhetoric in 2016, he refrained from prosecuting his rival, Hillary Clinton, even though she had arguably broken the law with her misuse of classified information and destruction of government documents.
3. “He says that one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers on January 6.” Trump has never said that he would pardon violent people, or extremists. He has said that he would pardon “many” of the rioters, on a case by case basis, implying that he would pardon non-violent offenders. Notably, Harris herself urged people to bail out rioters arrested during the 2020 riots.
4. “Donald Trump intends to use the United States military against American citizens who simply disagree with him.” Trump has never said anything like that. What he said was that he would use “the National Guard, or if really necessary … the military” against “radical left lunatics” who tried to disrupt the election. This is actually a common position among both parties: Democrats deployed the military to protect the Capitol after the riot.
5. “I will always tell you the truth.” That is never a good thing for a politician to say, and it is easily disproven. Harris lied to the country about President Joe Biden’s mental state; she also lied about the Charlottesville “very fine people” hoax in the 2024 presidential debate, after being fact-checked about the same claim on live television in the 2020 vice presidential debate. And, of course, she lied in this speech — in the many examples above, and below.
6. Trump wants “tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations.” As Breitbart News has demonstrated in many repeated fact checks, the Trump tax cuts of 2017 primarily benefited the middle class, and actually imposed higher taxes on some wealthy households, especially in Democrat-run states. Trump did lower corporate taxes, but with the intent of encouraging companies to invest more at home than abroad, and to create jobs for Americans.
7. “He will pay for it with a 20% national sales tax.” Trump has never proposed a “national sales tax” and would certainly oppose one. The term “national sales tax” is how Democrats describe Trump’s tariffs, which could — in theory — raise some prices. But Democrats aren’t opposed to tariffs; the Biden-Harris administration kept the Trump tariffs in place. And those tariffs did not raise prices significantly; inflation kicked in when Biden took office.
8. “He tried to cut Medicare and Social Security every year.” This is a claim Breitbart News has fact-checked before — and so has NBC News, which said it “has merit, but it omits some key context.” His budget proposed some Social Security cuts but not Medicare benefit cuts. Ironically, as Breitbart noted, “the Biden-Harris administration has cut Medicare Advantage, which a majority of Medicare beneficiaries use over traditional Medicare.”
9. “He would ban abortion nationwide.” Trump has rejected this idea at every opportunity, saying that he believes the issue is best handled by the states, which can choose whatever policy they want. That was the effect of overturning Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision. Some liberal states granted abortion until birth. Some conservative states banned it in most circumstances, but in no instance were these “Trump abortion bans,” as Harris claimed.
10. Trump would “restrict access to birth control and to IVF.” Again, that is simply false. In fact, Trump has said that he would make government or private insurance policies pay for IVF, which is the opposite of restricting access. When Alabama’s highest court made a decision that resulted in many IVF providers refusing to provide the service, it was Trump who urged the state’s Republican legislature to convene to legalize IVF for hopeful parents.
11. Trump “killed” a border security bill. This is another tired Biden-Harris talking point. The administration was well aware that it does not need a new law to enforce border security, but tried to blame Congress for not passing “comprehensive immigration reform.” When one Republican worked with Democrats on a “bipartisan” bill that would have legalized migration at current levels, the rest balked. They did not need Trump to tell them to oppose the idea.
12. Trump called soldiers “suckers and losers.” This is an old hoax, cooked up by the left-wing Atlantic and refuted by many, many witnesses, including those (like former National Security Advisor John Bolton) who had broken with Trump politically. Ironically, again, it was Biden and Harris who failed to contact the families of the 13 Americans killed in the Afghanistan pullout, and Harris never apologized for smearing Border Patrol agents as racist.
13. Trump “wants to put [people who disagree with him] in jail.” Ambulance sirens were heard at times during Harris’s speech, and they may well have been “irony alerts,” because it is the Biden-Harris Department of Justice that is still trying to put Trump in jail. Harris also spoke on the same day former Trump aide Stephen K. Bannon emerged from prison after serving four months for a contempt of Congress charge widely viewed as bogus.
Harris went on to describe Trump as a “wannabe dictator” and “petty tyrant” in a speech that was as negative as any she has made in the campaign. Her “closing argument” was little more than a partisan attack — and a dishonest one.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
