Every night, the news lights up my living room, with my parents and I intently tuned into serious national and geopolitical events. The greatest exception? When actors on Saturday Night Live reenact the vice presidential and presidential debates. 

This special event holds some of my fondest memories of the news, when I could laugh at the inappropriate exaggerations made about the political candidates.

But this year, the reenactment of the vice presidential debate was more akin to reality rather than an exaggeration. The comedic reenactment used exact quotes, when Republican candidate JD Vance said, “The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact check,” to the debate moderators, transcribed by CBSNews. 

Immigration False Claims 

The most common immigration claim that Donald Trump has been making is that during the Bidden and Harris administration many migrants have entered the country illegally and fit the stereotype he bestows on them as “violent dangerous criminals.” 

The problem lies with the severity of the number he uses in his speeches. CNN mentions that Trump stated during the presidential debate that “21 million people” were crossing the border monthly into the United States during Biden’s presidency. 

In reality, there were 10 million total “encounters,” not even crossings, from February 2021 to July 2024 through legal points of entry and unmanned areas. He also said these people were coming from metal institutions in Venezuela and were committing crimes in the states. This was fact checked by DW and AFP Fact Check which confirmed this was false. 

However, no matter how many articles fact check these claims it seems to be futile, since statements such as claiming millions of people entering the country are criminals increases radical rhetoric against the migrants — who are in truth just trying to lead peaceful lives in the United States.  

This sentiment is shared with Hana Cleemann ’26, a junior at the Bronx High School of Science. Cleemann is also an intern at a New York senator’s office (she requested anonymity of the senator’s name). Cleemann’s opinion on misinformation is that “it appeals to constituents who feel socially accepted by outright hatred and discrimination of other groups, showing how politics are just a constant series of in and out groups.”

Another example of the distortion caused by Trump’s claims against migrants is in a town he mentioned in the debate and many times before. An article by Steve Benen on MSNBC referenced Springfield, Ohio, a town that has repeatedly been the subject of racist and anti-immigrant propaganda. Benen wrote that “JD Vance, who ostensibly represents the city, referred to ‘“millions of illegal immigrants’” and parts of the country that have been “destroyed by Kamala Harris’ open border.” Benen continues, “The Republican senator was peddling a multi-layered lie: The border isn’t “open”; the vice president isn’t responsible for the nation’s immigration laws; and Springfield’s Haitian immigrants entered the country legally.”  

Trump went further and stated that migrants were eating the pets of the people in Springfield Ohio. The City of Springfield and their local police stated there was no evidence for this claim and it originated from a Facebook post. 

While this seems like something to laugh at based on its extremity, for migrants in Springfield, it has increased the hate and racist attention they receive. These statements have detrimental effects on real people’s lives. 

Abortion False Claims 

The overturn of Roe v. Wade has been a heated talking point of politicians ever since it was overturned two years ago. However, the majority of Americans, falling at 62% of people, believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. To create support for the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Vance and Trump have been claiming that Democrats, specifically targeting Harris, want to make late term abortions legal. The standard limit for abortions before Roe v. Wade was a 12 week term limit, which was protected nationally by the Supreme Court. Trump went as far as to state that democrats support “execution after birth.“ This has never been legal or even proposed by any Democrat despite what Trump and Vance continuously claim. 

Economic False Claims 

Trump often claims the economy thrived under his presidency, bashing inflation during Biden’s term. He proclaimed that he had “no inflation, virtually no inflation.” This statement is one of the most easily disproved, as the sheer amount of inflation during Trump’s presidency was high. Meanwhile, cumulative inflation over his presidency was 7.8 percent, while inflation fell back to the normal range, close to 2 percent, during Biden’s presidency. 

January 6th, 2021

The largest claim Trump and Vance made was the refusal to accept  responsibility for the action of  January 6th, 2021. Trump said he wanted to give 10,000 National Guard troops to guard the Capitol on January 6th, yet it was rejected by Nancy Pelosi. However, Pelosi cannot deploy the National Guard​ as she does not have the authority to. 

The Impact of False Statements 

On Tuesday, November 5th, 2024, the American people, through the electoral college, will have voted for their new president. In the most recent presidential debate there were 55 false claims stated, mostly from Donald Trump. Trump made false statements about immigration, abortion, and other key issues of the election that are swing topics in many key states that could determine who wins the electoral college. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are “swing states,” each of which could determine the outcome of the election. 

This was seen empirically with the 2016 election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton where, according to AP News, Clinton won the popular vote by 2.9 million but lost the electoral college by losing by less than 1 percent in some of these swing states. When asked about the issue, Annie Bovitz ’25, a senior at The Bronx High School of Science and the Public Forum Debate Captain gave her opinion. “Unfortunately, the strategy of repeating a lie enough times for people to believe it is working. After the debate, I switched back and forth watching the CNN and Fox analyses…The scary part was that if you only watched one report, you would never understand why half of America believes another truth” Bovitz said. 

Bovitz is proved right since falsehoods about these issues are not to be taken light-heartedly because voters in key areas use this information to sway their vote. Specifically, researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder, stated that one of the many problems American politics faces today is that a significant number of Americans will align themselves with anything a candidate says, and will thus vote off of the distorted reality and echo chamber the political parties give them without doing research for themselves. Therefore, these falsehoods substantially affect the election and should be called out so they don’t unfairly intercept the election. 

Researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder, stated that one of the many problems American politics faces today is that a significant number of Americans will align themselves with anything a candidate says, and will thus vote off of the distorted reality and echo chamber the political parties give them without doing research for themselves.