If you tuned into the showdown between JD Vance and Tim Walz, you probably noticed it felt... different. Civility was actually in the building. They shook hands. They even agreed with each other a few times, which is basically a miracle in 2024 politics. But don't let the polite Midwestern "nice" fool you. Beneath the surface, both guys were slinging some pretty questionable numbers and "facts" that didn't always hold up once the cameras stopped rolling.
A vice presidential debate fact check is honestly the only way to make sense of what happened on that stage in New York. You've got two guys trying to sell two very different versions of reality. One says the border is a total disaster zone, the other says the economy is roaring back. The truth? It’s usually buried somewhere in the messy middle.
The Immigration Numbers Game
Immigration was the big one. JD Vance kept leaning into this idea that there are 20 to 25 million people in the country illegally. That's a huge number. It’s also, well, not backed up by the actual data. Most nonpartisan groups, like the Pew Research Center, put that number closer to 11 or 12 million. Even if you count the recent spike in encounters at the border, jumping to 25 million is a massive stretch.
Then there was the whole "320,000 lost children" thing. Vance mentioned a Department of Homeland Security report, making it sound like the government just let hundreds of thousands of kids vanish into thin air. That’s not quite what the report said. It actually highlighted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hadn't served "Notices to Appear" to about 291,000 unaccompanied minors. It’s a massive paperwork failure, for sure, but "lost" implies they have no idea where they are, which isn't exactly the case for all of them.
Walz, for his part, tried to say that border crossings are lower now than when Trump left office. Is that true? Sorta. If you look at just the last few months of 2024, crossings have definitely dipped. But if you look at the entire Biden-Harris term, the numbers hit record highs that make the Trump era look quiet. You can't just pick the two best months and ignore the rest of the calendar.
Project 2025 and the Pregnancy Registry Scare
You probably heard Tim Walz mention a "pregnancy registry." It sounds like something out of a dystopian novel, and it’s a talking point Democrats have been hitting hard. He linked it to Project 2025, that massive conservative blueprint everyone’s arguing about.
Here’s the deal: Project 2025 doesn't actually call for a "registry" where every pregnant woman has to sign up with the government. What it does propose is requiring states to report more detailed data on abortions, miscarriages, and stillbirths to the federal government. It's about data collection, not a list of names. Is it invasive? Some think so. Is it a "pregnancy registry" in the way most people imagine it? No.
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The Economy and Those $800 Insulin Vials
Walz got a bit carried away with the insulin talk. He claimed people were paying $800 for insulin before the Inflation Reduction Act capped it at $35. Honestly, that’s an exaggeration. While some people definitely got gouged, a 2022 study found the average yearly out-of-pocket cost for people on Medicare was around $452. That’s for the year, not per month or per vial. The $35 cap is a big win for a lot of seniors, but saying it was $800 before is just not the reality for the vast majority of patients.
Vance had his own economic wobbles. He blamed the housing crisis almost entirely on illegal immigration. While more people obviously means more demand for homes, most economists will tell you the real culprit is a decade-long shortage of new construction. We haven't built enough houses since the 2008 crash. Blaming it all on the border is a convenient political line, but it ignores the actual math of the housing market.
What Really Happened With Iran's Billions?
This is a classic debate trope at this point. Vance claimed Iran received $100 billion in unfrozen assets thanks to the Harris administration. That’s a bit of a historical mashup. The $100 billion figure actually dates back to the Obama-era nuclear deal.
The money people are talking about now is a $6 billion pot of Iranian oil revenue that was frozen in South Korea. The Biden administration agreed to let it be moved to Qatar as part of a prisoner swap. But here's the catch: according to the Treasury Department, that money hasn't actually been spent yet. It’s sitting in a bank in Qatar under strict oversight for humanitarian goods. Saying they "received" it to buy weapons is, at best, a prediction, not a fact.
Quick Reality Check on the "Border Czar" Label
- The Claim: JD Vance called Kamala Harris the "appointed border czar."
- The Reality: This title was never official. Harris was tasked with addressing the "root causes" of migration in Central America—things like poverty and violence. She wasn't actually in charge of border security operations or the Border Patrol.
- The Tweak: Critics use the label because it sounds more powerful, but her actual portfolio was much narrower than the "czar" title suggests.
The "Born Alive" Abortion Statute
One of the tensest moments was when they argued over a law Walz signed in Minnesota. Vance claimed it allowed doctors to let babies who survive abortions die.
The law Walz signed did update some language. It changed the phrase "preserve the life and health of the born alive infant" to "care for the infant who is born alive." It also removed a requirement to report these instances to the state. However, infanticide is still illegal in Minnesota. Any baby born alive is legally a person and is entitled to medical protection. The change was more about the specific technical requirements for doctors in those rare, tragic cases of non-viable births, rather than a green light to ignore a living baby.
Next Steps for the Informed Voter
After a vice presidential debate fact check, the best thing you can do is look at the primary sources. Don't just take the candidates' word for it, and don't just trust a 30-second clip on social media.
- Check the official data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for inflation and jobs numbers.
- Read the actual text of the bills being discussed, like the Minnesota HF 1 law, to see what the words really say.
- Look at nonpartisan reports from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) regarding the national debt and the impact of tax cuts.
By digging into the actual documents, you can cut through the "Midwestern nice" and the political spin to see what’s actually being proposed for the country.