Fact check: Kamala Harris’s interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier

In a frequently contentious, sometimes testy exchange, Vice President Kamala Harris went on Fox News and fielded anchor Bret Baier’s questions on immigration, the economy and her policy differences with her Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump, as well as her boss, President Joe Biden.

Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, did the interview, her first-ever on Fox, on October 16 as part of her home-stretch election interview blitz.

Baier asked Harris how many migrants had been released into the country under the Biden-Harris administration, how she would reduce the count and why some of her stances had shifted since her 2019 presidential campaign. He asked Harris whether immigrants illegally in the US should qualify for driver’s licences, free tuition or healthcare, saying her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, had approved laws that did this.

Harris, meanwhile, called Trump unfit to serve, and said many of his former advisers had said the same. She also said his plans would weaken the economy, but hers would strengthen it.

Harris also pointedly said her path would differ from Biden’s. “My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” she stated. “And like every new president that comes into office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences, and fresh and new ideas.”

We fact-checked several of Harris’s claims and the claims that Baier brought up.

Tim Walz signed laws to make immigrants eligible for driver’s licences, tuition scholarships, healthcare

Baier said Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, signed into state law provisions “allowing immigrants in the country illegally to apply for driver’s licences, to qualify for free tuition at universities, to be enrolled in free health care”.

Mostly True. Walz signed a bill in 2023 that lets people in Minnesota, regardless of immigration status, apply for a licence or ID card. To get a licence, people must meet certain requirements. Walz said the bill would make roads safer because it ensured drivers in the state are licensed and carry insurance.

Walz signed another bill that created a scholarship program to cover tuition costs at Minnesota public colleges and universities for students whose household income is less than $80,000 a year. Students who are illegally in the US can apply if they have attended a Minnesota school for at least three years and graduated or received a GED certificate in Minnesota.

Walz also signed legislation that enables immigrants who are in the country illegally to enrol in MinnesotaCare, the state’s publicly-subsidised health insurance program for low-income residents. But unlike what Baier said, MinnesotaCare is not entirely free. People enrolled in MinnesotaCare pay premiums based on household size and income. There are also cost-sharing requirements, such as copayments and deductibles.

Trump described American soldiers’ brain injuries as headaches

Harris told Baier that, “when we had an American military base that was attacked, where American soldiers suffered traumatic brain injuries”, Trump “dismissed them as headaches”.

True.

Harris was referring to a January 8, 2020 Iran attack on US soldiers in Iraq. More than 100 soldiers were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries, according to the Pentagon.

Trump has repeatedly called the injuries “headaches”.

In 2020, Trump said he had “heard that they had headaches” and added it “is not very serious”. Trump repeated this claim in an October 1 news conference in Wisconsin.

After Iran attacked Israel on October 1, Trump responded to a question about whether he should have been stronger on Iran after the 2020 attack that injured US troops. He said: “What does injured mean? You mean because they had a headache because the bombs never hit the fort?”

Trump’s  “enemy from within” warning

Harris said Trump “is the one who talks about an enemy within, an enemy within, talking about the American people, suggesting he would turn the American military, on the American people”.

True.

In a Fox News interview October 13, Trump said he believes “the enemy from within” would cause chaos on Election Day, suggesting that it is a problem that the National Guard or military might need to handle.

Trump added on to the comments, widely thought to be about Democrats and others who disagree with him, a day later in remarks to a crowd in Pennsylvania. “They are so bad and frankly, they’re evil,” Trump said. “They’re evil. What they’ve done, they’ve weaponized, they’ve weaponized our elections.”

Nobel laureates described Harris’s economic agenda as ‘superior’ to Trump’s

Harris said 16 Nobel laureates indicated that her economic plan “would strengthen our economy, (Trump’s) would make it weaker, would ignite inflation and invite a recession by the middle of next year”.

Mostly True.

Harris correctly describes what the Nobel laureates said about inflation during a Trump presidency: “There is rightly a worry that Donald Trump will reignite this inflation.”

But while the group describes Harris’s agenda as “vastly superior” to Trump’s, their letter does not specifically predict a recession by the middle of 2025.

Rather, the group wrote: “We believe that a second Trump term would have a negative impact on the US’s economic standing in the world and a destabilizing effect on the US’s domestic economy.”

The 16 economists are George Akerlof, Angus Deaton, Claudia Goldin, Oliver Hart, Eric S. Maskin, Daniel L. McFadden, Paul R. Milgrom, Roger B. Myerson, Edmund S. Phelps, Paul M. Romer, Alvin E. Roth, William F. Sharp, Robert J. Shiller, Christopher A. Sims, Joseph Stiglitz, and Robert B. Wilson.