Fact-checking Kamala Harris’ Univision town hall with Latino voters

Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the concerns of undecided Latino voters at a town hall hosted by Univision Noticias on October 10.

Harris outlined the policies she wants to implement as president and criticized her opponent, Republican candidate and former president Donald Trump, at the event in Las Vegas, moderated by TelevisaUnivision reporter Enrique Acevedo.

Univision plans to interview Trump in a similar format on Oct. 16 in Miami.

The audience asked Harris if he would provide more pathways to legalization for immigrants, how he would get people to doctors faster and how he would address high prices.

Here we analyze some of Harris’ statements.

“Project 2025, which is his (Trump’s) plan, if he’s re-elected president, Google him and you’ll see the plan he has that includes getting rid of Medicare and 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 won’t eliminate Social Security or Medicare. He has only proposed changes to Medicare.

In a March interview with CNBC, Trump said “there’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cuts.” But he quickly backtracked, and his CNBC comment is at odds with essentially everything Trump has said during the 2024 presidential campaign. His campaign website says he should not cut “one penny ” of 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; told Truth Social that he “knows nothing” about the handbook.

The handbook 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 choice for enrollees, rather than Original Medicare. The manual does not propose eliminating Social Security.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris answers 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 was handed $400 million on a silver platter and filed for bankruptcy six times.”

Half true

Trump received the current equivalent of $413 million from his father or his father’s estate during his lifetime, according to a 2018 New York Times report on the Trump family’s finances.

The Times did not specify how much Trump would have received from his father when he entered the real estate business with the family firm; appears to be between $1 and $2 million after adjusting for inflation. But Trump always had a reasonable expectation of inheriting a piece of his father’s business.

Trump’s companies have filed for bankruptcy six times.

“Trump has said he’ll be a dictator on Day 1.”

Trump said he was being sarcastic. In 2023, during the Republican primaries, some Trump critics within the party raised concerns that if Trump is reelected he would be a dictator.

During a town hall on December 5, 2023, Fox News host Sean Hannity gave Trump a chance to reject the idea. Instead of denying it outright, Trump said he would be dictator only on “Day 1.” Trump added: “We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. I’m not a dictator after this, 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, in sarcasm.”

“Latinos 70% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes.”

The data we found is a bit lower. Hispanic adults were 60 percent more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes than non-Hispanic white adults, 2022 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, right, shakes hands with 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 vegas (AP)

Trump said he would “end” the US Constitution.

Trump said this and then changed his tune.

On December 3, 2022, Trump told Truth Social that voter fraud could be the basis for the “termination” of all the rules of the Constitution. (PolitiFact rated Trump’s claim that voter fraud allows the rules and regulations of the Constitution to be overridden as Pants on Fire.)

But in another post on December 5, 2022, he said: “Fake news is actually trying to convince the American people that I said I wanted to ‘end’ the Constitution.”

PolitiFact Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman, Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson and Staff Writer Samantha Putterman contributed to this report.