But perhaps her greatest move of the night came during a discussion about abortion. When Trump was floundering with his answer on Roe v. Wade, Harris pounced, making an emotional appeal to women and accusing Trump of pushing “Trump abortion bans” across the country. While her passion was clear, NBC’s fact-checkers quickly noted that the term “Trump abortion bans” was, well, not a thing.
“Her ability to create completely new terms and then treat them like long-established facts is nothing short of remarkable,” said one fact-checker. “We’ve got to give her credit for that. It’s like watching a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat—except the rabbit isn’t real, and neither is the hat.”
To be fair, Harris wasn’t the only one bending the truth that night. Trump, as usual, had his own share of “alternative facts” to contribute to the conversation. From defending the size of his rally crowds to discussing debunked reports about immigrants in Ohio abducting and eating pets, the former president was in peak form, leaving fact-checkers scrambling to keep up.
But according to NBC’s tally, Harris edged out Trump by a significant margin. “Sure, Trump had his moments of exaggeration and bluster, but Kamala was on another level,” said one analyst. “It’s like she was playing chess, and Trump was playing checkers—both were bending the truth, but she did it with style.”
NBC’s final report found that Trump, while certainly no stranger to falsehoods, had only racked up 15 notable lies during the debate—nearly half of Harris’s total. “He just couldn’t keep pace with her,” one fact-checker noted. “It’s like he was trying to fight misinformation with a blunt hammer, while she was weaving a tapestry of half-truths and misdirections. She’s good at lying, no doubt about it.”
The audience, both in the debate hall and at home, was left reeling from the sheer volume of misinformation flying across the stage. Social media exploded with reactions, as viewers tried to make sense of what they had just witnessed.
“Did Kamala just say Trump banned all abortions?” one confused Twitter user asked. “I feel like I missed something.”
Another user tweeted, “I’m not even sure what’s real anymore. Is this debate or performance art?”