Lies, misleading information, and embellishments. Both US President Joe Biden and ex-President Donald Trump were guilty of this during the first debate ahead of the autumn election – although the latter takes the lead.
Here's a selection of the debate's lies.
The storming of Congress on January 6, Trump falsely presented as relatively small.
They're talking about a relatively small number of people who got to the Capitol and in many cases were led in by the police, said Trump.
This is false. The attack on the congressional building was the deadliest against the American power center in over 200 years and was extensively documented. The police have also distanced themselves from the claim about their handling.
Trump about Biden: "He wants to quadruple your taxes."
Trump has claimed this on several occasions, but it's not true. Biden actually wants to prevent tax increases for everyone earning less than $400,000 a year – which is the majority of taxpayers.
The increase – which focuses on companies and the rich – is not even as large as Trump claims.
Exaggerations and embellishments
Biden – who tends to lean more towards exaggerations and embellishments rather than direct lies – distorted the cost of insulin.
It's $15 for an insulin shot, as opposed to $400.
In an inflation reduction law signed by Biden, insulin costs are capped at $35 for older Americans covered by the general health insurance system Medicare. Biden regularly exaggerates that many used to pay up to $400 per month – while a study showed that diabetics (with Medicare or private insurance) used to pay $450 annually before the law change.
Trump praised his environmental work and said that "during my four years, I had the best environmental numbers ever".
This is far from the whole story. During his presidency, he scrapped, among other things, protection rules to ensure clean water, eased regulations for coal, oil, and gas companies, and saw to it that the US left the international climate agreement.
Blaming each other
Biden claimed that Trump told Americans to "inject bleach" into their arms to treat COVID-19.
This is an exaggeration. Trump rather led a discussion about whether disinfectants in the body could work against the virus.
Both Trump and Biden tried to blame rising prices on each other's economic policies. Both misled by omitting the effect of COVID-19 on the economy.
