Fact check on Kamala Harris' “60 Minutes” interview

Kamala Harris faced tough questions about the economy, immigration and war from veteran CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker 60 minutes Monday evening.

The vice president was pressed about how she would finance her economic plans and deflected when the increase in illegal migrants was brought up. Harris was also able to take a swipe at former President Donald Trump, who declined an offer to appear on the same show.

With less than a month to go before Election Day and the prospect of an “October surprise” for both candidates, attention is focused on the claims and campaign promises Harris and Trump are making between now and November 5th.

While much of the interview pressed Harris on plans and views on the term so far, Newsweeks The Fact Check team analyzed the claims she made on Monday evening.

“We now have historically low unemployment across all demographics in America.“

Asked what she would do to combat rising food prices and the state of the U.S. economy, Harris pointed to the Biden administration's credibility.

The wording of Harris' response here was interesting: She didn't claim to have hit a record low, but she still praised the government's efforts to put Americans to work.

In fact, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that unemployment rates in 2024 were at historic lows for all Americans ages 16 and older. Seasonally adjusted figures show that during the Biden administration, the unemployment rate for Black or African American workers reached its lowest level on record, reaching 4.8 percent in April 2023.

However, the unemployment rate for many groups has increased compared to the previous year. The rate increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percentage points between September 2023 and September 2024 for the civilian population, with increases among the white, Asian and Hispanic populations. The unemployment rate for Americans without a high school diploma rose 1.3 percentage points during that period.

“We now have an economy that is thriving by any macroeconomic measure.”

In the same thread, Harris claimed that the indicators by which the economy is measured are booming.

There are results of some key indicators that every politician would like to celebrate. Compared to other leading economies in the world, the United States recorded the highest increase in GDP growth compared to pre-pandemic levels, outperforming Canada, Japan, Germany, the Eurozone and the United Kingdom.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Monetary Fund have both predicted that U.S. real GDP growth will be 2.6 percent in 2024, surpassing all G7 countries.

Unemployment rates are low, if not at record lows, and increases in personal income from April 2024 to August 2024 largely exceeded or even matched increases in personal consumption expenditures.

However, several economic statistics compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis show that other areas are not “prospering.”

The U.S. deficit in international trade in goods and services continues to grow, as does the international transaction deficit. As previously mentioned, although the unemployment rate is low compared to last year, it has increased in 2024 for many groups of American citizens. Although the government's record on the economy is positive, as the data shows, assuming outperformance across all metrics is misleading.

Newsweek Harris' team emailed for comment.

“So the other economists who reviewed my plan versus my opponent’s concluded that my economic plan would strengthen the American economy while his plan would weaken it.”

Whitaker challenged Harris that “the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that your economic plan would increase the federal deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade.” Harris responded with a claim she repeated throughout her campaign Newsweek has already been examined.

During an interview with Oprah Winfrey in September, Harris specified who she was referring to, saying, “Goldman Sachs… Moody's… Wharton School of Business… 16 Nobel Prize winners made a joint decision after analyzing our plans… Mine would strengthen the economy while his would weaken it.” would.

While a Goldman Sachs report favored Harris, the investment bank's CEO David Solomon subsequently said Harris had exaggerated his findings. Harris was on more solid ground with her claim regarding the honorees. While they particularly praised President Joe Biden's policies, calling him “significantly superior,” Harris was certainly able to point out that she is part of this administration and therefore represents a degree of continuity here.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said Newsweek that Harris' comments were consistent with his research. But the Wharton School of Business findings were far more nuanced than Harris suggested Newsweek discovered.

In a report released this week, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said Harris' policies would increase the national debt by $3.50 trillion by fiscal year 2035, using a central estimate.

This would result from $7.25 trillion in deficit-increasing measures, $4.25 trillion in deficit-reducing measures, and $500 billion in additional interest costs. At the low end, their proposals could prevent debt from rising further, but in the high-cost scenario, debt could rise by as much as $8.10 trillion.

However, according to the central estimate, Trump's policy proposals are expected to increase the debt by $7.50 trillion, resulting in deficit-increasing measures of $10.20 trillion, deficit reduction measures of $10.20 trillion $3.70 trillion and $1 trillion in interest.

In a more optimistic low-cost scenario, his plans would increase debt by $1.45 trillion, while in the high-cost scenario, an increase of $15.15 trillion would be possible by 2035.

“We have reduced the flow of illegal immigration by half.”

Some data supports this, but does not provide a complete picture. Since March, the number of monthly encounters with the Southwest Land Border has declined significantly and steadily compared to last year's statistics. In August 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded 107,503 encounters, compared to 232,963 in August 2023.

The number of encounters has fallen from a peak of 301,982 in December 2023, further supporting Harris' claim.

However, immigration remains higher than it was when Biden took office in January 2021. Statistics suggest that the number of encounters could decline in fiscal year 2024 compared to all other years of the Biden presidency. Still, Harris' claim did not fully describe the background.

“We have reduced the flow of fentanyl by half.”

It is not clear what data this is based on. CBP figures show fentanyl seizures per pound increased year-over-year between fiscal years 2021 and 2023. In addition, the number of fentanyl seizures in 2024 year-to-date is lower than in the same period in 2023, the weight of the number of drugs seized has not halved.

There were some months in 2024 in which seizure numbers were half those of the same month in 2023. Investigators seized more than or nearly half the amount of fentanyl by weight in February, March, April and June 2024 than in those months last year. For the same reason, there were significant increases in July and January 2024 compared to months in 2023.

Newsweek reached out to a Harris representative to obtain data to support this claim.