Fact checking Trump’s false claims at debate – from ‘eating pets’ to ‘executing babies’

“Kamala Harris,” the vice president said as she strode across the debate stage and shook Donald Trump’s hand. “Let’s have a good debate.”

“Nice to see you,” he replied. “Have fun.”

It marked the first time the presidential nominees had ever met face-to-face as they took to the stage in Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center on Tuesday night for the debate moderated by ABC News.

But Harris and Trump’s amicable start was short lived, with the former president quickly spiraling into a slew of personal and policy-based attacks – many of which the former president has been baselessly claiming since the vice president stepped up on the Democratic ticket in July.

From Haitian immigrants devouring cats and dogs to the execution of babies after birth, Trump made a series of falsehoods and wild claims.

Here, The Independent has debunked Trump’s five most bizarre (and baseless) claims of the night:

At one point when speaking about abortion, Trump falsely claimed that Democrats support killing babies after birth.

“[Harris’s] vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth – it’s execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born – is okay,” Trump said.

This is false. Infantacide is illegal across all 50 states.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has also never claimed that it’s “okay” to execute a baby after it has been born. Last year, he signed an abortion bill into law in the state, which rules that an infant born alive following an abortion shall be fully recognized as a human being and falls under the full protection of the law.

ABC News’s moderator Linsey Davis swooped in and fact-checked Trump, noting that “there is no state in this country where it is legal to