Trump, Biden clash in final debate on COVID-19 response, health care, race

TRUMP'S CLAIM: "We are energy independent for the first time."

FACT CHECK: The U.S. exports more energy products like oil and liquid natural gas than it exports, but many parts of the country still rely on oil from other countries.

But the U.S. is not fully energy independent.

The amount of oil produced in the U.S. is about 1.25 million barrels a day short of demand, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and while imports are at a record low the country still relies on imported products for 3% of domestic petroleum consumption.

One of Trump's goals has been to make the U.S. energy independent, in part by expanding oil and gas drilling around the country including on public lands.

Last year, U.S. energy exports surpassed imports for the first time since 1952, largely due to increases in natural gas production.

-ABC News' Stephanie Ebbs

TRUMP'S CLAIM: "He's been in government 47 years. He never did a thing, except in 1994, when he did such harm to the Black community. And they were called, and he called them 'super predators.' And he said that. He said it, 'super predators.' And they have never lived that down."

FACT CHECK: It was then-first lady Hillary Clinton who used the phrase "super predators" in 1996, while expressing her support for the 1994 crime bill.

Both former Biden and Trump have made past references to Americans being "predators."

In a speech from on the floor of the Senate in 1993, Biden said, "We have predators on our streets that society has in fact, in part because of its neglect, created." He added, "They are beyond the pale many of those people, beyond the pale, and it's a sad commentary on society. We have no choice but to take them out of society."

Trump, in his 2000 book "The America We Deserve," wrote several times about "predators."

"The perpetrator is never a victim," Trump wrote. "He's nothing more than a predator, and there can be no excuses made for killing old ladies, beating old men, or shooting adolescents."

Trump added: "If I were in charge of things, life would be even tougher for these predators. If there was a situation in New York like that terrible dragging death in Texas, I'd not only put the perpetrators to death, I'd find some way to make them an example to others."

-ABC News' Beatrice Peterson and Chris Donovan

TRUMP'S CLAIM: "The children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels, and they're brought here and they used to use them to get into our country." // "They built cages. You know, they used to say I built the cages." // "They are so well taken care of. They are in facilities that are so clean."

FACT CHECK: Trump was defending his now-defunct policy known as "zero tolerance" that required every adult who crossed the border illegally -- even those traveling with their children -- be detained in a bid to deter border crossings. 

The result was that thousands of children were separated from their parents in a matter of weeks. It was a major departure from past U.S. policy. In the Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations, families were separated in rare instances, such as cases of serious crimes like drug trafficking. 

Critics of Trump's policy questioned the conditions the kids were kept in initially at border stations after several died of the flu.

An internal investigation later found that the administration struggled to keep track of the parents, many of whom had been deported. The White House says the parents were contacted and abandoned the children, who were placed with U.S. sponsors, usually family members. The American Civil Liberties Union countered that parents have not been found and contacted and therefore could not give up rights to their children. 

Homeland security officials have said that "coyotes" are often used to transport the families for a fee. But there has not been widespread evidence of cases of people falsely presenting themselves as related, with border patrol documenting them as "family units."

Trump's suggestion that "cages" were built by the Obama administration is correct. Obama had faced an influx of children both traveling alone and with families as a result of violence in Central America. And at one point, the Obama administration tried housing the families in special detention centers.

But after a federal judge in California ruled that the arrangement violated a long-standing agreement barring kids from jail-like settings for extended periods, even with their parents, the government began releasing families into the U.S. pending notification of their next court date.

In 2018, photos taken by The Associated Press and posted online by liberal activists suggested the children in steel fencing was Trump's doing. The photos were actually from 2014 when immigration detentions became flooded with families.

-ABC News' Anne Flaherty

TRUMP'S CLAIM: "Joe got $3.5 million from Russia, and it came through Putin because he was very friendly with the former mayor of Moscow, and it was the mayor of Moscow's wife. And you got $3.5 million. Your family got $3.5 million. And, you know, some day you're going to have to explain why did you get $3.5 [million]."

FACT CHECK: In September, Senate Republicans unveiled the findings of their highly controversial investigation into the foreign business dealings of Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden -- and specifically whether those endeavors ever influenced U.S. foreign policy.

As part of their report, Republicans highlighted an alleged $3.5 million wire transfer sent from Elena Baturina, the billionaire wife of the former mayor of Moscow, to a bank account tied to Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC, a consultant group that the committee said was co-founded by Hunter Biden.

George Mesires, a lawyer for Hunter Biden, dismissed the claim outright as "false," adding that Hunter Biden "had no interest in and was not a 'co-founder' of Rosemont Seneca Thornton, so the claim that he was paid $3.5 million is false."

Hunter Biden was involved with Rosemont Seneca Partners -- not Rosemont Seneca Thornton, as the Senate Republicans claimed. The two are separate entities, according to Mesires.

Politico reported last month that Trump also sought to engage Baturina's husband, the former Moscow mayor, for business opportunities prior to his time in office.

-ABC News' Luc Bruggeman and Allison Pecorin