Walz-Vance debate updates: VP candidates tangle on abortion, immigration and Jan. 6

Fact Check: Mostly True

According to Mexican immigration officials, it is very uncommon for children to be used to smuggle drugs. However, the federal government has warned in the past of youth being used by drug cartels. Sources within the Mexican cartels consulted by ABC News in previous coverage say that their drugs are mostly being smuggled through regular points of entry by Mexican citizens with visas or by U.S. citizens.

—William Gretsky and Anne Laurent

Fact-check: [False](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/sep/20/jd-vance/vance-misleads-trump-tried-to-take-the-aca-down-no/).

The Trump administration cut millions of dollars in marketing and enrollment aid for the law's health plans and backed failed congressional and legal efforts to overturn the law. The Trump administration in June 2020 asked the Supreme Court to overturn the law in a case more than a dozen Republican-led states had brought; the high court rejected it.

Affordable Care Act enrollment declined by more than 2 million people during Trump's presidency, and thenumber of uninsured Americans rose by 2.3 million, including 726,000 children, from 2016 to 2019, the U.S. Census Bureau reported; that includes three years of Trump's presidency.

—PolitiFact’s Matthew Crowley and Julie Appleby

Voters have been especially worried about inflation and the rising costs for basic goods like housing since the end of the pandemic. As Walz said tonight, Harris's proposals have focused on the issue of affordability. She's proposed trying to increase supply, which most economists agree is a big driver of rising home prices, but also to give first-time homebuyers a $25,000 grant for making down-payments.

A Napolitan survey from August found that 61 percent of voters liked that idea, though half thought it would drive up housing costs. A Data for Progress survey from this month found that voters like a range of solutions, including increasing supply.

Trump hasn't released detailed plans but, as Vance said, has proposed the idea that there should be fewer regulations and that limiting immigration would increase supply. Most economists agree that the level of immigration has little to do with housing supply.

—538's Monica Potts

Vance was asked to explain how his health care plan would protect people with preexisting conditions, with the moderator noting that during the presidential debate, Trump said he had "concepts of a plan" to replace the Affordable Care Act.

Vance responded in part, "Of course, we're going to cover Americans with preexisting conditions."

Pressed by the moderator to explain how, he said they plan to keep regulations and laws that protect them in place "but we also want to make the Health Insurance Marketplace function a little bit better now."