ATLANTA — The presidential political battle over The Peach State intensified over the weekend as President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump campaigned simultaneously at dueling rallies in the state.
Biden campaigned in Atlanta at Pullman Yards on Saturday, while Trump was in Rome, which is about 70 miles northwest of the city.
During their rallies, both opponents made several major claims about what they would do with the presidency and jabbed at their competitors.
Let's verify two of those statements for each opponent:
Biden Claim #1
When discussing the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Biden said that as president, he would “restore Roe v. Wade as law of the land.”
THE QUESTION
Does the president have the authority to overturn a Supreme Court decision?
THE SOURCES
Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law
Executive Order on Protecting Access to Reproductive Healthcare Services
THE ANSWER
No, the president doesn’t have the authority to overturn a Supreme Court decision.
WHAT WE FOUND
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, when the Supreme Court rules on a constitutional issue, that judgment is “virtually final.”
“Its decisions can be altered only by the rarely used procedure of constitutional amendment or by a new ruling of the Court. However, when the Court interprets a statute, new legislative action can be taken,” the court says.
A president “has no unilateral power to overturn SCOTUS rulings,” Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, told VERIFY.
A president “can endorse a strategy or a position, and of course, make nominations in line with those policy priorities when [Supreme Court] vacancies arise, but he's extremely limited in outright overturning SCOTUS decisions,” Chemerinsky said.
President Joe Biden has issued an executive order that directed federal agencies to protect some abortion access. Individual states can still decide whether to ban, restrict or permit abortions.
The actions Biden outlined are intended to head off some potential federal penalties that people seeking an abortion may face after the ruling, but his order cannot restore access to abortion in the more than a dozen states where strict limits or total bans have gone into effect. It also cannot protect people from being prosecuted for violating laws in those states.
Biden Claim #2
Donald Trump added more to the national debt than any other president.
THE QUESTION
Did former President Donald Trump add more to the national debt than any other president?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, former President Donald Trump didn’t add more to the national debt than any other president.
WHAT WE FOUND
The national debt, which shows how much debt the U.S. has accrued, has been tracked by the U.S. Treasury Department since 1790. The Treasury Department was formed in September 1789.
In terms of raw dollars, the total debt rose more under former President Barack Obama, with Trump in second place — though Obama held office for two terms, while Trump served one.
According to data from Treasury and the U.S. Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the total gross U.S. debt was about $19.5 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2016, which ended several months before Trump took office. That rose to about $26.9 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2020, or a $7.4 trillion increase, just before Trump left office.
The debt added under Obama's two terms amounted to about $9.5 trillion, data shows.
Trump Claim #1
“Under me, you had no inflation.”
THE QUESTION
Was inflation non-existent during the Trump administration?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, inflation wasn’t non-existent during the Trump administration.
WHAT WE FOUND
Trump’s claims that inflation didn’t exist while he was president aren’t true. While he was president, the rate of inflation was at 1.9% with fluctuations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index data.
The most recent inflation number, from January 2024, shows that the annual inflation rate has fallen to 3.1%, compared to June 2022, when the annual inflation rate in the United States was 9.1%.
Trump Claim #2
During the speech, Trump mentioned the border several times. He said he would terminate every open border policy made during the Biden Administration and seal the border. During remarks at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 4, Trump told Biden to “close the borders now.” Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) echoed this statement, writing in a post on the same day that Biden is able to “close the border with executive authority.”
THE QUESTION
Can a president completely shut down the border with an executive order?
THE SOURCES
Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor of immigration law practice at Cornell Law School
Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute
THE ANSWER
No, a president cannot completely shut down the border with an executive order. A full border closure would violate federal laws granting people the right to seek asylum.
WHAT WE FOUND
It’s not possible for Biden or any other president to completely shut down the border with an executive order. That’s because doing so would violate existing federal laws, including one that gives people the right to seek asylum.
However, a president can issue an executive order to restrict certain groups of people from entering the U.S., as Trump and others have done in the past.
Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, explained to VERIFY that the idea of a completely closed border is not realistic.
“I think maybe people imagine that the border would be fully closed – that nobody could come across unless they had a legal visa and were coming to a legal crossing point. In reality, that’s not possible,” Gelatt said.