Facebook Twitter Tumblr Close Skip to main content FactCheck.org® A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center ![\\"Become](\\" mini.png\\"/) ![\\"Follow](\\" twitter.png\\"/) ![\\"Get](\\" ![\\"Follow](\\" instagram-1.png\\"/) ![\\"Sign](\\" ![\\"Help](\\" FactCheck.org® * Home * Articles * Featured Posts * FactCheck Posts * SciCheck * En Español * 2024 elections * Players Guide 2024 * Debunking Viral Claims * Ask a Question * Ask FactCheck * Ask SciCheck * Donate * Topics * President Biden * Donald Trump * Kamala Harris * JD Vance * Tim Walz * health * Coronavirus * immigration * climate change * View All * About Us * Our Mission * Our Process * Our Funding * Our Staff * Undergraduate Fellows * Awards * Request a Correction * Contact Us * Search * More * Viral Claims * Subscribe * Instagram * Threads * YouTube * X (Twitter) * Facebook * TikTok * FactCheck On the Air * Mailbag Debunking Viral Claims # Social Media Posts Misquote Trump on Immigrant Family Separations By Angelo Fichera Posted on October 23, 2020 * * * * * ##### Quick Take President Donald Trump didn’t say “‘GOOD’ about the kids being separated from the parents” at the southern border during the final presidential debate, as social media posts wrongly claim. He said “go ahead” to the moderator, who was trying to move on to the next topic. ##### Full Story During the final presidential debate on Oct. 22, President Donald Trump made some false and misleading claims about immigration and his administration’s policy that led to mass separations of immigrant families, as we explained. But some Trump critics took to social media during the debate and spread their own faulty claim on the subject by wrongly relaying a purported response by the president during the debate. “If you heard Trump say ‘GOOD’ about the kids being separated from their parents, and you STILL plan to vote for him, you’re inhuman,” the posts falsely claim. A review of the debate video and transcripts shows that Trump said “go ahead” to the debate’s moderator, Kristen Welker — not “good” — as Welker was trying to move on to a new section of the debate. Here’s a video that begins at the relevant portion: The moment in the debate, as the full video shows, includes erroneous claims made by Trump about foreign nationals who are apprehended crossing the border and released pending immigration hearings — which he refers to as “catch and release.” As Welker indicated she was attempting to move to a new subject, Biden referred to recent news that U.S. officials reportedly cannot locate the parents of more than 500 immigrant children who were separated by the Trump administration, even before the official start of its 2018 “zero tolerance” border policy. > Welker: …let’s give Vice President Biden a chance to respond, and then we’re > going to move on to the next section. > > Trump: You don’t know the law, Joe. > > Welker: Vice President Biden, your response. > > Biden: Know the law, what he’s telling you is simply not true. Check it out. > > Trump: Well, check it out. They don’t come back. > > Biden: Check it out. > > Welker: All right. Let’s move on to the next section. > > Trump: But we don’t have to worry about it, because they terminated it. So > we don’t have to worry about it anymore, Joe. > > Welker: Let’s move on to the next section. > > Biden: That’s right. And you — 525 kids not knowing where in God’s name > they’re going to be and lost their parents. > > Trump: Go ahead. > > Welker: All right. Let’s talk about our next section, which is race in > America. The erroneous claim that Trump said “good” about the family separations spread almost immediately online. One tweet of the claim was shared more than 11,000 times and liked more than 50,000 times. While outlets such as Buzzfeed News quickly pointed out the facts, the claim still continued to spread through various Facebook posts, including on pages such as “Blue Tsunami” and “The President Obama Coalition.” One popular Facebook post, shared more than 1,300 times, was updated to correct the erroneous claim. Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here for more. ##### Sources Ainsley, Julia and Jacob Soboroff. “Lawyers say they can’t find the parents of 545 migrant children separated by Trump administration.” NBC News. 20 Oct 2020. “Debate transcript: Trump, Biden final presidential debate moderated by Kristen Welker.” USA Today. 23 Oct 2020. “Donald Trump & Joe Biden Final Presidential Debate Transcript 2020.” Rev.com. 22 Oct 2020. “Full Debate: President Trump and Joe Biden Square Off for Final Time Ahead of Election.” Wall Street Journal. YouTube. 22 Oct 2020. Kiely, Eugene, et. al. “FactChecking the Final 2020 Presidential Debate.” FactCheck.org. 23 Oct 2020. Lytvynenko, Jane. “No, Trump Didn’t Say ‘Good’ In Response To A Question About Kids Separated From Their Parents At The Border.” Buzzfeed News. 22 Oct 2020. * Categories * Debunking Viral Claims * Tags * 2020 Election * Issue * 2020 election * family separations * presidential debates * People * Donald Trump * Joe Biden Previous StoryTrump Misleads on Ballots Again Next StoryPhoto of Man in Halloween Costume Isn’t Mark Kelly Ask SciCheck Q: Are wind farms harmful to the environment? A: Like all energy sources, wind farms have some negative environmental impacts. But getting energy from wind farms results in dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions than getting it from fossil fuels. Read the full question and answer View the Ask SciCheck archives Have a question? Ask us. Donate Now Because facts matter. ![\\"SciCheck\\'s](\\" ##### SciCheck\'s COVID-19/Vaccination Project ###### Preempting and exposing vaccination and COVID-19 misinformation. ![\\"Proyecto](\\" ##### Proyecto de Vacunación/COVID-19 ###### Precaviendo y exponiendo la desinformación sobre el COVID-19 y sus vacunas ![\\"SciCheck\\"](\\" scicheck.png\\"/) ##### SciCheck ###### Fact-checking science-based claims. ![\\"Facebook](\\" facebook.png\\"/) ##### Facebook Initiative ###### Debunking viral claims. ![\\"Players](\\" ##### Players Guide 2024 ###### The special interest groups behind the TV ads. ![\\"Viral](\\" viralspiral.png\\"/) ##### Viral Spiral ###### Don’t get spun by internet rumors. ![\\"Sign](\\" ##### Sign Up ###### Get free email alerts. ![\\"Mailbag\\"](\\" mailbag.png\\"/) ##### Mailbag ###### Letters from our readers. ![\\"On](\\" ##### On the Air ###### Our staff on TV and radio. ![\\"NewsFeed](\\" ##### NewsFeed Defenders ###### A media literacy game to detect misinformation. * Archives * Privacy * Copyright Policy * Contact Us * Report Accessibility Issues and Get Help © Copyright 2024 FactCheck.org ® A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania
During the Oct 22 presidential debate President Donald Trump said 'GOOD' about the kids being separated from their parents