Truth-squading the Democratic debates Twenty Democrats running for president debated in Detroit this week. It was a blizzard of facts and figures and attack lines, covering the cost of Medicare-for-all, the workings of the U.S. immigration system, the candidates' personal histories and much more. And there was plenty of fishy or misleading information in the mix, and more than a few false claims. The 20 candidates were split into two groups and debated over two nights. We fact-checked 13 claims from the first night, and another 13 claims from the second. A sampling: Mayor Bill de Blasio: "[The Eric Garner family] are going to get justice. ... You know why? Because for the first time, we are not waiting on the federal Justice Department, which told the city of New York that we could not proceed because the Justice Department was pursuing their prosecution." De Blasio has been criticized for inaction on the Eric Garner case, and this defense he gave at the debate was false. New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo was accused of killing Garner, an African American man, in 2014, after encountering him selling loose cigarettes. Pantaleo used a chokehold prohibited by the police department. Five years later, Pantaleo remains a New York police officer. The Department of Justice investigated the case and declined to bring charges. De Blasio said he held off on taking action on the case because the Justice Department "told the city of New York that we could not proceed." That's false. The Justice Department requested that the city hold off but did not block de Blasio from taking action. Sen. Kamala Harris: "I went to a place in Florida called Homestead, and there is a private detention facility being paid for by your taxpayer dollars — a private detention facility — that currently houses 2,700 children." Harris was speaking about the total bed capacity at the facility. But the number of children is far lower. As of July 22, there were 990 unaccompanied children at Homestead, and a week later, the number had dropped to 650, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Sen. Bernie Sanders: "Right now, 500,000 Americans are sleeping out on the street." The number come from a single-night survey done by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. For a single night in January in 2018, the estimate was 553,000 people. But the report also says that two-thirds — nearly 360,000 — were in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs. The other 195,000 were "unsheltered," or on the street, as Sanders put it.  Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this e-mail was forwarded to you, sign up here. Hear something fact-checkable? Send it here, we'll check it out. Has Trump changed Iran's behavior? In May 2018, President Trump withdrew the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for reasons we found to be specious. Otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA was negotiated by the Obama administration as a way to keep Iran's nuclear ambitions in check. Trump has insisted over the last year that it was a bad deal and that, because of his decision to withdraw and reimpose sanctions, Iran no longer has the financial wherewithal to fund extremist groups or cause disruption in the Middle East. He said May 27: "Iran, when I first came into office, was a terror. They were fighting in many locations all over the Middle East. They were behind every single major attack, whether it was Syria, whether it was Yemen, whether it was individual smaller areas, whether it was taking away oil from people. They were involved with everything. Now they're pulling back because they've got serious economic problems." It's a Three Pinocchio claim, as we found in this video fact check. Although the administration's sanctions have had a significant impact on Iran's economy, there are also clear signs of Iran's continued support for proxies in the Middle East.  We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can also reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP, @mmkelly22, @rizzoTK or use #FactCheckThis), or Facebook (Fact Checker). Read about our rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup.
| 
Email
No comments:
Post a Comment