Houston, we have some fact checks The top 10 candidates seeking the Democratic presidential nomination debated in the Lone Star State this week in what quickly became a flurry of statistics and wonky policy points. We rounded up eight claims worth fact-checking, a mix of errors and statements that left out context. Here's a sample: "We didn't lock people up in cages; we didn't separate families," former vice president Joe Biden said. But the Obama administration did use caged enclosures beginning in 2014 to hold families apprehended along the southern border, as has been reported for years and documented in photographs. On the other hand, Biden is on solid ground when he distinguishes President Trump's family separation policy from President Obama's. The Trump administration systematically separated migrant families apprehended at the border under "zero tolerance." The Obama- and George W. Bush-era policy was to separate children from adults at the border only in limited circumstances, such as when officials suspected human trafficking or another kind of danger to the child, or when false claims of parentage were made. "We have more African Americans under criminal supervision today than all the slaves in 1850," Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said. Not quite. The 1850 Census counted 3.6 million slaves. That's compared to African Americans constituting 2.3 million, or 34 percent, of the total 6.8 million correctional population in 2014. "I was in the United States Senate when 54 senators said 'let's do background checks, let's get rid of assault weapons,' and with 54 senators, it failed because of the filibuster," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said. In 2013, the Senate held separate votes on banning assault weapons and strengthening background checks for gun sales. The bill on background checks got 54 votes, as Warren said during the debate, and fell prey to the filibuster. But the assault weapons ban received 40 votes from Democrats at a time when they held 55 seats in the Senate (counting the independents in their caucus), so the filibuster was not a factor in this case.  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. Trump makes a mess describing China's economy The president insists that new U.S. tariffs have thrown the Chinese economy in a tailspin, spurring 3 million job losses, thousands of foreign companies to leave the country, and the worst economic growth in 57 years. None of these claims from Trump adds up, and neither the White House nor his campaign offered proof. Responding to our questions, the Trump campaign sent an article from the South China Morning Post reporting that a Chinese investment bank estimated up to 1.9 million job losses stemming from the Trump tariffs. That's not 3 million, and a range of experts we consulted said the real number might be next to nothing, or 300,000 at most. As for Trump's claim that thousands of companies are leaving China, an expert at the Peterson Institute told said it doesn't make sense. "Since the tariff war broke out in mid-2018 FDI [foreign direct investment] has expanded about 3 percent annually, roughly the same pace as in the previous five years," Nicholas R. Lardy said. China has a half-million foreign-invested companies and anecdotal evidence of a few companies leaving doesn't prove a broad trend, he added. Last but not least, China posted annualized GDP growth of 6.2 percent in the second quarter, the slowest in 27 years, not 57 as Trump insists.  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