Fact Check the 6th Democratic Debate

  • Sanders: “Today in America, we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on Earth.”
  • THE FACTS: The Vermont senator is exaggerating.
    • 200 countries in the world.
    • Numerous people in this world live in extreme poverty.
    • In 2018, US saw an uptick in an above-average level of child poverty, but it was not among the 42 nations listed in the report that had the highest levels. The United States still fared better than Russia, Chile, Spain, India, Turkey, Israel, Costa Rica, Brazil, South Africa and China.
  • Joe Biden’s healthcare plan is status quo.
  • The Facts: Joe Biden wants to keep and build on Obamacare plus add a public option.

SF GATE:

  • Klobuchar: Claimed Hillary Clinton won MN by the lowest margin of all states, 1.6 points. Amy also claimed the polls show her leading Tump in MN by 18 pts.
  • THE FACTS: Clinton’s lowest margin actually happened in New Hampshire where she barely beat Trump by a paltry margin of about 0.4%. However, Klobuchar is right about the polls. “An October poll from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, …found that Klobuchar would have a 17-point lead over Trump, which is a larger lead over the President than her Democratic opponents.” 
  • Accused Republicans of suppressing the African-American vote.
    • “They have made it harder for African-Americans to vote,” Klobuchar said. “As one court said, ‘discriminated with surgical precision.'”
  • THE FACTS: She got both her claim and quote right.
    • “Republican-controlled legislatures across the country have passed laws aimed at preventing voter fraud that have made it harder for African-Americans to vote, and some of these laws have been declared unconstitutional by federal judges.”
    • The federal Commission on Civil Rights said in a 2018 report that there was a surge in state laws that make it harder for minorities to vote.
  • Andrew Yang: claimed that Trump won in 2016 in part because “we blasted away 4 million manufacturing jobs” He also claimed that 40,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in Iowa.
  • THE FACTS: This is true, but only if you look back as far as the early 2000s. US manufacturing employment actually went up during President Barack Obama’s second term, and that’s continued under Trump.
    • The US lost 4.4 million manufacturing jobs between January 2000 and November 2019.
    • Worst losses occurred during the 2001 recession and between late 2007 and mid-2009.
    • Iowa lost 20,900 jobs.
    • Manufacturing jobs have continued to grow.
  • Both Sanders and Yang claimed that pregnancy related deaths are much higher among black women.
  • THE FACTS: True-“Centers for Disease Control data from 2011 to 2015, black women experienced 42.8 pregnancy related deaths for every 100,000 live births — 3.3 times as high as the 13.0 such deaths for every 100,000 live births among white women.”

CNN:

Billionaires And Wine Caves Punctuate Buttigieg, Warren Dust-Up:

Warren, who’s known for taking selfies with supporters and is focused on raising money from small donors, attacked Buttigieg for holding a closed-door, high-dollar fundraising event with “billionaires in wine caves,” referring to a recent lavish event in California.

Buttigieg, however, punched back, saying that he is the least wealthy candidate onstage and that Warren shouldn’t issue “purity tests you yourself cannot pass.” 

“Your net worth is 100 times mine,” the South Bend mayor said.

WLVR:
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