On Wednesday, the GQP treated us with their first primary debate, sans TFG…he’s on his way to surrender himself to the Fulton County (GA) jail. Yeah, that’s what the GQP has to offer.
Now for some fact checking on their stellar performance:
Gov. Ron DeSantis:
The Pandemic: ““In Florida, we led the country out of lockdown, and we kept our state free and open.”
After much criticism on his initial (mis)handling of COVID-19, Meatball issued many restrictions to slow the spread of the virus.
- Schools open, closed, tried to re-open, closed through the end of 2020 but whined about it greatly.
- Banned nursing home visits.
- DeSantis issued an executive order directing all Florida residents to “limit their movements and personal interactions outside of their home.” Limited beach gatherings to 10 people on Florida beaches.
- Critical race theory eliminated from Florida K-12 schools under DeSantis
- Ron DeSantis: “We eliminated critical race theory from our K-12 schools.”
This is misleading, because teachers, school officials and districts across Florida have said critical race theory was not being taught in their elementary, middle or high schools in the first place, PolitiFact reported.
Uncle Tim Scott on the state of the US economy:
“There is no doubt that during the Trump administration, when we were dealing with the COVID virus, we spent more money,” Scott said. “But here’s what happened at the end of our time in the majority: we had low unemployment, record low unemployment, 3.5% for the majority of the population, and a 70-year low for women. African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians had an all-time low.”
FALSE!
- Scott’s claims don’t accurately reflect the state of the US economy at the end of the Republican majority in the Senate. And in some cases, his exaggerations echo what Trump himself frequently touted about the economy under his leadership.
- By the time Trump left office and the Republicans lost the Senate majority in January 2021, US unemployment was not at a record low. The US unemployment rate dropped to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.5% in September 2019, the country’s lowest in 50 years. While it hovered around that level for five months, Scott’s assertion ignores the coronavirus pandemic-induced economic destruction that followed. In April 2020, the unemployment rate spiked to 14.7% — the highest level since monthly records began in 1948. As of December 2020, the unemployment rate was at 6.7%.
- Nor was the unemployment rate for women at a 70-year low by the end of Trump’s time in office. It reached a 66-year low during certain months of 2019, at 3.4% in April and 3.6% in August, but by December 2020, unemployment for women was at 6.7%.
- The unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians were also not at all-time lows at the end of 2020, but they did reach record lows during Trump’s tenure as president.
Scott on the Justice Department:
No, Uncle Tim, the Justice Department under President Joe Biden is NOT targeting “parents that show up at school board meetings. They are called, under this DOJ, they’re called domestic terrorists.”
- The claim stems from a 2021 letter from The National School Boards Associations asking the Justice Department to “deal with” the uptick in threats against education officials and saying that “acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials” could be classified as “the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.” In response, Garland released a memo encouraging federal and local authorities to work together against the harassment campaigns levied at schools, but never endorsed the “domestic terrorism” notion.
- A federal judge even threw out a lawsuit over the accusation, ruling that Garland’s memo did little more than announce a “series of measures” that directed federal authorities to address increasing threats targeting school board members, teachers and other school employees.
This is what gets you booed by today’s MAGAt KKKult:
