AP FACT CHECK: Trump distorts data, Dems cut some corners
Here’s a look at some statements from both stages, in
TRUMP: “More than 300,000 people under Obama, 300,000 people, left the workforce. Under just three years of my administration, 3.5 million people have joined the workforce.”
THE FACTS: Trump is wrong about Barack Obama’s record.
More than 5 million people joined the
TRUMP: “Mexico's paying for the wall. ... You know that. It's all worked out.”
THE FACTS:
Trump has argued that the updated trade agreement with
Instead, he is assuming a wide variety of economic benefits that can't be quantified or counted on. For example, he has said the deal will dissuade some
The agreement preserves the existing liberalized environment of low or no tariffs among the
Although his 2016 campaign left open the possibility that
THE FACTS: Child care costs are burdensome for most working
A
THE FACTS: There’s no guarantee that “Medicare for All” will cost less.
The nonpartisan
Those features have to do with the design of the system, questions like payment rates for hospitals and doctors, and whether patients are required to pay part of the cost of their care. The
A research report last year by the nonprofit Rand think tank estimated that Medicare for All would modestly raise total
The study modeled a hypothetical scenario with a plan similar to Sanders’ legislation. It found that total
BIDEN: "I was asked to bring 156,000 troops home from that war, which I did. I led that effort."
THE FACTS: Biden is roughly right about bringing troops home, but he didn't mention that the
President
TRUMP: “Under the Trump economy, the lowest-paid earners are reaping the biggest, fastest and largest gains. ... Earnings for the bottom 10% are rising faster than earnings for the top 10%, proportionally.”
THE FACTS: Trump's claim that the biggest pay hikes are going to the poor is misleading. The top 10% of earners saw the biggest raises of any income bracket over the past year. Their usual weekly earnings jumped 8% — or
The bottom 10% did fare reasonably well, likely reflecting some of the gains from minimum wage hikes. Their usual weekly incomes grew 7%, or
TRUMP: “We’ve created 7 million jobs since the election including more than 1 million manufacturing and construction jobs. Nobody thought that was possible.”
THE FACTS: Those numbers are less impressive than Trump claims.
Government figures do back the president’s statements. But the job gains under Trump over the past three years were lower than during the final three years of Barack Obama’s presidency. More than 8 million jobs were added during that period under Obama, including 1.2 million combined in manufacturing and construction. What these figures suggest is that much of the job growth under Trump reflects the momentum from a recovery that officially began in the middle of 2009.
TRUMP: “Our military has been totally rebuilt.”
THE FACTS: It hasn’t.
It’s true that his administration has accelerated a sharp buildup in defense spending, including a respite from what the
But a number of new Pentagon weapons programs, such as the F-35 fighter jet, were started years before the Trump administration. And it will take years for freshly ordered tanks, planes and other weapons to be built, delivered and put to use.
The Air Force’s Minuteman 3 missiles, a key part of the
SANDERS: “Just to set the record straight, I defeated a Republican incumbent running for Congress.”
WARREN: “I said, I was the only one who’s beaten an incumbent Republican in 30 years.”
THE FACTS: Sanders wins this argument — one of the stranger disputes of the night — by a matter of months. In
EDITOR'S NOTE — A look at the veracity of claims by political figures.
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