FactChecking the January Democratic Debate

Summary

In the final Democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses, there were fewer candidates — only six — but more than a few false, misleading and exaggerated claims:

• Former Vice President Joe Biden claimed that the “wealthy are the only ones doing well, period.” But weekly paychecks for rank-and-file workers have been rising. 
• In defending his 2002 vote to authorize the use of military force in Iraq, Biden claimed the Bush administration “said they were not going to go to war” and only sought weapons inspections. But days before the vote, President George W. Bush said, “I hope this will not require military action, but it may.”
• Sen. Bernie Sanders overstated statistics on health care spending and medical bankruptices. For instance, he said “workers” were “paying on average 20% of their incomes for health care,” but the figure would be 12.7% based on the spending number his campaign cited.
• Sanders said that unless the U.S. leads “the world right now” on climate change, “the planet we are leaving our kids will be uninhabitable.” While climate change is an urgent and serious issue, many scientists do not think it will render the entire planet uninhabitable.
• Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she was the only person “on this debate stage” who answered “Iran” in the “very first debate” when asked “what we saw as the biggest threat.” True, but there was only one candidate on stage last night — Sen. Elizabeth Warren — who was also in that first debate with Klobuchar.
• Sanders claimed half a million people are “sleeping out on the streets,” but a government count of unsheltered homeless people puts the number at closer to 200,000.
• Biden repeated a false claim that PolitiFact referred to his early climate change legislation as “a game changer.” The fact-checking website did not say that, although it did say he was a “climate change pioneer.”
• Sanders blamed two trade agreements for the loss of 4 million American jobs, but estimates on that vary.

The Jan. 14 debate, hosted by CNN and the Des Moines Register, was held at Drake University in Iowa.

Analysis

Biden Wrong on Economy

Biden was wrong when he said only the wealthy are doing well in the current economy.