In this video, we examine some of the false and misleading claims from the July 30 Democratic debate.
- Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas falsely said that “no other country comes even close to” the 40,000 gun-violence deaths in the United States. That’s the correct figure for the U.S. for 2017, but Brazil had more firearm injury deaths than the U.S. in 2016, according to a 2018 study published in JAMA. And several countries have higher firearm death rates.
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota wrongly said the Republican tax cut law “left everyone behind” except President Donald Trump’s “Mar-a-Lago friends.” The law benefited the wealthy, but the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center found it would reduce taxes on average for all income groups in 2018.
- Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio falsely claimed farmers “haven’t made a profit in five years.” Farm profits haven’t fallen below $60 billion a year in more than a decade.
- “Tonight in America, as we speak, 87 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. That figure, however, includes 19.3 million who were insured when surveyed but had a gap in coverage in the prior year.
- Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper asked, “Where’s the small manufacturing jobs that are supposed to come back?” Under Trump, the economy has added nearly 500,000 manufacturing jobs.
For a complete analysis of these and other claims, see our story “FactChecking the Second Democratic Debate.”
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