Ten candidates took the stage Wednesday for the fifth Democratic presidential primary debate in Atlanta, a matchup hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post.
This debate is expected to find South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg getting front-runner treatment, and takes place amid the unfolding impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. As always, we’ll be fact-checking White House hopefuls in real time.
Check back for the latest fact checks and visit our live blog of all the latest.
Is Kamala Harris’ statistic on black maternal mortality correct?
“Black women are three to four times more likely to die in connection with childbirth in America,” Harris said on the debate stage.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black women are three to four times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related causes nationwide.
Is Pete Buttigieg financially worth the least of all the candidates on stage?
Buttigieg claimed to have the least assets of anyone on the stage. According to Forbes’ assessment, he’s right.
With just $100,000 in estimated assets, he’s significantly less well off than billionaire Tom Steyer or even millionaire Andrew Yang.
Do Harris’ statistics on the gender pay gap hold up?
Raising a point about the ineffectiveness of the Equal Pay Act, Harris noted, “Women are paid 80 cents on the dollar, black women — 61 cents, Native American women — 58 cents, Latinas — 53 cents.”
Harris appears to be drawing these numbers from a 2019 report by the American Association of University Women, which compared the earnings of women across several racial demographics to the earnings of white men.
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Her data is just slightly off, according to the AAUW’s report. According to the report, women are paid 82 cents for every dollar men earn. Black women make 62 cents on the dollar, Native American women make 57 cents and Hispanic women, 54 cents.
Are Tulsi Gabbard’s claims about past presidents and ‘regime change wars’ true?
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, said there was an “ongoing Bush, Clinton, Trump foreign policy doctrine of regime change wars, overthrowing dictators in other countries.”
This is mostly false. President Donald Trump hasn’t started any wars that can be considered regime change wars — he’s actually focused more on getting out of military engagements. President Bill Clinton didn’t start what could be considered “regime change wars,” either, though he did sign order some military strikes in Iraq and support a policy of ousting Saddam Hussein, the country’s president. But it was President George W. Bush who famously launched a war in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, which resulted in the removal and execution of Hussein.
It’s possible Gabbard is referring to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who served under President Barack Obama, but that’s not clear, and wouldn’t be correct. The secretary of state — while crucially involved in foreign policy — is not the decision maker, the president is.
Did Amy Klobuchar really pass more than 100 bills?
“I am the one who has passed over 100 bills as the lead Democrat in that gridlock in Washington,” Klobuchar said on Wednesday night.
This claim, one she’s made during several previous debates, appears to be true. When asked by NBC News for proof of Klobuchar’s claim that she was a sponsor or co-sponsor of 100 bills that were ultimately enacted, her campaign produced a list of 101 bills and amendments that were enacted or that were consolidated into other bills that were later enacted.
Does the math behind Elizabeth Warren’s 2-cent wealth tax add up?
“I have proposed a 2-cent wealth tax,” Warren said on Wednesday night. “Your first 50 billion is free and clear — but your 50 billionth and first dollar, you gotta pitch in 2 cents, and when you hit a billion dollars, you gotta pitch in a few pennies more.”
First, Warren misspoke here in the first part of her wealth tax plan. She meant to say “the first $50 million,” not $50 billion. We know because it’s how Warren’s been pitching her wealth tax for weeks — your first 50 million dollars are “free and clear,” but once you hit 50 million and one dollar, a wealth tax of 2 cents kicks in.
It sounds simple, right?
Well, it’s not really. Yes, the tax is 2 cents on the dollar of assets over $50 million and 6 cents of every dollar over $1 billion. (She recently hiked that top bracket from 3 cents on every dollar above a billion to 6 cents, to pay for her health care plan.)
But, this tax is applied annually, so it would keep wealth from growing in many cases and act like an income tax in many ways. Wealthy investors with assets seeing a 6 percent return annually, for instance, would essentially see a 100 percent tax on those assets.
It may sound like pennies, but the dollars add up big time: Two economists who advised Warren estimated recently that if her wealth tax had been in effect since 1982, Bill Gates’ wealth would be a fraction of what it is now.
Did Donald Trump admit to diverting charity money from veterans, as Pete Buttigieg said?
“The president had to confess in writing, in court, to illegally diverting charitable contributions that were supposed to go to veterans,” Buttigieg said Wednesday night, responding to a question about impeaching President Donald Trump.
This is true. The president did admit to illegally misusing the Trump Foundation — in particular the $2.8 million raised for veterans in an event in Iowa days before the 2016 caucuses — in a court filing. Those dollars were controlled and disbursed by Trump’s campaign staff at campaign events, instead of being overseen by the Foundation. The money was eventually donated to charitable causes.
