FactChecking the December Democratic Debate
Summary
We found several misleading and exaggerated claims in the last debate of 2019:
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren criticized South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg for holding a glitzy “closed-door” fundraiser at a California wine cave. A pool reporter was permitted to cover Buttigieg’s remarks at the event, so the event wasn’t entirely off-limits to the media.
- Warren also boasted about not doing private fundraisers: “I do not sell access to my time.” That may be the case now, but she transferred $10 million from her Senate campaign to her presidential race.
- Buttigieg said he won with 80% in “Mike Pence’s Indiana,” but Sen. Amy Klobuchar was correct when she said he lost by 20 points (actually almost 25) in his only statewide bid for Hoosier office.
- Warren again undersold the impact of her “Ultra Millionaire Tax” plan, saying, “I have a two-cent wealth tax proposed for millionaires and billionaires,” when her plan calls for triple that rate, a 6% annual tax, on all wealth over $1 billion.
- Former Vice President Joe Biden was right when he said international public opinion polls rate President Donald Trump below China’s leader, Xi Jinping. But most foreigners still want the U.S. to be the world’s leading power.
- Buttigieg claimed Trump has not made “a peep” in support of “folks out there standing up for democracy” in Hong Kong, but Trump last month signed two bills in support of Hong Kong protesters, over the objections of the Chinese government.
- Klobuchar said on trade: “95% of our customers are outside of our borders.” Americans make up only about 5% of the world’s population. But the rest of the world are potential customers, since many are relatively poor and unable to buy a lot of American goods.
- Biden said “most Americans, if they received a bill for $400 or more they’d have to sell something or borrow the money.”
