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AP FACT
CHECK:
The
Democratic
debates
and
Trump
counterpunch
By
CALVIN
WOODWARD
and
HOPE YEN
APNews.com
WASHINGTON
- In his
typically
boastful
rally
this
past
week,
Donald
Trump
placed
himself
too high
in the
pantheon
of
presidents
when it
comes to
getting
his
judicial
picks on
federal
courts.
He’s
been
having a
good run
on that
front
but he’s
not
where he
said he
is —
ranking
right
under
George
Washington,
no less.
Much
of the
week was
filled
with the
cacophony
of
Democratic
presidential
candidates
having
their
say on
the
debate
stage.
Their
pronouncements
did not
always
fit with
the
facts.
They
skewed
reality
on
climate
science,
immigration
policy,
the auto
industry
and
more.
A
review:
JUDGES
TRUMP,
on his
record
of
filling
federal
judicial
appointments:
“There’s
only one
person
... who
percentage-wise
has done
better
than me
with
judges.”
—
Cincinnati
rally
Thursday.
THE
FACTS:
No, at
least
four
have
done
better.
Trump is
properly
ceding
first
place to
George
Washington,
who had
a
judiciary
entirely
made up
of his
choices
simply
because
he was
the
first
president.
But he’s
not
acknowledging
that at
least
three
modern
presidents
had a
better
record
than
Trump of
getting
their
judicial
choices
on the
courts.
Russell
Wheeler,
a
visiting
fellow
at the
Brookings
Institution
and
former
deputy
director
of the
Federal
Judicial
Center,
has been
keeping
track.
He
found
that
Trump’s
confirmed
judges
make up
17% of
total
federal
judgeships.
At this
point in
their
presidencies,
John
Kennedy
had
filled
30% of
the
federal
judiciary,
Bill
Clinton
had
filled
20% and
Nixon
had
filled
25%.
___
CLIMATE
BETO
O’ROURKE,
former
U.S.
representative
from
Texas,
on
global
warming:
“I
listen
to
scientists
on this
and
they’re
very
clear:
We don’t
have
more
than 10
years to
get this
right.
And we
won’t
meet
that
challenge
with
half-steps,
half-measures
or only
half the
country.”
—
Democratic
debate
Tuesday.
PETE
BUTTIGIEG,
mayor of
South
Bend,
Indiana:
“Science
tells us
we have
12 years
before
we reach
the
horizon
of our
catastrophe
when it
comes to
our
climate.”
—
Democratic
debate
Tuesday.
ANDREW
YANG,
entrepreneur:
“This is
going to
be a
tough
truth,
but we
are too
late. We
are 10
years
too
late.” —
Democratic
debate
Wednesday.
THE
FACTS:
These
statements
are out
of step
with
science.
Climate
scientists
don’t
agree on
an
approximate
time
frame,
let
alone an
exact
number
of
years,
for how
much
time we
have
left to
stave
off the
deadliest
extremes
of
climate
change.
Nor do
they
think
it’s too
late
already.
A
report
by the
U.N.
Intergovernmental
Panel on
Climate
Change,
drawn
from the
work of
hundreds
of
scientists,
uses
2030 as
a
prominent
benchmark
because
signatories
to the
Paris
climate
change
agreement
have
pledged
emission
cuts by
then.
But it’s
not a
last-chance,
hard
deadline
for
action,
as
O’Rourke,
Buttigieg
and
others
have
interpreted
it.
“The
hotter
it gets,
the
worse it
gets,
but
there is
no cliff
edge,”
James
Skea,
co-chairman
of the
report,
told The
Associated
Press.
Climate
scientists
certainly
see the
necessity
for
broad
and
immediate
action
to
address
global
warming,
but they
do not
agree
that
2030 is
a “point
of no
return,”
as
Buttigieg
put it.
“This
has been
a
persistent
source
of
confusion,”
agreed
Kristie
L. Ebi,
director
of the
Center
for
Health
and the
Global
Environment
at the
University
of
Washington
in
Seattle.
“The
report
never
said we
only
have 12
years
left.”
___
IMMIGRATION
KAMALA
HARRIS,
senator
from
California:
“We’ve
got a
person
who has
put
babies
in cages
and
separated
children
from
their
parents.”
—
Democratic
debate
Wednesday.
MICHAEL
BENNET,
senator
from
Colorado,
in a
message
directed
at
Trump:
“Kids
belong
in
classrooms
not
cages.”
—
Democratic
debate
Wednesday.
TRUMP:
“The
cages
for kids
were
built by
the
Obama
Administration
in 2014.
He had
the
policy
of child
separation.
I ended
it even
as I
realized
that
more
families
would
then
come to
the
Border!”
— tweet
Wednesday.
THE
FACTS:
There’s
deception
on both
sides
here.
Family
separations
as a
matter
of
routine
came
about
because
of
Trump’s
“zero
tolerance”
enforcement
policy.
President
Barack
Obama
had no
such
policy
and
Trump’s
repeated
attempts
to pin
one on
him
flies in
the face
of
reality.
Trump
only
ended —
or
suspended
— what
Trump
had
started,
and that
was
after a
judge
ordered
that the
practice
be
sharply
curtailed
and as
an
international
uproar
grew.
Moreover,
the
American
Civil
Liberties
Union
now says
in a
legal
challenge
that
more
than 900
children
were
separated
from
their
parents
at the
border
in the
year
after
the
judge’s
order.
The
Obama
administration
also
separated
migrant
children
from
families
when a
child’s
safety
appeared
at risk
with the
adults
or in
other
limited
circumstances.
But the
ACLU
says
children
have
been
removed
after
the
judge’s
order
for
minor
transgressions
by the
adults,
like
traffic
offenses,
or for
unfounded
suspicions
of
wrongdoing.
Trump,
though,
is
correct
in
noting
that the
“cages”
—
chain-link
enclosures
inside
border
facilities
where
migrants
have
been
temporarily
housed,
separated
by sex
and age
— were
built
and used
by the
Obama
administration.
Democrats
routinely
ignore
that
fact
when
they
assail
Trump
for what
they
call the
cruelty
of
putting
“babies
in
cages.”
The
Trump
administration
has been
using
the same
facilities
as the
Obama
administration.
___
JOE
BIDEN,
former
vice
president,
on
Obama’s
approach
to
people
who came
to the
U.S.
illegally
as
children:
“The
president
came
along
and he’s
the guy
that
came up
with the
idea,
first
time
ever, of
dealing
with the
Dreamers.
He put
that in
the
law.” —
Democratic
debate
Wednesday.
THE
FACTS:
He’s
wrong
that
Obama
achieved
a law
protecting
those
young
immigrants.
He
notably
failed
on that
front.
Instead
he
circumvented
Congress
and used
his
executive
authority
to
extend
temporary
protection,
letting
them
stay in
the
country
if they
met
certain
conditions.
The
Deferred
Action
for
Childhood
Arrivals
program,
as its
name
implies,
merely
defers
deportations.
Trump,
also
with
executive
action,
tried to
end the
program
but the
effort
has been
tied up
in
courts,
so the
protection
continues
for now.
___
CORY
BOOKER,
senator
from New
Jersey,
on
decriminalizing
illegal
entry at
the
border:
“Doing
it
through
the
civil
courts
means
you
won’t
need
these
awful
detention
centers
that
I’ve
been
to.” —
Democratic
debate
Wednesday.
THE
FACTS:
Not
exactly.
It’s
true
that
there
could be
reduced
immigration
detention
at the
border
if there
were no
criminal
charge
for
illegal
entry.
But
border
officers
would
still
need to
process
people
coming
over the
border
and that
could
lead to
temporary
holding,
such as
the
so-called
cages
that
Democrats
call
inhumane.
Also,
U.S.
Immigration
and
Customs
Enforcement
uses
detention
to hold
people
awaiting
deportation
who have
been
accused
or
convicted
of
crimes
more
serious
than
illegal
entry.
For
example,
in
December
2018,
ICE
detained
47,486
people,
according
to an
analysis
at
Syracuse
University.
Of
those,
29,753
had no
conviction,
and
those
people
probably
would
not be
in
detention
if
illegal
entry
were a
civil
issue.
But
6,186
had
serious
crime
convictions,
2,237
had
other
convictions
and
9,310
had
minor
violations,
and
those
people
could
still be
held,
according
to the
analysis.
___
LAW
ENFORCEMENT
BILL
DE
BLASIO,
mayor of
New York
City, on
why he
hasn’t
fired
the
police
officer
who used
a
chokehold
on Eric
Garner:
“For the
first
time, we
are not
waiting
on the
federal
Justice
Department,
which
told the
city of
New York
that we
could
not
proceed
because
the
Justice
Department
was
pursuing
their
prosecution,
and
years
went by
and a
lot of
pain
accrued.”
—
Democratic
debate
Wednesday.
THE
FACTS:
This is
false.
The
Justice
Department
did not
stop the
city
from
moving
forward
on the
matter.
The New
York
Police
Department
decided
to delay
disciplinary
proceedings
for
Officer
Daniel
Pantaleo
on its
own
accord.
While
local
officials
sometimes
defer
their
investigation
as
federal
prosecutors
conduct
criminal
probes,
there
was no
requirement
for the
police
department
to wait
for the
federal
civil
rights
investigation
in
weighing
a
decision
about
whether
to fire
Pantaleo.
Police
Commissioner
James
O’Neill,
who
reports
to de
Blasio,
could
have
fired
him at
any
time.
The
Justice
Department
announced
last
month
that it
would
not
bring
any
charges
in
connection
with
Garner’s
death.
After an
internal
departmental
trial,
an
administrative
judge on
Friday
recommended
that
Pantaleo
be
fired.
The
officer
was
suspended
pending
a
decision
on
whether
O’Neill
will
oust
him.
___
JULIAN
CASTRO,
former
Obama
administration
housing
secretary:
“We need
to
ensure
we have
a
national
use of
force
standard
and that
we end
qualified
immunity
for
police
officers
so that
we can
hold
them
accountable
for
using
excessive
force.”
—
Democratic
debate
Wednesday.
THE
FACTS:
Castro
is
correct
that
qualified
immunity,
a legal
protection
shielding
public
servants
from
lawsuits
for
actions
they
take in
the
course
of their
jobs, is
a
barrier
toward
holding
police
officers
accountable
in court
for acts
of
excessive
force.
But
officers
can
nonetheless
be
criminally
prosecuted
by state
and
federal
authorities
for
excessive
force.
And
qualified
immunity
is
hardly
the only
hurdle
for
accountability:
sometimes
it’s the
tall
burden
of proof
that
stands
in the
way. The
Justice
Department
brings
criminal
charges
against
police
officers
in cases
when it
can
prove
that the
officer
intentionally
violated
someone’s
civil
rights
by using
more
force
than the
law
allows.
Department
officials
said
they
could
not make
such a
case in
the
investigation
Castro
and
other
Democrats
were
discussing
— the
2014
chokehold
death in
New York
of Eric
Garner.
___
ECONOMY
and
WAGES
TRUMP:
“The
facts
speak
far
louder
than
words!
The
Democrats
always
play the
Race
Card,
when in
fact
they
have
done so
little
for our
Nation’s
great
African
American
people.
Now,
lowest
unemployment
in U.S.
history,
and only
getting
better.”
— tweet
on July
28.
THE
FACTS:
Trump is
seeking
credit
he
doesn’t
deserve
for
black
job
growth.
He’s
also
wrong to
assert
that
Democrats
haven’t
done
anything
to
improve
the
economic
situation
for
African
Americans.
It’s
true
that
black
unemployment
did
reach a
record
low
during
the
Trump
administration:
5.9
percent
in May
2018. It
currently
stands
at 6
percent.
But
many
economists
view the
continued
economic
growth
since
the
middle
of 2009,
when
Obama
was in
office,
as the
primary
explanation
for
hiring.
More
important,
there
are
multiple
signs
that the
racial
wealth
gap is
now
worsening
and the
administration
appears
to have
done
little,
if
anything,
to
specifically
address
this
challenge.
African
Americans
also had
higher
income
prior to
the
Trump
administration.
A black
household
earned
median
income
of
$40,258
in 2017,
the
latest
data
available.
That’s
below a
2000
peak of
$42,348,
according
to the
Census
Bureau.
The
most
dramatic
drop in
black
unemployment
came
under
Obama,
when it
fell
from a
recession
high of
16.8
percent
in March
2010 to
7.8
percent
in
January
2017.
___
BERNIE
SANDERS,
Vermont
senator:
“49
percent
of all
new
income
is going
to the
top 1
percent.”
—
Democratic
debate
Tuesday.
THE
FACTS:
That is
surely
exaggerated.
The
figure
comes
from a
short
paper by
Emmanuel
Saez, an
economist
at the
University
of
California,
Berkeley,
and
leading
researcher
on
inequality,
and
doesn’t
include
the
value of
fringe
benefits,
such as
health
insurance,
or the
effects
of taxes
and
government
benefit
programs
such as
Social
Security.
But
Saez and
another
Berkeley
economist,
Gabriel
Zucman,
have
recently
compiled
a
broader
data set
that
does
include
those
items
and
finds
the top
1% has
captured
roughly
25% of
the
income
growth
since
the
recession
ended.
That’s
certainly
a lot
lower
but
still a
substantial
share.
Income
inequality
has
sharply
increased
in the
past
four
decades,
but
since
the
recession,
data
from the
Congressional
Budget
Office
shows
that it
has
actually
narrowed
slightly.
___
TIM
RYAN,
U.S.
representative
from
Ohio:
“The
economic
system
that
used to
create
30, 40,
50
dollar-an-hour
jobs
that you
could
have a
good
solid
middle-class
living
now
forces
us to
have two
or three
jobs
just to
get by.”
—
Democratic
debate
Tuesday.
THE
FACTS:
Most
Americans,
by far,
only
work one
job, and
the
numbers
who
juggle
more
than one
have
declined
over a
quarter
century.
In
the
mid-1990s,
the
percentage
of
workers
holding
multiple
jobs
peaked
at 6.5%.
The rate
dropped
significantly,
even
during
the
Great
Recession,
and has
been
hovering
for a
nearly a
decade
at about
5% or a
little
lower.
In the
latest
monthly
figures,
from
June,
5.2% of
workers
were
holding
more
than one
job.
Hispanic
and
Asian
workers
are
consistently
less
likely
than
white
and
black
workers
to be
holding
multiple
jobs.
Women
are more
likely
to be
doing so
than
men.
___
HARRIS:
“Autoworkers
we
expect,
perhaps,
hundreds
of
thousands
will be
out of
jobs by
the end
of the
year.” —
Wednesday
debate.
THE
FACTS:
This
dire
prediction
is
faulty.
The auto
industry
is not
facing
the
imminent
risk of
such a
collapse.
That
might
have
happened
— as a
worst-case
scenario
— if
Trump
had
followed
through
on
threats
to enact
new
tariffs
and
policies
that
would
have
hurt the
auto
industry.
But he
didn’t.
Harris
has been
citing
the
Center
for
Automotive
Research’s
2018
study ,
which
examined
hypothetical
job
losses
across
all U.S.
industries
touched
by the
auto
business
— not
just the
nation’s
nearly 1
million
autoworkers
— if
Trump
introduced
certain
tariffs
and
policies.
The
study
gave a
wide
range of
possible
job
losses,
from
82,000
to
750,000.
The
findings
were
later
revised
in
February
to a
worst-case
scenario
of
367,000
across
all
industries
by the
end of
this
year.
Those
hypothetical
job
losses
would be
spread
across
car and
parts
makers,
dealers,
restaurants,
retail
stores
and any
business
that
benefits
from the
auto
industry.
The
impact
on the
auto
industry
was
further
minimized
when the
Trump
administration
lifted
tariffs
on
steels
and
aluminum
products
coming
from
Canada
and
Mexico.
After a
record
sales
year of
17.55
million
in 2016,
demand
has
fallen
to an
expected
16.8
million
new
vehicle
sales
this
year.
But the
industry
is still
posting
strong
numbers
and is
not
heading
off a
cliff.
___
HEALTH
CARE
HARRIS:
“Right
now in
America,
we have
seniors
who
every
day —
millions
of
seniors
— are
going
into the
Medicare
system.”
—
Wednesday
debate.
THE
FACTS:
It’s
more
like
10,000
people a
day who
turn 65
and
become
eligible
for
Medicare,
which
offers
coverage
for
hospitalization,
doctor
visits,
prescription
drugs
and
other
services.
Medicare
covers
more
than 60
million
people,
including
disabled
people
of any
age.
___
BIDEN:
“We
should
put some
of these
insurance
executives
who
totally
oppose
my plan
in jail
for the
9
billion
opioids
they
sell out
there.”
—
Wednesday
debate.
THE
FACTS:
Biden
must
have
meant
drug
company
executives,
since
insurance
companies
pay for
medications
— they
don’t
sell
them.
___
HARRIS:
“Even
though
we spend
more, we
have
failed
to
insure
nearly
30
million
Americans,
and the
problem
has
gotten
worse
under
Donald
Trump.
Seven
million
people
have
lost
their
health
insurance
under
his
presidency.”
— Medium
article
published
Monday
introducing
her
“Medicare
for All”
plan.
THE
FACTS:
Harris
is
selectively
marshaling
her
evidence,
citing a
survey
that has
found a
significant
increase
in the
number
of
uninsured
adults
under
Trump
while
ignoring
others
that
show
coverage
basically
holding
steady.
Under
Trump,
the U.S.
has not
advanced
in
reducing
the
number
of
uninsured,
but
major
studies
differ
on
whether
there’s
been
significant
backsliding,
as
Harris
asserts.
Harris’
numbers
come
from the
Gallup
National
Health
and
Well-Being
Index,
which
found
the
uninsured
rate
among
adults
has gone
up.
Gallup
reported
that
nearly
14% of
adults
were
uninsured
in the
last
three
months
of 2018.
That
translates
to about
7
million
more
uninsured
adults
since
2016,
the last
full
year of
Obama’s
tenure.
Gallup
measured
adults
only.
However,
there’s
been no
major
slippage
in an
ongoing
survey
from the
Centers
for
Disease
Control
and
Prevention.
CDC
estimated
that
30.4
million
Americans
of all
ages
were
uninsured
last
year, or
9.4% of
the
population.
That
compares
with
28.6
million
uninsured,
or 9% of
the
population,
in 2016.
CDC says
those
changes
reflected
in the
National
Health
Interview
Survey
are not
statistically
significant
because
such
surveys
are not
precise
enough
to
measure
differences
that
small.
An
estimate
by the
nonpartisan
Congressional
Budget
Office
finds an
increase
of 1.4
million
uninsured
people
under
age 65
from
2016 to
2018.
A
private
study
tracks
with the
government’s
findings.
The
Commonwealth
Fund’s
Biennial
Health
Insurance
Survey
found no
statistically
significant
change
in the
uninsured
rate
among
adults
ages 19
to 64
from
2016 to
2018, at
about
12%.
The
picture
may get
clearer
by the
time
Americans
elect
their
next
president.
The
previous
Republican-led
Congress
repealed
“Obamacare”
fines on
people
who
remain
uninsured.
That
change
took
effect
this
year,
and
experts
believe
it will
prompt
some
people
to drop
coverage.
The
uninsured
rate may
well go
up, but
Harris
will
have to
wait for
a
definitive
ruling.
___
Associated
Press
writers
Colleen
Long,
Christopher
Rugaber,
Ricardo
Alonso-Zaldivar,
Michael
Balsamo,
Eric
Tucker
and
Ellen
Knickmeyer
in
Washington
and
Amanda
Seitz in
Chicago
contributed
to this
report.
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