Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced himself as an advocate for middle-class workers who wants to redirect funding from the criminal justice system and into education and jobs for minorities.
“African-American youth unemployment is 51 percent,” Sanders said. “Hispanic youth unemployment is 36 percent.” Sanders didn’t make clear that he was referring to a non-standard unemployment rate that counted not just unemployed workers, but those were working part-time due to the weak economy. Half True.
Hillary Clinton announced last week that she no longer supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, despite once calling it the “gold standard.” “I did say, when I was secretary of state, three years ago, that I hoped it would be the gold standard,” Clinton said. “It was just finally negotiated last week, and in looking at it, it didn’t meet my standards.”
Clinton correctly hit Sanders from the left during a lengthy discussion about gun policy after the country’s latest mass shooting in Oregon. “Sen. Sanders, you voted against the Brady bill that mandated background checks and a waiting period,” Clinton said. Before it became law in 1993, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which mandated a five-day waiting period for back-ground checks for gun purchases, underwent many transformations. Sanders, then Vermont’s sole representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, voted against the bill in its entirety five times.
Sanders and Clinton both correctly brought up ending mass incarceration. Sanders said, “Today in America, we have more people in jail than any other country on Earth. It seems to me that in-stead of building more jails and providing more incarceration, maybe, just maybe, we should be putting money into education and jobs for our kids.” The latest federal census found more than 2.2 million people behind bars in the United States. Based on population size, America has an in-carceration rate higher than any other nation.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley highlighted Clinton’s “reversals on positions on Keystone and many other things,” but Clinton defended herself on the pipeline project in particular.” You know, we know that if you are learning, you’re going to change your position,” Clinton said in response. “I never took a position on Keystone until I took a position on Keystone.” Clinton did not indicate her position on Keystone until she announced that she opposed it in September 2015. No flip flop.
Sanders defended his record as a democratic socialist by calling for the United States to bring its family leave policy in line with other countries. His claim that “every other major country” offers paid family leave rates Mostly True, with the only caveat being that family leave isn’t a universal benefit in some countries, due to exclusions on certain workers. Otherwise, the United States is absolutely an outlier among economic peers.
CNN moderator Anderson Cooper pressed the candidates to offer their view of Edward Snowden, the government contractor considered a traitor or a hero for revealing the existence of massive national security databases of Americans’ email and phone data.”He broke the laws of the United States,” Clinton said. “He could have been a whistleblower. He could have gotten all of the protections of being a whistleblower.”
That claim rates Mostly False. While American law does shield government whistleblowers, experts said it wouldn’t necessarily apply in Snowden’s case. A key 1998 law called the Intelligence Community Whistlblower Protection Act does lay out a pathway Snowden could have followed. However, there is at least a significant legal debate over whether the issues Snowden wanted to raise would fall under that law.
Chip Tuthill is a resident of Mancos. Website used: www.politifact.com.