The Democratic candidates met for the third time, and stretched the facts again.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said 3 percent of her campaign donations “come from people in the finance and investment world.” That’s correct, but the total is 6 percent when including donations to outside groups supporting her candidacy.
Clinton also claimed she had received “more donations from students and teachers than I do from people associated with Wall Street.” Public records contradict that. Her campaign said it was based on internal data but didn’t immediately send that to FactCheck.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said that Sen. Bernie Sanders voted against funding research into gun-related injuries and deaths. He did, but that was 19 years ago. Sanders now says he supports such funding.
Clinton said that ISIS is “showing videos of Donald Trump … to recruit more radical jihadists.” There’s no evidence of that, though experts have said it’s likely. David Phillips, director of the Program on Peace-Building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, said “Trump’s incendiary anti-Muslim comments will surely be used by ISIS social media to demonize the United States and attract recruits to fight in Iraq and Syria.”
Clinton said that the Republican presidential candidates “don’t want to raise the minimum wage.” But Rick Santorum has supported an increase to $$7.75 per hour, far below the $15 minimum wage that Sanders and O’Malley have backed, or the $12 Clinton has supported.
O’Malley said that Clinton told the big banks that “you weren’t responsible for the crash” in 2008. But Clinton said in December 2007 that Wall Street “has played a significant role in the current problems, and in particular in the housing crisis.”
Clinton said that “we lose 33,000 people a year already to gun violence.” To put that in context, 33 percent of those deaths were homicides; 63 percent were suicides.
O’Malley went too far in accusing Clinton of flip-flopping on federal gun control. She did back off her earlier support for a national gun registry but has consistently supported an assault weapons ban and tightened regulations on sales at gun shows.
At an event in Iowa, Hillary Clinton and a man from an environmental group sparred about whether she had taken money from the fossil fuel industry. “You have,” the man said. Campaigns are prohibited from taking money directly from corporations. That would violate election law. Nor has her 2016 campaign accepted any money from PACs tied to the oil and gas industry. The Clinton 2016 campaign has received about $160,000 to date from oil and gas company employees. That’s the third highest among presidential candidates – Republicans Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush top the list with $499,000 and $273,000, respectively. (Democrats Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley, both of whom agreed to the pledge not to accept money from the fossil fuel industry, have received $13,000 and $6,200, respectively, from employees of the oil and gas industry.)
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., says the best solution to address problems in the United States’ health care system is to guarantee every American access to health care as a right.”Why is it that we spend almost three times per capita as to what they spend in the U.K. – 50 percent more than what they pay in France?” Sanders asked. “The insurance companies, the drug companies are bribing the United States Congress. We need to pass a Medicare-for-all single-payer system.” Sanders’ numbers are arresting and largely correct. Sanders number are mostly accurate.
Chip Tuthill is a longtime resident of Mancos. Websites used for this column: www.factcheck.org.