The sixth Republican debate is history.
But even after the candidates were packing their bags and leaving Charleston, S.C., the scribes at the nonpartisan fact-checking site Politifact were still trying to parse political truth from fiction.
Is Hillary Clinton under an FBI investigation? Did Eric Holder say he wanted to “brainwash” Americans about guns?
Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below.
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Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com/georgia/.
Ted Cruz said this:
“We have the lowest percentage of Americans working today of any year since 1977.”
Cruz got this one mostly right.
He put his finger on a trend that worries economists of all stripes.
It’s worth remembering that this particular trend is being driven at least to a degree by demographic trends, which are beyond the control of any president.
We rated the claim Mostly True.
Jeb Bush said this:
Hillary Clinton “is under investigation with the FBI right now.”
The FBI is conducting a general inquiry into the security of Clinton’s private email server.
But law enforcement officials have said Clinton herself is not the target of the inquiry. And it is not a full-blown criminal investigation.
Clinton’s actions are clearly front and center in an FBI investigation.
Bush goes too far to claim Clinton HERSELF is under investigation.
We rated his statement Half True.
Donald Trump said this:
Among Syrian refugees and migrants coming into Europe, “there look like very few women. Very few children.”
The data in no way support Trump’s claim.
The majority of more than 4.6 million Syrian refugees entering Europe are women and children 17 and younger.
Of migrants arriving by sea — about 1 million people — 31 percent are children and 19 percent are women.
We rated this statement False.
Ted Cruz said this:
President Barack Obama “appointed Eric Holder as attorney general. Eric Holder said he viewed his mission as brainwashing the American people against guns.”
Holder unquestionably said the word “brainwash.”
But Cruz leaves out some important context — how long ago the comment was made, and the fact that it was targeted toward youth during a high-crime era in Washington, D.C., not the overall American public.
We rated the claim Half True.
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