Who was telling the truth in Brooklyn — Bernie or Hillary?
The Clinton-Sanders brawl in Brooklyn in over.
But those non-partisan fact-checkers at PolitiFact are still on the job, trying to make sense of last night’s Democratic debate.
Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below.
Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com/georgia/.
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Hillary Clinton said this:
Bernie Sanders ‘has been largely a very reliable supporter of the NRA’
This is a stretch by Clinton, and a pretty bit one.
Sanders won his congressional bid about 25 years ago thanks at least in part to the NRA.
He has voted against major pieces of gun control legislation.
However, he has also cast votes for gun control and has received low marks from the NRA for the past 20 years.
Neither the gun lobby nor gun control advocates claim Sanders as their own.
We rate Clinton's statement Mostly False.
Sanders said this:
“I remain one of the poorer members of the United States Senate.”
It’s important to remember that the financial-disclosure forms produce values too vague to be 100 percent certain of where each senator ranks.
That said, a credible calculation using financial disclosure forms puts Sanders as having the 19th lowest net worth in the Senate.
That makes him pretty poor by U.S. Senate standards.
We rate Sanders' statement Mostly True.
Clinton said this:
The Republicans “still want to privatize (Social Security). In fact, their whole idea is to turn over the Social Security trust fund to Wall Street.”
At least one GOP candidate, Ted Cruz, has proposed a form of privatization — it involves personal accounts funded by a fraction of payroll taxes.
Still, Clinton’s statement takes a longstanding Democratic exaggeration about the scope of GOP overhaul proposals.
Clinton is even further off-base by implying that payroll tax revenues would flow directly to Wall Street without any input from beneficiaries.
We rate Clinton's statement Mostly False.
Sanders said this:
“When this campaign began, I said that we’ve got to end the starvation minimum wage of $7.25, raise it to $15. Secretary Clinton said let’s raise it to $12.”
Since the start of his campaign, Sanders has advocated for a $15 minimum wage.
Clinton’s official position is that she prefers a $12 federal minimum wage as a floor, allowing cities and states to go further.
Sanders misses the nuance that Clinton is also supportive of local efforts to raise the minimum wage to $15.
We rate Sanders' claim Mostly True.
