The leading Republican presidential candidates – most of them, at least – are on stage tonight in Milwaukee for their first debate ahead of the 2024 primary.
Eight candidates have taken part in the debate as a result of former President Donald Trump’s decision to avoid it, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence, who served as Trump’s vice president. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott are the other contenders on the debate stage.
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Here is a fact check on some claims made on stage:
Claim: DOJ labels parents ‘domestic terrorists’
Sen. Tim Scott: “We keep seeing not only the weaponization of the Department of Justice against political opponents, but also against parents who show up at school board meetings. They’re called domestic terrorists.”
This is untrue and misrepresents a conversation that began with a letter from an education organisation to Attorney General Merrick Garland in September 2021, requesting for assistance with threats of violence against school authorities.
Some of the threats, according to the letter from the National School Boards Association, “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism.” Later, the group expressed regret over their language.
Garland’s reply did not include such term.
Instead, he talked about the rise in harassment, coercion, and violent threats against school officials and ordered the FBI to consult with national authorities on how to handle these threats.
Claim: Florida’s crime rate is at a 50-year low
Ron DeSantis: “Crime is at a 50-year low in Florida.”
This is deceptive. DeSantis has previously made the assertion, but The Marshall Project, a news outlet that focuses on criminal justice issues, claims that it is based on insufficient data.
The figures on crime in Florida do not include around half of the law enforcement organisations that keep an eye on more than 40% of the state’s residents. A federal crime database only listed less than 10% of the state’s police forces.
According to a local television news station, WTVJ/NBC 6, violent crime has decreased this year in Miami, the state’s second-most populous city, with homicides down more than 30%.
Claim by Chris Christie: Hunter Biden was charged with a gun crime that had a 10-year mandatory minimum
Christie asserted during the debate that Hunter Biden was accused of a gun offence with a required minimum prison sentence of ten years. That is incorrect.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware charged Hunter Biden with one count of unlawful possession of a handgun by a person barred in June. In October 2018, the president’s son was accused of having a handgun in his possession while “knowing that he was an unlawful user of and addicted to a controlled substance.”
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Hunter Biden would be subject to a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, not a minimum.
Claim: Hutchinson cut Arkansas workforce by 14%
Asa Hutchinson: “We had 14% fewer state employees in Arkansas after I left government than when I took over as governor eight years ago.”
State statistics indicate that this isn’t entirely accurate, and Hutchinson has previously made a claim similar to this one. He claimed to have reduced the executive workforce of the state by 14% while launching his candidature for president in April, according to KARK-TV.
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The state’s executive branch had about 3,000 fewer workers when he left office in 2023 than there had been when he had taken it over in 2015, according to a January article in the El Dorado News-Times.
The number of employees decreased from 26,108 in 2015 to 23,111 at the beginning of this year, according to the publication. However, that results in a decrease of slightly over 11% rather than the 14% he claimed.
