EDITOR’S NOTE: A look at political claims that take shortcuts with the facts or don’t tell the full story
WASHINGTON (AP) — Her intent was to mar the voting record of her rival. But Hillary Clinton also cast aspersions on the presidential record of her husband Thursday night in testy exchanges with Bernie Sanders over Wall Street regulation.
A look at some of the claims in the latest Democratic presidential debate and how they compare with the facts:
CLINTON: “I’m the only one on this stage who did not vote to deregulate swaps and derivatives, as Sen. Sanders did … and that contributed to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and started the cascade.”
THE FACTS: The legislation in question was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
Hillary Clinton was in no position to vote for — or against — it because she was not in the Senate at the time. It’s true that Sanders voted for the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which deregulated many financial instruments that were later blamed for intensifying the 2008 financial crisis. Once it passed Congress, Bill Clinton signed it. Hillary Clinton, who became a senator in 2001, is always quick to credit her husband’s economic management, but in this exchange she essentially, if inadvertently, pinned part of the responsibility for the meltdown on the stroke of his pen.
She said the deregulation contributed to Lehman’s collapse and that, along with a few big failures in the insurance and mortgage industries, “actually caused the Great Recession.”
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SANDERS: “When this campaign began, I said that we got to end the starvation minimum wage of $7.25, raise it to $15. Secretary Clinton said let’s raise it to $12. There’s a difference.”
CLINTON: “I have said from the very beginning that I supported the fight for $15.”
THE FACTS: It depends on what the meaning of “minimum” is. Clinton has said she supports legislation that calls for a $12-an-hour wage floor, and would encourage some cities and states to push it as high as $15. The graduated scale is a response to concerns that some localities would not be able to support a $15 minimum without suffering a loss of jobs.
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CLINTON: “I stood up against the behaviors of the banks when I was a senator. I called them out on their mortgage behavior.”
SANDERS: “Oh my goodness, they must have been really crushed by this.”
THE FACTS: Sanders had reason to be sarcastic about Clinton’s claim. She has repeatedly cited a speech she gave to the financial industry in December 2007 as proof that she gave Wall Street a dressing down for its behavior as the sector slipped into crisis. In reality, she delivered a much more mixed message.
In a video of the speech obtained by ProPublica, she thanked her “wonderful donors” in the audience, said banks were not the main villains in the emerging crisis, “not by a long shot,” and praised Wall Street for its contribution to the economy. At the same time, she said Wall Street had a hand in worsening the crisis and called for voluntary steps on foreclosures and subprime mortgages.
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SANDERS: “It turns out that both Verizon and General Electric, in a given year, pay nothing in federal income tax despite making billions in profits.”
THE FACTS: In some years, yes. But altogether, they’ve been paying corporate income tax over the past 15 years, while cutting their tax bills far below the 35 percent corporate rate, according to one analysis.
The analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice, a left-of-center think-tank that looked into the two companies’ annual reports, found that Verizon has paid an average tax rate of 12.4 percent over the last 15 years, while paying none for five of those years. General Electric paid an average of only 5.2 percent over the past 15 years, the analysis found — and none over the last decade.
The CEOs from both companies assert they do pay their fair share. Verizon’s CEO, Lowell McAdam, says the company paid 35 percent of its income in taxes in 2015, an assertion the think-tank disputes. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, in an April 6 column in The Washington Post, said the company pays “billions” in federal, state and local taxes, but was not more specific.
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Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
That’s some pretty lame fact checking. Basically they gave a pass to Bernie, and attempted to highlight what Hillary said in a negative light…even though she didn’t lie.
What about his claims to have raised millions and millions of dollars for Democrats…this year?
What about his repeated refusal to release his taxes? Saying that he is too busy, is not even laughably close to the truth. He says Jane does them online…great, she can access the completed forms from anywhere with an internet connection and print them out.
He claimed at least twice that Hillary voted for the 1994 Crime Bill. She didn’t…First Ladies don’t get to vote on bills, which might come as a shock to Bernie and Jane.
Those are just the outright lies I can remember. Bernie’s main instrument however, is the implied smear, and he had plenty of those tonight.He will release his transcripts of his speeches to wall street. Well, considering that nobody on Wall Street cares to hear what a loud mouthed back bencher from Vermont has to say…he hasn’t been invited.
But it would be very interesting to see him release the transcripts of his closed door meetings in Nicaragua and Cuba. The entire transcript of his interview on Soviet television praising the Castro regime. He seems a lot more hesitant to release those. Like his taxes.
Or how about his half hearted claim to be a Democrat, and wanting to support Democrats…at a debate where he demanded that both the state and national Democratic party be excluded from? The irony alone on that one is worth mentioning.
Her statement about being the only one on stage not voting on derivatives is absolutely true. The derivitive issue was hugely responsible for the mortgage market collapse. To harness her with her husband’s votes is so out of line.
Her statement on the minimum wage was also correct. She did not change a thing. Frankly, even if a candidate changes their mind on an issue it can be argued as a plus. If they do it consistently, it is problematic.
Nuances matter but this article can not seem to sort through the facts.
On a given year these corporations have not paid taxes but on more years they have. They should every year.
LOL, the press gave Senator Sanders a pass?
Not.
Secretary Clinton was booed for several of her less than forthright responses. Hopefully she will learn from that.
Wait… Seriously? Hillary says she didn’t vote for the Commodity Futures Modernization Act and the AP responds that it “was signed into law by President Bill Clinton”. Thanks for the fact check there, I feel enlightened.
Despite the possible manipulations of the truth, it was refreshing to see an actual debate over issues instead of a school yard argument.