FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. According to its website, FactCheck.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. It monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. The stated goal of FactCheck.org is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.
The news media tend to focus on President Trump’s exaggerations, misstatements and false claims - not a hard task, given the president’s tendency for loose talk. No such due diligence with the current crop of Democrat candidates. No ongoing catalogue of lies, ala CNN, of anyone other than Donald J. Trump. As if Trump were so bad, it’s okay to downplay the shortcoming of “anyone but Trump”. I don’t share that sentiment. So thank you FactCheck.org for combing through the Democrat debates and calling out candidates who spoke less than the truth.
Per FactCheck.org (and in their own words), here are questionable statements made by Pete Buttigieg during the Democrat debates:
Buttigieg said he won with 80% in “Mike Pence’s Indiana,” but Sen. Amy Klobuchar was correct when she said he lost by 20 points (actually almost 25) in his only statewide bid for Hoosier office. December 2019 Democratic Debate
Buttigieg claimed Trump has not made “a peep” in support of “folks out there standing up for democracy” in Hong Kong, but Trump last month signed two bills in support of Hong Kong protesters, over the objections of the Chinese government. December 2019 Democratic Debate
South Bend Mayor Peter Buttigieg falsely claimed that President Donald Trump “had to confess in writing, in court, to illegally diverting charitable contributions that were supposed to go to veterans.” Trump’s 2016 campaign unlawfully ran a veterans fundraiser for his namesake foundation, but the money raised was in fact donated to veterans groups. November 2019 Democratic Debate
When addressing climate change, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg called 2030 a “point of no return” and O’Rourke said scientists say there aren’t “more than 10 years to get this right.” Those conclusions misconstrue the findings of a special report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. July 2019 Democratic Debate
Links:
January 2020 Democratic Debate
December 2019 Democratic Debate
November 2019 Democratic Debate
October 2019 Democratic Debate