PHOENIX —
The debate stage included just six leading Democrats on Wednesday in Las Vegas. For the first time on the debate stage, former New York mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg faced off against frontrunner Bernie Sanders and the four Democrats that qualified: Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden.
At the same time, President Donald Trump rallied supporters in downtown Phoenix as part of his "Keep America Great'' campaign tour.
Our VERIFY researchers fact-checked what all the candidates had to say during Wednesday's debate, and the president’s speech in Phoenix.
From the beginning, the Democratic debate stage was heated.
Claim: Elizabeth Warren said Michael Bloomberg makes sexist remarks
Verified or False: Verified
“I'd like to talk about who we're running against — a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians," she said. "No, I'm not talking about Donald Trump — I'm talking about Michael Bloomberg.”
The 12 News VERIFY team looked into where that statement is coming from -- and here's the background:
The Washington Post recently published an investigation into Bloomberg's background including a copy of a booklet from the 1990s that had what were called "actual quotes" from Bloomberg.
It contains a number of sexist remarks attributed to the former mayor.
His publicist responded quote: "Mike openly admits that his words have not always aligned with his values and the way he has led his life and some of what he has said is disrespectful and wrong."
Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg in his Twitter post says “ I would not be where I am today without the talented women around me. I've depended on their leadership, their advice and their contributions. As I've demonstrated throughout my career, I will always be a champion for women in the workplace.”
Source: Washington Post Investigation
Claim: President Trump claimed the United States has destroyed "100 percent" of the ISIS Caliphate.
Verified or False: Partly True
The 12 News VERIFY team looked into where that statement is coming from -- and here's the background:
It’s true that the territorial caliphate of ISIS has been defeated, but not true that 100% of ISIS is defeated. Last year, ISIS’s last territorial claim was captured by the Syrian Defense Force. Since then, however, the U.S. The Department of Defense has maintained ISIS still exists -The leader was killed in a raid last year, but ISIS has named a new leader.
Source: TEGNA VERIFY
Claim: Joe Biden claimed he was the "best fit" to beat Trump.
Verified or False: True
Vice President Joe Biden is falling behind Democratic frontrunners Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released yesterday. However, the same poll did a match up of Democrats versus President Trump - and while the poll found 5 of the current candidates could defeat the president, the poll found Biden had the best chances.
Source: NBC/Wall Street Journal poll
CLAIM: Former Vice President Joe Biden claimed that while Michael Bloomberg was the mayor of New York City, the "Stop and Frisk" policy threw close to five million young black men up against the wall.
Verified or False: False
During Mayor Bloomberg’s time in office, there were roughly five million NYPD stop and frisk stops. But only about 2.6 million were of African Americans and it isn’t broken down by gender.
Data from the NYPD and the New York Civil Liberties Union show that during Bloomberg’s time as mayor, there were about five million stops under the policy.
That data can be broken down by demographics and it shows that about 2.6 million stops were done against African Americans. Biden used the total number of stops rather than the actual number of stops against African Americans. That number is lower.
CLAIM: Senator Bernie Sanders said we are the only major country on Earth that can't guarantee healthcare for all.
Verified or False: Partly True
This claim is verified, but only in certain parameters.
Senator Sanders has repeated this claim frequently, including at the most recent debate in New Hampshire, and has previously given sources for the claim. The United Nations' “Human Development Index,” lists the major 33 countries in the world based on GDP, GNP, per capita income and standard of living.
The chart shows that the U.S. is the only nation in the “very high human development” category to lack universal healthcare. There are some noted issues with countries like Qatar and Russia who don’t fully cover their entire populations, but are moving towards it.
CLAIM: Former Vice President Joe Biden claimed that former mayor Mike Bloomberg opposed Obamacare and called it “a disgrace.”
Verified or False: Partly True
The claim that Bloomberg called the Affordable Care Act a "disgrace" is true. Added context does show that Bloomberg didn’t directly say he opposed the ACA - but rather the version of the bill that Congress had passed.
In a 2010 lecture at Dartmouth University, Mike Bloomberg said the following: “We passed a health-care bill that does absolutely nothing to fix the big health-care problems in this country. It is just a disgrace,” he said. “The president, in all fairness, started out by pointing out what the big problems were, but then turned it over to Congress, which didn’t pay any attention to any of those big problems and just created another program that’s going to cost a lot of money.”
Source: Dartmouth video with transcript
CLAIM: Mark Kelly’s campaign is funded by Californians
Verified or False: True
During his rally, President Trump turned his focus on the Arizona senate race, and fired off at Democratic candidate Mark Kelly.
“The radical, liberal democrats from California are pouring money into Mark Kelly’s campaign,” the president said.
That is verified. The Federal Election Commission data shows tens of thousands of individual contributions came from Californians, and the Los Angeles Times reported Californians have given more than $1.4 million to Kelly’s campaign - triple the campaign contributions from Californians to Sen. McSally.
Still, far more individual contributions to Kelly’s campaign come from Arizonans, FEC data shows.
Mark Kelly's campaign sent this response to Trump's statements:
“Another day, and more of the same negative and false attacks that Arizonans are tired of. Mark is an engineer, combat pilot, and astronaut running to be an independent voice in the Senate, and he will stand up to anyone in either party when it’s right for Arizona. That makes him the only candidate in this race who can say that.” - Jacob Peters, Mark Kelly for Senate Communications Director.
Source: Federal Election Commission
Claim: 401(k)s are up 100 percent
Verified or False: False
401(k)s are up, but not by that much on average.
While the average 401(k) did hit a record last year, it's growth was less than President Trump claimed. According to the associated press the average 401(k) rose 17 percent from the end of 2018 to 2019.
Source: AP FACT CHECK
Claim: Bernie Sanders said the scientific community warns we must dramatically curb CO2 emissions within 6-7 years
Verified or False: True
According to a United Nations special report, climate science leaders called for “global carbon dioxide emissions (to) start to decline well before 2030” to prevent devastating outcomes. The report featured three international groups with 91 authors and editors from 40 countries who examined more than 6,000 scientific studies.
The report continues to say, “global warming is likely to reach 1.5 degrees Celsius between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate.”
Contributors to the 12 News VERIFY Team: Joe Dana, Katie Wilcox, Dylan Dulberg, Kylie Cochrane, Peter Gong, Jason Puckett