2016 Postmortem

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(85,998 posts) Wed Apr 13, 2016, 08:13 AM Apr 2016

Fact Checkers: Sanders Struggles With The Truth

...in your face, pre-debate fireworks right from Hillary's website:

Fact Checkers: Sanders Struggles With The Truth

Tax Returns

Washington Post: Bernie Sanders’s false claim that he has released his full federal tax returns

RATING: FOUR PINOCCHIOS

Plainly put, Sanders has not released his full federal tax return. The little he has released was the Form 1040 in 2014, which is a summary of his tax filing that gives a snapshot of his finances — not what is considered a full tax return. The Sanders campaign confirmed to The Washington Post that it has not released other tax returns prior to 2014, which is a sharp contrast to Clinton’s voluminous release of her complete tax returns.

PolitiFact: Bernie Sanders has released few tax returns compared with past and present candidates

RATING: FALSE

Sanders “has not, in fact, released his most recent tax return,” Thorndike said. “He has released a portion of that return. The IRS would not accept a Form 1040 as a complete return and neither should voters. Also, it’s worth noting that Sanders has not released any portion of his older returns. … If Mitt Romney had tried to release an incomplete return in 2012, the media would never have accepted it.”

FactCheck.org: Sanders Evades Tax Question

RATING: Sanders has released only his 1040 form, a two-page summary of his federal returns, from 2014, not his full returns.

When asked about releasing his “full” federal tax returns, Sen. Bernie Sanders insisted that “we have released them in the past.” But Sanders has released only his 1040 form, a two-page summary of his federal returns, not his full returns.

Policy

PolitiFact: Bernie Sanders says Wall Street tax would pay for his free tuition plan

RATING: MOSTLY FALSE

Sanders has a point that his proposed Wall Street tax would cover part of the plan, but he left out the significant state contribution. And it’s not a sure thing that every state would join in. So we rate his claim Mostly False.

Washington Post: Sanders’s claim that Panama Free-Trade deal enabled more offshore tax scams

RATING: THREE PINOCCHIOS

Sanders has not demonstrated that the Panama free-trade agreement encouraged tax avoidance schemes in Panama. The trade deal did not cover tax issues and the section cited by his staff merely updated an existing investment agreement with Panama. The side agreements on taxes and bearer shares actually appear to have had an impact, even if Panama’s overall performance on stemming shady money continues to be poor.

Univision: Sanders: People are Working Longer Hours for Low Wages

RATING: ALMOST LIE

This generalization has no factual basis. You need to make some very important points for such a statement to be true.

Univision: Sanders: Free Trade Agreement Destroyed More than 800,000 jobs

RATING: HALF LIE

Sanders has said that NAFTA and other free trade agreements have affected US workers, destroying jobs and making wages worse.

Campaign Contributions

FactCheck.org: Clinton’s Fossil Fuel Money Revisited

RATING: The figure relies on a tortured definition of fossil fuel money.

Sen. Bernie Sanders uses padded data to back up his claim that “Hillary Clinton received $4.5 million from the fossil fuel industry.” The figure relies on a tortured definition of fossil fuel money. It includes contributions donated by lobbyists who represent many clients other than oil or gas companies. It also includes money those lobbyists raised from other donors who have nothing to do with the oil and gas industry.

Washington Post: Fact-checking the Clinton-Sanders spat over Big Oil contributions

RATING: THREE PINOCCHIOS

The Sanders campaign is exaggerating the contributions that Clinton has received from the oil and gas industry. In the context of her overall campaign, the contributions are hardly significant. It’s especially misleading to count all of the funds raised by lobbyists with multiple clients as money “given” by the fossil-fuel industry.

New York Times: Senator Bernie Sanders said Hillary Clinton has received significant contributions from the fossil fuel industry.

RATING: Not that much.

First of all, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has not received money from oil, gas or coal companies, because corporations cannot donate to candidates’ campaigns.

Univision: Sanders: Clinton Campaign is funded by the Fossil Fuel Industry

RATING: ALMOST LIE

Clinton denied having funding from the fossil fuel industry. The Sanders campaign said that up to $4.5 million of Clinton’s donations are from the industry. Who tells the truth?

Univision: Sanders says that no Super PAC is supporting his campaign, is he lying?

RATING: LIE

Contrary to what he says, Bernie Sanders does have the support from a Super PAC. While organizations supporting Sanders are financed by small donations from thousands of people, they meet the definition of Super PACs (“National Nurses United for Patient Protection”) and legally exist thanks to the controversial decision of the Supreme Court in 2010 called “Citizens United.”

Univision: Clinton said that Sanders supported indefinite detention of undocumented immigrants and voted to protect the Minutemen, truth or lie?

RATING: TRUTH

Hillary Clinton said that when Bernie Sanders was in the House of Representatives he voted for a proposal to allow indefinite detention of undocumented immigrants and protected a militia group at the border.

"Not Qualified" = Not True

Washington Post: Sanders’s incorrect claim that Clinton called him ‘not qualified’ for the presidency

RATING: THREE PINOCCHIOS

Sanders is putting words in Clinton’s mouth. She never said “quote unquote” that he was not qualified to be president. In fact, she diplomatically went out of her way to avoid saying that, without at the same time saying he was qualified. The Washington Post article appropriately noted that she raised questions about his qualifications, but certainly never said or suggested she said Sanders was unqualified.

PolitiFact: Did Hillary Clinton say Bernie Sanders ‘not qualified’ to be president?

RATING: MOSTLY FALSE

So is Sanders correct that Clinton has been saying the he was “not qualified to be president”? We emailed his campaign asking where to find Clinton specifically and directly making that statement. The campaign couldn’t.

"Winning" Nevada

PolitiFact: No, Bernie Sanders didn’t retroactively win Nevada

RATING: FALSE

The pronouncement came after Sanders delegates ended up outnumbering Clinton’s during the hectic Clark County Democratic Convention on April 2, leading many media outlets and supporters to declare that Sanders retroactively “won” the state by outmaneuvering Clinton. So, did Sanders add another state to his column as many have claimed? The answer is no, and it likely will remain that way.

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/factchecks/2016/04/12/fact-checkers-sanders-struggles-with-the-truth/ …