Twelve Democrats seeking the presidency tussled Tuesday night in a wide-ranging debate featuring the largest number of qualifying candidates on the same stage.
Here’s a look at how some of their claims from Westerville, Ohio, stack up with the facts:
JULIAN CASTRO, former U.S. housing secretary: “Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania actually in the latest jobs data have lost jobs, not gained them.”
THE FACTS: Nope.
Figures from the Labor Department show that the former Housing and Urban Development secretary is wrong.
Ohio added jobs in August. So did Michigan . Same with Pennsylvania .
So Castro’s statement is off.
However, these states still have economic struggles. Pennsylvania has lost factory jobs since the end of 2018. So has Michigan . And Ohio has shed 100 factory jobs so far this year.
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ELIZABETH WARREN, senator from Massachusetts: “Mueller had shown to a fare-thee-well that this president obstructed justice.”
THE FACTS: That’s not exactly what special counsel Robert Mueller showed.
It’s true that prosecutors examined more than 10 episodes for evidence of obstruction of justice, and that they did illustrate efforts by President Donald Trump to stymie the Russia investigation or take control of it.
But ultimately, Mueller did not reach a conclusion as to whether the president obstructed justice or broke any other law. He cited Justice Department policy against the indictment of a sitting president, and said that since he could not bring charges against Trump, it was unfair to accuse him of a crime. There was no definitive finding that he obstructed justice.
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Associated Press writers Cal Woodward, Josh Boak, Eric Tucker and Amanda Seitz contributed to this report.
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EDITOR’S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures