Linda McMahon falsely claims in a TV ad that Rep. Chris Murphy “voted to raise middle-class Social Security taxes.” The ad cites two votes on end-of-year tax deals — but neither bill would have increased the payroll tax that funds Social Security:
Murphy voted against the 2010 tax deal that extended the Bush-era tax cuts and reduced the Social Security payroll tax for one year. But voting against cutting Social Security taxes is not the same as voting to raise them.
A false and vicious TV ad attacks Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin for voting against “honoring the victims of 9/11.” The fact is, she voted to award three Congressional Gold Medals to honor the victims of the terrorist attacks in New York City, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
So what’s the ad talking about? It cites her 2006 vote against a ceremonial resolution on the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11 — which Baldwin opposed because she said the GOP-drafted resolution “politicized”
A new ad from Mitt Romney’s campaign patches together pieces of Romney’s debate defense of his claim that Barack Obama began his presidency on an “apology tour” in the Middle East — leaving out parts that are demonstrably untrue. But even with the benefit of careful editing, Romney’s claim falls short of its billing.
Typically, when we fact-check quotes, it is often a matter of a candidate selectively grabbing bits and pieces of his opponent’s words,
FactCheck.org Managing Editor Lori Robertson appears on MSNBC’s Jansing and Co. to discuss the final presidential debate between President Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney.
For the full analysis of the candidates’ third and final meeting, see “False Claims in Final Debate.”
In a new TV ad, President Obama makes an inflated claim to have added 5.2 million new jobs. The total added during his time in office is actually about 325,000.
In the ad, the president says “over 5 million new jobs” while the figure “5.2 million” appears on screen. But that’s a doubly misleading figure.
Viewers would need to pay close attention to the on-screen graphic to know that the ad refers only to employment gains starting in March 2010,
Illinois Republican Rep. Joe Walsh falsely claimed that there wasn’t “one instance” where an abortion would be necessary to save the mother’s life. But the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said that more than 600 women die each year due to complications from pregnancy and childbirth, and more would die if they didn’t have access to abortion. After that, Walsh quickly backed down.
Walsh made his controversial comments after an Oct. 18 debate with Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth.
In the third and final Obama-Romney debate, the candidates again contradicted each other, while each offered incorrect or twisted factual claims. President Obama erred when he accused Mitt Romney of saying during the 2008 campaign that “we should ask Pakistan …
In the homestretch to Election Day, both sides stretch the facts in their TV spots. President Obama greatly exaggerates his differences with Mitt Romney over troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, while Romney repeats a false claim that the president plans a $4,000 tax increase on “the middle class.”
First the Obama ad, and its multiple exaggerations:
Iraq
The ad says, “President Obama ended the Iraq war. Mitt Romney would have left 30,000 troops there and called bringing them home ‘tragic.’”
This week, readers sent us comments about our analysis of the second presidential debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney.
In the FactCheck Mailbag, we feature some of the email we receive. Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.
A Senate candidate says a pro-Israel group is airing a “false” TV ad about her record and urges stations not to run it. The ad does mislead voters in some — but not all — of its claims:
The ad says Wisconsin Rep. Tammy Baldwin called “terrorists who attacked Israel ‘innocent victims’ ” — a claim it illustrates with photos of masked men carrying weapons. That’s nonsense. Baldwin said those killed and injured while attempting to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip were “innocent victims.”