The Saturday night showdown featured misleading claims on guns, the minimum wage and Wall Street.
FactChecking the Third Democratic Debate
Issues: Wall Street
A Sour Note From ‘Every Voice’
Two new ads from a newly renamed liberal group attack Republican Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas with descriptions of favors he supposedly did for campaign donors. One of the ads is inaccurate and misleading.
Peddling Innuendo, Exaggerations on ‘Obama’s Wall Street’
American Future Fund continues to exaggerate the facts in a new round of TV ads attacking President Obama’s ties to Wall Street. We do give the group partial credit, however, for correcting a misstatement from one ad it has re-released. It gets “partial credit” because the group corrected the error once in the revised ad, but then repeated the error elsewhere in the same ad. And the group didn’t make any revisions to address other gross misstatements in the ad.
Obama White House ‘Full of Wall Street Executives’?
A conservative group exaggerates the number of “Wall Street executives” in the Obama White House. In a major TV ad buy, the American Future Fund lists 27 people it claims are part of “Obama’s Wall Street Inner Circle.” But the ad is either flat wrong or greatly exaggerated in more than half of those cases. Among the most laughable examples we found of “Wall Street executives” in Obama’s “inner circle”:
A “White House fellow,” class of 2009-2010,
‘Bobblehead’ Scott Brown?
A misleading liberal ad attacks Sen. Scott Brown as a yes-man for “Wall Street and the national Republican agenda.” The truth is that Brown was one of only three Republican senators to vote for the controversial Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. And the Massachusetts senator votes contrary to other Republican senators once every five or six votes, a more independent record than all but a few in his party.
The ad is the work of MassUniting,
Democratic Bailout Baloney
At least five freshman Democratic House members are running ads claiming they voted against the bank "bailout," when in fact none was in Congress when the bill setting up the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, was enacted.
Mary Jo Kilroy says she "voted against the bank bailout."
Kathy Dahlkemper says she voted "against a bailout that helped Wall Street."
Frank Kratovil claims to have cast his vote in opposition to "the big bank bailout."
Dina Titus’
Reid, Angle Trade Familiar Charges
In Nevada’s Senate race, Republican Sharron Angle and Democrat Harry Reid began airing new commercials Aug. 26. Angle’s attack ad pictures Reid in a "love triangle" with President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and repeats some familiar but misleading claims.
Like Angle’s, Reid’s ad covers familiar ground. All of its claims are rooted in true statements or proposals. But Reid goes too far in one case. Angle did not say that "Medicare and Social Security violate the Ten Commandments."
Carnahan Ad Gets VH1-Inspired Treatment
Are you a fan of VH1’s revolutionary "Pop-Up Video" program? And a political junkie? (And maybe even a St. Louis Rams fan?) Well, we have a treat for you.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch website, stltoday.com, has launched a fact-checking effort called "Pop-Up Politics." Last week, reporter Jake Wagman gave the first ad from Democratic Senate hopeful Robin Carnahan the VH1 treatment, sticking factual nuggets in the video of the ad itself, à la the popular music video show.
Maligning Maloney by Mailer
In a flurry of mailers sent to New York’s Upper East Side Democratic voters, challenger Reshma Saujani claims that incumbent Rep. Carolyn Maloney has taken $2.5 million from "special interests" while she has accepted none. Um, really? What about the $220,000 Saujani has received from Wall Street, her leading source of campaign funds?
Yes, Maloney has accepted more than $2.5 million from political action committees over the course of her career ($588,561 in this election cycle),
DNC Steals Words Right Out of Steele’s Mouth
Props to Politico’s Ben Smith for spotting the latest misleading ad from the Democratic National Committee. The ad, called "On Their Side," uses selective editing to make it seem as though Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele gives "Wall Street" exclusive credit for creating jobs and building the economy. In fact, Steele was also praising "Main Street" and small businesses, but the DNC edited out those references.
The clip in the ad comes from a June 22 interview on CNBC,