Eight candidates for the Republican nomination for president took the stage for the first GOP debate Wednesday night in Milwaukee.
Below is a fact check of some of their statements.
Fact Check: DeSantis and the pandemic
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized the federal government for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, claiming it had locked down the economy, and then said: "In Florida, we led the country out of lockdown, and we kept our state free and open."
Facts First: DeSantis's claim is misleading at best. Before he became a vocal opponent of pandemic restrictions, DeSantis imposed significant restrictions on individuals, businesses and other entities in Florida in March 2020 and April 2020; some of them extended months later into 2020. He did then open up the state, with a gradual phased approach, but he did not keep it open from the start.
DeSantis received criticism in March 2020 for what some critics perceived as a lax approach to the pandemic, which intensified as Florida beaches were packed during Spring Break. But that month and the month following, DeSantis issued a series of major restrictions. For example, DeSantis:
Closed Florida's schools, first with a short-term closure in March 2020 and then, in April 2020, with a shutdown through the end of the school year. (In June 2020, he announced a plan for schools to reopen for the next school year that began in August. By October 2020, he was publicly denouncing school closures, calling them a major mistake and saying all the information hadn't been available that March.) On March 14, 2020, announced a ban on most visits to nursing homes. (He lifted the ban in September 2020.) On March 17, 2020, ordered bars and nightclubs to close for 30 days and restaurants to operate at half-capacity. (He later approved a phased reopening plan that took effect in May 2020, then issued an order in September 2020 allowing these establishments to operate at full capacity.) On March 17, 2020, ordered gatherings on public beaches to be limited to a maximum of 10 people staying at least six feet apart, then, three days later, ordered a shutdown of public beaches in two populous counties, Broward and Palm Beach. (He permitted those counties' beaches to reopen by the last half of May.) On March 20, 2020, prohibited "any medically unnecessary, non-urgent or non-emergency" medical procedures. (The prohibition was lifted in early May 2020.) On March 23, 2020, ordered that anyone flying to Florida from an area with "substantial community spread" of the virus, "to include the New York Tri-State Area (Connecticut, New Jersey and New York)," isolate or quarantine for 14 days or the duration of their stay in Florida, whichever was shorter, or face possible jail time or a fine. Later that week, he added Louisiana to the list. (He lifted the Louisiana restriction in June 2020 and the rest in August 2020.) On April 3, 2020, imposed a statewide stay-home order that temporarily required people in Florida to "limit their movements and personal interactions outside of their home to only those necessary to obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities." (Beginning in May 2020, the state switched to a phased reopening plan that, for months, included major restrictions on the operations of businesses and other entities; DeSantis described it at the time as a "very slow and methodical approach" to reopening.)
-From CNN's Daniel Dale
Nikki Haley on Trump adding to the national debt
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations, said: "Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt, and our kids are never going to forgive us for this."
Facts First: Haley's figure is accurate. The total public debt stood at about $19.9 trillion on the day Trump took office in 2017 and then increased by about $7.8 trillion over Trump's four years, to about $27.8 trillion on the day he left office in 2021.
It's worth noting, however, that the increase in the debt during any president's tenure is not the fault of that president alone. A significant amount of spending under any president is the result of decisions made by their predecessors -- such as the creation of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid decades ago -- and by circumstances out of a president's control, notably including the global Covid-19 pandemic under Trump; the debt spiked in 2020 after Trump approved trillions in emergency pandemic relief spending that Congress had passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Still, Trump did choose to approve that spending. And his 2017 tax cuts, unanimously opposed by congressional Democrats, were another major contributor to the debt spike.
-From CNN's Daniel Dale and Katie Lobosco
Burgum on the Inflation Reduction Act
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum claimed that Biden's signature climate bill costs $1.2 trillion dollars and is "just subsidizing China."
Facts First: This claim needs context. The clean energy pieces of the Inflation Reduction Act -- Democrats' climate bill -- passed with an initial price tag of nearly $370 billion. However, since that bill is made up of tax incentives, that price tag could go up depending on how many consumers take advantage of tax credits to buy electric vehicles and put solar panels on their homes, and how many businesses use the subsidies to install new utility scale wind and solar in the United States.
Burgum's figure comes from a Goldman Sachs report, which estimated the IRA could provide $1.2 trillion in clean energy tax incentives by 2032 -- about a decade from now.
On Burgum's claim that Biden's clean energy agenda will be a boon to China, the IRA was specifically written to move the manufacturing supply chain for clean energy technology like solar panels and EV batteries away from China and to the United States.
In the year since it was passed, the IRA has spurred 83 new or expanded manufacturing facilities in the US, and close to 30,000 new clean energy manufacturing jobs, according to a tally from trade group American Clean Power.
-From CNN's Ella Nilsen
