The GOP debate in Charleston, South Carolina was one of the presidential candidate’s last opportunities to sway voters before the first caucus, just 18 days away in Iowa.
NewsChannel 5 has partnered with Politifact to fact check the many things said in the debate.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz got things started, taking aim at the nation’s economic record under President Barack Obama.
"We have the lowest percentage of Americans working today of any year since 1977," he said.
Our Politifact team rated that claim by Cruz as mostly true. Cruz has his stats correct, but it’s not all President Obama’s fault.
Politifact said part of the decline in labor force appeared strongly tied to the unavoidable aging of baby bommers.
And that was not likely to change when President Obama Leaves office.
The talk then turned to Syrian refugees and other migrants being allowed to enter the U.S.
Candidate Donald Trump has proposed a ban, and pointed to recent terror events in Europe, saying allowing migrants into the U.S. could be a “great Trojan horse.”
When I look at the migration, I looked at the line, I said it actually on your show recently, where are the women? There look like very few women. Very few children. Strong powerful men,” he said.
Trump’s claims about Europe didn’t hold up with our Politifact experts, rating them completely false.
Data in no way supported his view. The majority of the nearly 5 million Syrian refugees entering Europe are women and children ages 17 and under.
Of the about 1 million migrants arriving by sea, 31% are children and 19% are women.
