CNN
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Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley participated in a CNN town hall in Iowa on Sunday. While the former South Carolina governor correctly cited a variety of facts and figures, not everything he said was accurate.
Haley falsely claimed, as she has done before, that crime is at an all time high. While talking about Covid-19, he falsely claimed that all the drugs on pharmacy shelves are made in China. He also exaggerated the amount of unspent Covid-19 relief money.
Here is a verification of these and other claims made by the former US ambassador to the United Nations.
Haley spoke of her support for gun rights in general and AR-15 ownership in particular, and her opposition to red flag laws. She said: “When you’ve got crime at record highs, you’ve got illegal immigrants crossing the border, you’ve got a mental health crisis as big as it is, the last thing I’m going to do is take away someone’s ability to protect themselves himself and his family”.
First facts: Haley’s claim that crime is at “all-time highs” is not even close to the truth about the United States as a whole. In the early 1990s there was much more crime in the United States than there is today; the crime has decreased sharply over the past three decades, although there have been some intermittent increases along the way.
We still don’t have national crime data for 2023 or 2022, and even the 2021 data is flawed. But experts say it’s clear, based on the numbers we have, that American crime levels are nowhere near what they were in the early 1990s. In 1992, for example, the violent crime rate in the United States was about 758 for every 100,000 inhabitants. Although there was an increase in 2020, the violent crime rate remained below that 400 per 100,000 people even that year. And there are no signs of a rebound between 2020 and now that will bring the country even closer to the levels of the 1990s.
In fact, Jeff Ashera crime analyst and consultant, told CNN during the town hall that there are early signs that the number of murders in 2022 and 2023 decreased from previous years.
“The nation experienced a historically significant increase in murders in 2020 and another small increase in 2021. That said, the nation’s murder rate in 2021 was nowhere near an all-time high, as it was 30% lower than in 1991”. Asher said in a message to CNN. “Furthermore, murders likely fell nationally in 2022, and preliminary data from major cities indicates a possible large decline in murders nationally in 2023 (though still above 2019 levels).”
Haley’s comment at the town hall was not a one-off mistake. She did the same false statement about crime allegedly at an all-time high at a campaign event the day before.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale
Speaking about her stance on abortion, Haley said the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 made “abortion anytime, anywhere, for any reason” the law of the land. country
“Before 1973, you had 46 different state laws dealing with life and abortion, and people decided what those were. Roe v. Wade came in and threw out 46 state laws and suddenly said abortion anytime anywhere for any reason, and every American had to succumb to that,” Haley said.
First facts: It is not true that Roe v. Wade allowed “abortion at any time.”
Under Roe, abortion was allowed until the fetus was considered viable, which was determined to be around 23-24 weeks of pregnancy. States could ban abortion after this point of viability.
After Roe, the 1992 Supreme Court decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey added that states could even regulate abortions before 23 weeks, as long as their restrictions did not create an “undue burden” on the right constitutional right of the woman to have an abortion.
Haley may have been referring to part of the Roe decision that said states could decide whether to allow abortion after 23 weeks if it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother. Republicans have previously pointed to this exception to support claims that Democrats support abortion at any time, up to birth, but it does not go so far as to allow “abortion at any time anywhere,” as stated Haley.
It is also misleading for Haley to suggest that Roe v. Wade “out of the blue” dismissed state abortion laws. Before Roe, two other court cases, People v. Belous and Doe v. Scott, which reached the Supreme Court in 1971, declared existing state abortion laws unconstitutional.
From CNN’s Tara Subramaniam
Haley claimed during the coronavirus pandemic that “all” of the drugs in local pharmacies were made in China.
“When you saw we had Covid, they told you to wear a mask. The masks were made in China. They told you to take a Covid test at home. You turned it around, it was done in the China. You go to your local pharmacy, all these drugs are made in China,” he said.
First facts: While it’s unclear whether Haley was referring to Covid-related treatments or drugs in general, it’s not true that they were “all” made in China.
Pfizer, in particular, notes that Paxlovid, one of the three main antiviral drugs listed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a treatment for Covid-19, was produced at three main sites, none of which in China, according to a report. information sheet of the pharmaceutical company. That said, at least one brand of the Covid tests distributed in the US was manufactured in China.
It is also worth noting that the US is dependent on China for drug production. As of August 2019, 13% of manufacturing facilities supplying the active ingredients of US drugs came from China, according to Janet Woodcock, then director of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. However, Woodcock noted that at the time, the FDA did not know what percentage of drug use in the US this represented.
Before the pandemic, at least one of the top 100 Medicare prescription drugs by total costs sold in the US in 2018 was made in China, according to a report from PharmacyChecker.com, which accredits foreign online pharmacies that sell drugs to customers in the US and around the world. The same report noted that “national security vulnerability is less of an issue when it comes to brand-name drugs,” countering Haley’s broader argument that the use and prevalence of Chinese-made products during the pandemic represented a national security risk.
From CNN’s Tara Subramaniam
Haley said political leaders must begin to address Social Security reform before the entitlement program fails to fully pay all the benefits it is owed in a decade or so. He gave a couple of options.
“Instead of raising the cost of living, we’re doing increases based on inflation,” Haley said.
First facts: Haley’s statement is misleading. Social Security cost-of-living adjustments are already based on inflation. The annual increases are intended to help seniors and other beneficiaries cope with the annual change in prices.
The formula for determining the annual adjustments is specified in the Social Security Law. The adjustments are based on increases in a certain index of inflation, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Employees, known as CPI-W.
The adjustment is equal to the percentage increase, if any, in the CPI-W average for the third quarter of the current year over the average for the third quarter of the most recent year put an adjustment into effect. according to the Social Security Administration.
The annual boost, however, has not actually kept pace with inflation over time. Those who retired before 2000 have seen the purchasing power of their benefits drop by 36%, according to The Senior Citizens League. These people would need an increase of almost $517 in their monthly benefits just to maintain the same level of purchasing power as in 2000.
From CNN’s Tami Luhby
Haley claimed that India and China “are the problem” when it comes to emissions and the environment.
“The United States is very good at emissions. If we really want to fix the environment, let’s start having serious talks with India and China. They are our polluters. They are the ones causing the problems,” he said. said Haley.
“We need a level playing field. We are not the problem. The Chinese and Indians are the problem,” he continued.
First facts: This needs context. While it is true that China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, the US ranks second. The United States is also the world’s largest historical polluter and still has larger per capita greenhouse gas emissions than China or India.
China is by far the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gas pollutants with nearly 30 percent of global emissions, but the United States is second at about 11 percent, according to 2019 data. The ‘India is above 6%, around the European Union.
While it is true that US emissions are dragging down, the country has emitted more throughout history than any other nation. Emissions in developing countries like India are rising as they rely on fossil fuels like coal to power their economy.
And if we look at emissions per capita, the US leads both China and India. The US emits about 17.6 tons of emissions per person, while China emits about 10.1 tons per person. according to a report from the non-partisan energy think tank Rhodium Group. India is much lower, at around 2.8 tonnes per person, according to the Global Data Lab.
From CNN’s Ella Nilsen
Responding to a question from a small business owner about how she would help curb rising costs, GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley blamed both Democrats and Republicans for passing a bill $2.2 trillion Covid-19 relief bill without accountability.
“Let’s start by recouping the $500 billion of unspent Covid that we know is there,” he said.
First facts: Haley’s data is not updated. There is $420 billion in unspent Covid-19 funds as of April 30. according to federal data.
But more importantly, there is far less money unobligated, or not yet legally committed, that Congress could claw back. Only $90.5 billion remains in unobligated and unexpired funds as of January 31. according to the US Government Accountability Office.
Republican lawmakers in the House have looked into the possibility of bringing back the Covid-19 funds, but the debt ceiling package enacted last week rescinded only about $28 billion of unobligated funds.
From CNN’s Tami Luhby
