REPUBLICANS AND AUTISM

Donald Trump recently told a story linking vaccination to autism, There’s NO 

evidence that recommended vaccines cause autism. Rand Paul suggested 

that it would be safer to spread out recommended vaccines, but there’s zero 

evidence of that. Several candidates made false or misleading statements 

about vaccines. Donald Trump told a brief story linking vaccination to 

autism, but there is no evidence that recommended vaccines cause autism.

Trump: Just the other day, 2 years old, 2 and a half years old, a child, a beautiful child went to have the vaccine, and came back, and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic. The fact is, the link between childhood vaccinations and autism has no scientific basis

Paul, a physician, again erred on vaccine science during the debate, saying that vaccines should be spread out more or that parents should have a choice to do so, suggesting it would be safer. (NO MEDICAL or SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE)

Jeb Bush said Trump donated to his gubernatorial campaign to get him to

change his mind on casino gambling in Florida (TRUE). Trump denied he 

ever wanted to bring casino gambling to the state(FALSE). A former 

lobbyist says he did.

In the late 1990s, Trump had hoped to build a multimillion dollar casino with the Seminole Tribe of Florida. In 2005, Bloomberg Business reported that a former state Senate president, Mallory E. Horne, was hired by Trump to lobby to increase the types of gambling allowed in the state, something Bush opposed. In a court affidavit obtained by Bloomberg, Horne testified that after Bush’s election in 1998, he told Trump that state officials wouldn’t budge on the issue and Trump replied, “That’s the end of it.” Trump’s denial that he was ever interested in bringing casino gambling to Florida is contradicted in a legal affidavit by a former Senate president who says he was hired by Trump to do just that.

Mike Huckabee said that Hillary Clinton was “under investigation by the FBI” because she “destroyed government records.” (FALSE). She had the authority to delete personal emails.

Trump said that “illegal immigration” cost “more than $200 billion a 

year.” (FALSE) Actually, it could cost taxpayers $137 billion or more to 

deport the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally, as Trump proposes. 

Plus, most of them pay into the tax system and SS which they will never 

see.  In fact, the CBO estimated that “(immigration) legislation would 

decrease federal budget deficits by $197 billion over the 2014–2023 period 

and by roughly $700 billion over the 2024–2033 period.” That’s the opposite 

of what Trump claimed. 

Trump said that Mexico doesn’t have a birthright citizenship policy like the United States. IT DOES.  “And by the way Mexico and almost every other country anywhere in the world doesn’t have that. We’re the only ones dumb enough, stupid enough to have it.” At least 30 countries do, including Canada and a number of other countries in Central and South America.

Carly Fiorina said that the Planned Parenthood videos released by an anti-

abortion group showed “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, 

its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its 

brain.” But that scene IS NOT in any of the videos, which were ALSO found 

to be edited to make those interviewed saying things that were out of 

context. “]I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama to watch these tapes. Watch 

a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while 

someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.” (BIG FALSE)

Fiorina repeated familiar boasts about her time at Hewlett-Packard, saying 

the size of the company “doubled,” without mentioning that was due to a 

merger with Compaq, it then lost substantial employees and revenues. She

 cherry-picked other statistics.

Marco Rubio said that U.S. policies to combat climate change would “do 

absolutely nothing.” The U.S. acting alone would have a small effect on 

rising temperatures and sea levels. Experts state U.S. leadership on the 

issue would prompt other nations to act.

Earlier, Lindsey Graham glossed over the accompanying tax increases 

when he said only that Ronald Reagan and then-House Speaker Tip O’Neill 

“found a way to save Social Security from bankruptcy by adjusting the age 

of retirement from 65 to 67.” (11 TAX INCREASES)

Graham oversimplified when he said Ronald Reagan and then-House 

Speaker Tip O’Neill “found a way to save Socia Security from bankruptcy by

 adjusting the age of retirement from 65 to 67.” In fact, much more was 

required. The law Graham referred to also provided for INCREASES in the 

payroll tax, and broadened the tax base by requiring employees of

nonprofits and new federal employees to be covered and pay into the 

system. And it made a portion of Social Security benefits subject to federal 

income tax for the first time, for certain high-income people.

Mike Huckabee made an inaccurate remark about an ongoing investigation into Hillary Clinton’s personal server and her use of a personal email account while secretary of state. He made his comment while favorably comparing the Republican candidates to the top two candidates for the Democratic nomination, Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Huckabee: None of us are a self-professed socialist. None of us on this stage are under investigation by the FBI because we destroyed government records, or because we leaked secrets. Bernie Sanders is a Democratic Socialist or Social Democrat. There is a big difference. 

Clinton is NOT being investigated for “destroyed government records.” The Justice Department said in a recent court filing that she had the authority to delete personal emails.

Trump argued that the 14th Amendment — which holds that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside” — does not guarantee birthright citizenship to immigrants in the country illegally.

We found some missteps among the four Republican presidential candidates who didn’t make the cut for the prime-time debate, and instead participated in the so-called “happy hour” debate.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said, “Every Republican says they will shrink 

the size of the government. I’m the only one that has done it. Cut our budget 

26 percent.” As we have written before, the 26 percent “cut” reflected a 

decline in federal aid. The Times-Picayune wrote that the 26 percent cut “is 

explained by waning hurricane recovery appropriations and the end of 

federal stimulus aid.”

Former Sen. Rick Santorum said legislation he sponsored that would have 

codified sanctions against Iran failed by four votes. “The four people who 

opposed on the floor: Joe Biden, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Barack 

Obama,” he said of the 2006 vote. That’s true, but the Bush administration 

lobbied against Santorum’s bill, and 14 Republican senators also voted 

against it, as we have written before. The bill passed three months later 

after a compromise was worked out with the Bush administration, which 

opposed the bill because it was negotiating with Iran at the time.