PolitiFact awarded a “mostly false” rating this week to Republican Party of Florida Chairman Joe Gruters after he said the 2020 Democratic primary candidates want to “give free health care to illegals.” This comes after the Pulitzer Award-winning fact-checker gave President Trump the exact same rating for making the exact same claim.
The group’s “mostly false” designation hinges entirely on Trump and Gruters’s use of the word “free.” Just ignore that part where the 2020 Democratic candidate did indeed endorse extending healthcare coverage to people in the United States illegally, at little or no charge to themselves.
Look, I understand that these fact-check ratings are judgment calls, but come on.
On June 27, the second night of the first 2020 Democratic primary debate, NBC News’s Savannah Guthrie said the following:
Every single person on that June 27 debate stage, including new age guru Marianne Williamson; South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang; former Vice President Joe Biden; Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Kamala Harris of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Michael Bennet of Colorado; and Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, raised their hands, for which they were awarded thunderous applause.
To ensure there was no misunderstanding about the candidates’ position on the issue, some were asked specifically to explain why their healthcare proposals would include coverage for illegal immigrants.
“Because our country is healthier when everybody is healthier,” Buttigieg said. “And, remember, we are talking about something people are given a chance to buy into, in the same way that there are undocumented immigrants in my community who pay, they pay sales taxes, they pay property taxes, directly or indirectly.”
He added, “This is not about a handout. This is an insurance program. And we do ourselves no favors by having 11 million undocumented people in our country be unable to access healthcare.”
Biden himself said, “You cannot let people who are sick, no matter where they come from, no matter what their status, go uncovered.”
Newsrooms, including the Associated Press, captured the moment accurately when they reported later that “in one unanimous show of hands, Democratic presidential candidates moved the idea of full health insurance for people who are not legally in the United States into the political mainstream.”
Later, on Nov. 6, Gruters claimed the Democratic primary candidates want to extend free healthcare coverage to people in the United States illegally.
“All the Democrats on the entire stage,” he said, “every Democratic candidate said they want to give free healthcare to illegals. That’s them saying, that’s what they said in the debate. It wasn’t me saying it. They raised their hands — every single one of them — free healthcare for illegals.”
Not so, explains PolitiFact, arguing that the 2020 Democratic candidates were not asked directly “if that coverage would be free.”
Yes, PolitiFact’s “mostly false” rating hinges completely on the word “free.”
The claim put forward by Trump and Gruters “is based on a raise-your-hand type of question in a June debate,” PolitiFact argues. “Candidates were asked if their health care plans would provide coverage for immigrants in the country illegally. All candidates raised their hand. But the question did not ask if the coverage would be for free. Two of the candidates who were able to provide context — Buttigieg and Biden — did not say it would be for free.”
It continues, arguing:
We rate the ad’s statement Mostly False.
Far be it from me to tell PolitiFact how to do its job, but now seems like a good time to remind you that this is the same fact-checking group that declined this year to award flunking points to Harris and Sen. Elizabeth Warren after they lied and said Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri, had been “murdered” in 2014 by police officer Darren Wilson. Only when a Republican speaks do the precise meanings of words suddenly matter.
If I did not know better, I would say PolitiFact’s “truth-o-meter” is broken.
