Democratic Socialist tweet about Bernie Sanders touched off our most-viewed fact check in October
Jason Villalba’s Pants on Fire tweet about Bernie Sanders and the Nazi party generated our most-read fact check in October.
State Rep. Villalba, R-Dallas, posted a tweet during the CNN-hosted Democratic presidential debate Oct. 13 that opened: “The modern Democrat Party is filled with Democratic Socialists and soft socialists. Is this where we are in America?”
To that tweet, which Villalba later deleted, the legislator attached an image of what looked like an old document stating: “That awkward moment when … 1) Bernie Sanders admits he is a Democratic Socialist. 2) Nazis were Democratic Socialists 3) America fought an entire World War to stop the advance of Democratic Socialists.” The image closed: “Sincerely, Sane Americans.”
Sander is a self-declared democratic socialist, we concluded, but the Nazi’s were not. And whether Villalba intended to link Sanders to the Nazis, his tweet did the job. Our editors found it both incorrect and ridiculous.
A couple other fact checks drove up our web hits for the month:
—We rated True a tweet by Jeremy Bird, a Chicago-based senior adviser to Battleground Texas, stating that “90% of Americans want national background checks” for gun purchases “that close loopholes.” Polls continue to show a strong tilt in favor of background checks prior to all gun purchases; the latest available poll before Bird spoke found 93 percent of adults in favor. Then again, the popularity of this idea may bear watching. Other 2015 polls found as few as 84 percent of respondents backing the universal checks.
–We found no factual merit to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s declaration Planned Parenthood is “nothing more than a referral service. … They don’t do anything except profit from killing babies and then selling body parts of those aborted babies.” To the contrary, Planned Parenthood provides family planning and other women’s health services, including abortions and there’s been no confirmation it sells body parts. We rated Patrick’s incorrect and ridiculous statement Pants on Fire!
See our check of Jason Villalba’s tweet here.
See our check of Jeremy Bird’s claim here.
See our check of Dan Patrick’s claim here.
