[News] Fact-check: What Republican candidates got right, wrong in first debate on Fox News

[PRODEXOR.]

Eight Republican presidential candidates sparred over foreign aid, abortion limits and climate change in the first GOP primary debate ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Former President Donald Trump didn’t join them, though he loomed large in the discussion, which delved into topics such as his record and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump skipped the Fox News debate for a prerecorded interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, repeating false claims about both the 2020 presidential election and hisAppearing onstage at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee were Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.Survey data varies on this question. Pence’s team pointed PolitiFact to a June 2023 poll sponsored by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, an anti-abortion group, and conducted by the Tarrance Group. It found that 77% of respondents said abortions should be prohibited at conception, after six weeks or after 15 weeks. But this poll was sponsored by a group with a position on the issue, and both questions told respondents that fetuses can feel pain at 15 weeks — an assertion that is not universal consensus among medical experts. Independent polls varied on the question of an abortion ban after 15 weeks. A July 2022 survey from Harvard University’s Center for American Political Studies and the Harris Poll found that 23% of respondents said their state should ban abortion after 15 weeks, 12% said it should be banned at six weeks and 37% said it should be allowed only in cases of rape and incest. Collectively, that’s 72% who supported a ban at 15 weeks or less. In two subsequent polls, the support for abortion at 15 weeks or less was not as strong. A September 2022 Economist/YouGov poll found that 39% of respondents supported a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, and 46% opposed it. And a June 2023 Associated Press-NORC poll found that for abortion up to 15 weeks, 51% of respondents said they would allow it, while 45% said they would ban it.This claim is False and misleads about how rarely abortions are performed later in pregnancy. Several other candidates repeated similar claims, saying Democrats such as President Joe Biden are pushing for proposals for “abortion on demand” up to the moment of birth. The vast majority of abortions in the U.S. — about 91% — occur in the first trimester. About 1% take place after 21 weeks, and far less than 1% occur in the third trimester and typically involve emergencies such as fatal fetal anomalies or life-threatening medical emergencies affecting the mother. Biden has said he supported Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion and was overturned in June 2022, and wants federally protected abortion access. Roe didn’t provide unrestricted access to abortion. It legalized abortion federally but also enabled the states to restrict or ban abortions once a fetus is viable, typically around 24 weeks into pregnancy. Exceptions to that time frame typically were allowed when the mother’s life or health was at risk. The Democrat-led Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021, which failed to pass the Senate, would have effectively codified a right to abortion while allowing for similar post-viability restrictions as Roe.Ramaswamy has expressed interest in cutting aid to Israel, but not immediately. In an August interview with actor Russell Brand, Ramaswamy said, “I believe in standing by commitments that we’ve already made.” He referred to the 2016 agreement for the U.S. to provide Israel with $38 billion in military aid covering 2019 through 2028. But Ramaswamy said he wants to negotiate “Abraham Accords 2.0″ with Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Indonesia to “get Israel on its own two feet.” The Abraham Accords in 2020 normalized diplomatic relations among Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. “Come 2028, that additional aid won’t be necessary in order to still have the kind of stability that we would actually have in the Middle East by having Israel more integrated in with its partners,” Ramaswamy said. “Then it puts us in a position, everybody’s position, to say we don’t have to meddle.” On Aug. 18, Ramaswamy posted that “we will not leave Israel hanging out to dry - ever.”

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politifact/2023/08/24/fact-check-what-republican-candidates-got-right-wrong-in-first-debate-on-fox-news/