Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who’s never earned Politifact’s ‘Pants on Fire’ rating

According to PolitiFact, Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders is the only candidate running for president that did not earn the lowest rating, Pants On Fire, which is generally reserved for only the wildest fabrications.

With nearly 90 statements examined by the fact checking website, the Vermont Senator’s “Report Card,” which looks at the accuracy of statements from people vying to be commander-in-chief, has a 70 percent rating on the true side of the spectrum.

From PolitiFact:

Sanders received a Mostly True rating 36 percent of the time, far more than any other label. He has earned ratings on the false side of the “Truth-O-Meter” 30 percent of the time. That breakdown was: Mostly False 17 percent of the time and False 13 percent.”

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Compared to Sanders’ political rival, the former New York senator Hillary Clinton has been fact-checked about twice as often and she has received three of the Pants On Fire designations. Whereas Sanders has none.

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During his recent visit to California and throughout his campaign, Sanders has made voter turnout a key talking point. Stumping in San Diego last month, PolitiFact California labeled Mostly True his claim that “Today, the United States has, sadly, one of the lowest voter turnouts of any major country on earth.” The statement is accurate, but we noted that voting is compulsory in several developed countries, a point Sanders left out.

The national PolitiFact team recently slapped Sanders with a Mostly False, however, for his April 12th claim that “We win when voter turnout is high, we lose when it is low.” It found that “Sanders did notch a few notable victories in high-turnout primaries, but it would be cherry-picking to focus only on primaries. Sanders has mostly won caucuses, which have produced the lowest turnout rates of 2016 across the board.” It continued: “The statement contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.”

As the presidential race intensifies and the rhetoric heats up between the two Democratic candidates, PolitiFact is preparing to expand its examination of both contenders and play “referee” for the two sides.

Featured image: dgilder (Flickr)

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