To anyone who ever doubted that Politifact was a left-wing blog acting under the guise of being an independent fact checker, look no further on their latest attempt at gas-lighting American voters.
In the past I’ve argued that Politifact is at least clever with their bias, often choosing to simply fact check more Republican or conservative statements than liberal ones to give the impression that those on the right are making falsehoods more often. Of course, there have been times when they’ve slipped up, fact-checking nearly identical claims from Republicans and Democrats and rating the former false, and latter true.
In the latest case, you’d have to doubt your own senses to believe Politifact, who says it’s “mostly false” that Democrat presidential candidates want to give illegal immigrants free healthcare.
The only problem is that nearly every single Democrat candidate that has a shot at winning the nomination HAS supported such a policy. The only ones that haven’t are those you’ve already forgotten about or never heard of; John Delaney, Steve Bullock, Wayne Messam, Tim Ryan, and Joe Sestak. Of the “mainstream” candidates that haven’t offered an opinion on the matter or were unclear are Tulsi Gabbard and Amy Klobuchar.
As for the rest….
- Joe Biden, first Democrat debate: “You cannot let people who are sick, no matter where they come from, no matter what their status, go uncovered.”
- Corey Booker to the Washington Post: “You cannot let people who are sick, no matter where they come from, no matter what their status, go uncovered.”
- Pete Buttigieg to the Washington Post: Undocumented immigrants should be able to buy coverage through the public option,
- Julian Castro to the Washington Post: “[I] supports [sic] covering undocumented immigrants.”
- Marianne Williamson to the Washington Post: “Yes”
- Bernie Sanders to the Washington Post: “My plan would cover all U.S. residents.”
- Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand: Co-sponsored Sanders Medicare for All bill, which would give free healthcare for illegals.
Alternatively, you can simply watch NBC ask a field of candidates (which includes more than those I just listed) to raise their hands if their government healthcare plan would cover illegals. Every single one raised their hand. Politifact acknowledged this in their article, before spending hundreds of words arguing semantics over what the word “free” means. Mostly Politifact argues that because those same Democrats want to make illegals legal, those illegals would eventually be paying taxes into the system, so their healthcare technically wouldn’t be free. That wasn’t what was asked at the debate however, and no candidate clarified that there would be some sort of buffer period before which illegals could receive healthcare.
In other words, Politifact is trying to rationalize insanity to provide damage control.
Who exactly does Politifact think they’re fooling? Certainly not those on the left who do in fact want illegals covered, and certainly not us on the right with functioning eyes and ears.