Democratic debate night: Fact checking the candidates on the issues

Ten 2020 contenders are on the stage Wednesday night for the first of two Democratic presidential debates in Miami. Our team of journalists from ABC News reviewed some of the candidates’ statements in an effort to provide additional context, details and information.

Here’s ABC News’ fact check of the debate between Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Gov. Jay Inslee, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former Rep. John Delaney, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, Rep. Tim Ryan and Mayor Bill de Blasio:

FACT CHECK: Booker says Haliburton and Amazon ‘pay nothing in taxes’

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Booker: “I will single out companies like Halliburton or Amazon that pay nothing in taxes and need to change that. When it comes to antitrust law, what I will do is, number one, appoint judges that will enforce it.”

Amazon paid no federal taxes in 2017 and 2018 despite record U.S. profits, according to a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic policy. In previous years, the company has paid federal income taxes but at a much lower rate. President Donald Trump, in 2018, even tweeted that companies like Amazon do indeed pay “little or no taxes to state and local governments.” The report also found that Halliburton managed to pay little in federal taxes, due to large corporate tax breaks.

– Matthew Vann

FACT CHECK: Klobuchar says big pharma doesn’t “own” her

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Klobuchar: “And so my proposal is to do something about pharma, to take them on, to allow negotiation under Medicare, to bring in less expensive drugs from other countries and pharma thinks they own Washington, well they don’t own me.”

Klobuchar has accepted over $400,000 from the pharmaceutical industry over the course of her career, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. By comparison, pharmaceutical companies are not in the list of top donors for other candidates like Sen. Elizabeth Warren or Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The Minnesota Democrat has also received at least $22,025 from individuals associated with the Minnesota-based medical and pharmaceutical company named Medtronic, including $5,600 from the company’s executive committee member Brad Lerman, $5,400 from board member Kendall Powell and $2,800 from executive VP and CFO Karen Parkhill. (View itemized FEC data here)

– Cheyenne Haslett and Soorin Kim

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

FACT CHECK: Klobuchar on pharmaceutical prices

Klobuchar: “The president literally went on TV on Fox and said that people’s heads would spin when they’d see how much he would bring down pharmaceutical prices. Instead 2,500 drugs have gone up in double digits since he came into office. Instead, he gave $100 billion in giveaways to the pharma companies.”

It’s true that drug prices of some 2,500 drugs analyzed by the Associated Press have increased. But Trump hasn’t directly given drug companies a $100 billion pay out.

On Wednesday night, Klobuchar expressed reluctance when asked about the prospect of abolishing private insurance and replacing it solely by implementing a government-run option for health care. She then went on to shift the conversation to pharmaceuticals — claiming that 2,500 drugs have gone up in price since Trump took office.

According to an Associated Press analysis from February, “there were 2,712 price increases in the first half of this January, as compared with 3,327 increases during the same period last year,” when the news organization looked at brand-name drugs.

As for the $100 billion, it would seem Klobuchar is getting that number from a partisan report — the Senate Finance Committee ranking member, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, released a report in April 2018, that said health care groups, like health insurance and pharmaceuticals over the next 10 years were expected to receive tax cuts up to $100 billion.

-Sophie Tatum

FACT CHECK: Ryan on economic inequality

Ryan: “The bottom 60% haven’t seen a raise since 1980. Meanwhile, the top 1% control 90% of the wealth.”

The top 1% does not control 90% of the wealth, according to a report published by the Federal Reserve in 2017. The richest 1% of families owned 38.6% of the country’s wealth in 2016, a record high controlled by the nation’s wealthiest. That’s more than just 22.8% of the wealth controlled by the bottom 90%.

Ryan’s claim that the bottom 60% haven’t seen an income raise since 1980 is backed by a study conducted by Ray Dalio, the founder of world’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates.

-Soorin Kim