Chris Christie in 2016 FactCheck


On Abortion: FactCheck: Donor to Planned Parenthood in '94, but denies it

Sen. Marco Rubio asserted, " Chris Christie wrote a check to Planned Parenthood," to which Christie responded, "Let's set the facts straight: I never wrote a check to Planned Parenthood." Who's right?

We checked for sources from the OnTheIssues website and found the source of Rubio's assertion: a 2012 book entitled Chris Christie: The Inside Story of His Rise to Power. Christie is quoted from 1994, "I support Planned Parenthood privately with my personal contribution and that should be the goal of any such agency, to find private donations," when public funding was cut off (p. 49). The book also indicates that Christie was pro-choice until 1996 (p.201-2).

The authors of the book, Bob Ingle and Michael Symons, are both well-established New Jersey journalists; there seems to be little wiggle-room for Christie in their reporting. Gov. Christie did not explain his denial any further; so we score Rubio as correct, and score Christie as "further explanation needed."

Source: OnTheIssues FactChecking on Fox Business 2016 GOP debate Jan 15, 2016

On Foreign Policy: World has fewer democracies than before Obama

Gov. Christie asserted, "After Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama...we have fewer democracies in the world than we had when they started." Is it true? We checked with the Freedom House report "Freedom in the World," which rates countries as free, partly free, or not free. Comparing the number of countries:
Status20082015
Free9089
Partly free6055
Not free4351
In conclusion, yes, Christie's assessment is correct. But look at the four countries which switched from free to not fully free: Indonesia; Mali; Mexico; Ukraine. And in the other direction, these three countries moved up to fully free: Tunisia; Montenegro; Tonga. Perhaps Obama/Clinton may have been able to help Ukraine and maybe Mexico, but Christie's complaint implies he thinks Obama/Clinton should have helped...Indonesia? Tonga? Montenegro? We rate Christie's comment "true but irrelevant."
Source: OnTheIssues FactChecking on Fox Business 2016 GOP debate Jan 15, 2016

The above quotations are from Fact-checking on 2016 presidential, gubernatorial, and Senate campaigns.
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