Lies Presidential Candidates Told This Week: Republican Debate Edition

Donald clearly doesn't even read his own site.

We’re mixing things up this time for “Lies Presidential Candidates Told This Week” and doing a special all-Republican debate edition. Why? There were some real head-scratchers at the third Republican showdown because, duh, the media!!!

Here are three small to medium truths that were stretched or otherwise mangled by the GOP contenders this week judged on our patented 1-5 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ scale:

Ben Carson’s Shill Game

The Lie: Surging candidate Carson was asked how the country could trust him if he allowed himself to be involved with controversial nutritional supplement company Mannatech, which a moderator said has made claims that its products can cure autism and cancer. “They paid $7 million to settle a deceptive marketing lawsuit in Texas and yet your involvement continues. Why?” asked moderator Carl Quintanilla.

“Total propaganda,” Carson shot back. “I don’t have any involvement with them… I did a couple speeches for them… they were paid speeches. It is absolutely absurd to say that I had any kind of relationship with them. Do I take the product? Yes. I think it’s a good product.”

The Truth: While it doesn’t appear that Carson was ever a paid employee of Mannatch or official endorser, over the past decade he was paid to deliver speeches on their behalf and appeared in promotional videos where the respected retired pediatric neurosurgeon raved about their products. According to CNN, Carson’s claims contradict those made by his business manager and campaign manager.

In a 2004 video of Carson speaking at a Mannatech event he said the company’s products helped reverse his prostate cancer diagnosis.

How Bent?: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(

Carly Fiorina Says Hillary’s No Lady Friend

The Lie: The former Hewlett-Packard CEO said female voters shouldn’t assume that Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton is looking out for them just because she’s a woman. “It is the height of hypocrisy for Mrs. Clinton to talk about being the first woman president, when every single policy she espouses and every single policy of President Obama has been demonstratively bad for women,” Fiorina claimed. “Ninety-two percent of the jobs lost during Barack Obama’s first term belonged to women.”

The Truth: According to Politifact, the 92-percent figure is a leftover claim from the 2012 presidential race floated by the Republican National Committee and GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign. The site said the figures counted job losses from Obama’s first months in office, which was unfair because his policies had not yet had a chance to take hold.

Another economist said that women’s job losses tracked high at that point because millions of men had already lost their jobs, so women were next in line. Also, shortly after Romney’s team and the GOP made those claims, women’s job numbers started trending up.

How Bent?: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Donald And The Zuckerberg And The Rubio

The Lie: In addition to kind of making up a story earlier in the week about how he saved Ohio’s auto industry, Trump was questioned by moderator Becky Quick about his claims that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is rival Marco Rubio’s “personal senator, because he was in favor of H-IB visa.” Trump shot back, “I never said that… somebody’s really doing some bad fact-checking.”

The Truth: Um, the immigration page on Trump’s official site says, “Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities.”

How Bent?: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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