GOP debate fact check: What DeSantis, Haley got right (and wrong)

Joedy McCreary, Brad Sylvester, Chris Mueller and Andre Byik, USA TODAY
Updated ·17 min read
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Two Republican presidential candidates were on the stage in Des Moines Wednesday night for the final debate before the Iowa caucuses begin.

The USA TODAY Fact Check Team dug into the claims from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, separating lies from truth and adding context where the candidates lacked it.

More: Who won the Republican debate? In Haley vs DeSantis, neither GOP candidate pulled punches

More: Did you hear Nikki Haley has a new website about DeSantis' alleged lies? She talked about it A LOT

More: USA TODAY politics live blog coverage of the GOP debate

Ron DeSantis claim: Biden wants to 'mandate electric vehicles'

"(President Joe Biden) wants to mandate electric vehicles"

DeSantis is referring to a Biden administration proposal that was announced in April and could bring about historically tougher greenhouse gas emission standards for cars and trucks sold in the U.S. and could lead to electric vehicles accounting for two-thirds of all new vehicle sales by 2032.

But the proposal, which came from the Environmental Protection Agency, would not mandate the level of electric vehicle sales. Instead, it would require automakers to "limit the greenhouse gas emissions coming from their fleets – which could be done by making more of their vehicles electric or by upgrading the gasoline-powered engines in their cars," according to The Hill.

More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page

The proposal does not specify how automakers should meet the new emissions requirements, as USA TODAY previously reported.

In December, House Republicans voted in favor of legislation intended to block the Biden administration's proposal from being enacted. That legislation, though, is unlikely to go anywhere with Democrats in control of the Senate. Biden has also promised to veto it if it reaches his desk.

– Chris Mueller

Nikki Haley claim: 31% of America’s 8th graders are proficient in reading, 27% in math

The figures Haley cited are largely in line with 2022 findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is known as the “nation’s report card.”

The assessment found 31% of eighth-grade students performed at or above the NAEP’s proficient level on the reading assessment. In math, the percentage of eighth-graders performing at or above the proficient level was 26% nationally.

The 2022 results showed “historic learning setbacks” following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Associated Press reported.

But be careful interpreting those figures. A 2016 commentary published by the Brookings Institution cautioned against using NAEP’s proficient level as a basis for education policy, noting the terms can be misunderstood. The article explained that “NAEP officials urge that proficient not be interpreted as reflecting grade level work. It is a standard set much higher than that.”

– Andre Byik

Ron DeSantis claim: 8 million migrants have entered the US illegally since Biden took office  

"Biden’s let in 8 million people just in four years. They all have to go back.”

This claim is false. Since Biden took office in January 2021, there have been more than 8 million encounters at U.S. borders, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

But “encounters” simply refer to the number of times migrants were encountered at a border; it does not refer to the number of people who entered the country. One migrant could attempt to enter the country multiple times, creating multiple encounters, without being admitted to the U.S. That 8 million figure also includes encounters that occurred at the U.S.-Canada border.

Data released by the Department of Homeland Security in January shows that more than 2.3 million migrants have been released into the U.S. at the southern border since Biden took office. More than 6 million migrants were taken into custody in the same period. Both figures are below the 8 million claimed by DeSantis.

– Brad Sylvester

Nikki Haley claim: Florida has the highest cost of living in the country

“It’s the highest cost of living of any state in the country”

This is false. Florida had the 22nd-highest cost of living out of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., in the third quarter of 2023, according to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center’s cost of living data series. The center found Hawaii, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., had the highest cost of living, respectively, while West Virginia, Mississippi and Oklahoma had the lowest, respectively.

Cost of living refers to the necessary expenses required to maintain a certain standard of living in a given place. These expenses usually include things like housing, food, taxes, healthcare, education and transportation.

– Brad Sylvester

Nikki Haley claim: DeSantis gave Disney the 'largest corporate subsidies' in Florida history

"He gave them the largest corporate subsidies in Florida history."

The tax credits would have been the largest in state history, but the deal was never completed.

Haley is referring to the up to $570 million in tax credits over 20 years that Disney would have been eligible for had it followed through on plans to invest as much as $864 million to build a regional headquarters in Orlando’s Lake Nona community and move at least 2,000 employees, with average salaries of $120,000, from California, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

However, Disney announced in May that it was scrapping the plan and, as a result, passed on the chance to earn the $570 million in tax credits. If those tax credits had been paid out in full, it would have been "the largest documented corporate tax incentive the Florida government has approved for a single project," the Tampa Bay Times reported, citing data from Good Jobs First, a research center that tracks government tax credits and subsidies for corporations.

– Chris Mueller

Ron DeSantis claim: South Carolina gave China land while Nikki Haley was governor

“When she was governor of South Carolina, the state gave China land.”

This gets the details wrong. A county in South Carolina – not the state – made a deal in 2016 with a Chinese maker of fiberglass products, according to Wisconsin Watch, which fact-checked a similar claim in a pro-DeSantis campaign ad.

Richland County, South Carolina, agreed to give China Jushi 197 acres only if the company made agreed-upon investments in jobs and money, KCCI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, reported in November 2023. The company ultimately met those requirements and received the land.

The minutes from that county council meeting outline the terms of the deal made by the council’s chairman – not the governor or any state official.

Haley did praise the company’s announcement of 400 jobs and a $300 million investment in a 2016 Facebook post.

– Joedy McCreary

Ron DeSantis claim: Florida has the lowest percentage of state workers per capita in the country

“Florida has the lowest percentage of state government workers per capita in the country.”  

This is accurate. Florida has 82 full-time equivalent state workers per 10,000 population, according to the state’s most recent Department of Management Services Annual Workforce report. That is the lowest rate in the U.S., where the national average in 2021 was 198 per 10,000 population.

Florida has a total of about 165,000 state employees, according to the report. The state’s workforce also has the lowest payroll cost per state resident in the country at $40. It is followed by Arizona at $53 and Nevada at $54.

- Brad Sylvester

Ron DeSantis claim: Haley stood 'in front of a Chinese flag saying she works for them now'

"There’s a video of her in front a Chinese flag saying she works for them now."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is referring to video of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley celebrating a deal that, as CBS News reported, led to the construction of a South Carolina-based production plant for a Chinese fiberglass company in 2016.

"I told them that if they would do this, that South Carolina would wrap their arms around them and take care of them," Haley said, addressing the company. "I now officially work for you."

The company, China Jushi, invested $300 million in its first U.S. plant on 200 acres in Columbia, South Carolina. The project created at least 400 jobs, according to the South Carolina Department of Commerce.

China Jushi is partially owned by a Chinese government enterprise with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and Zhang Yuqiang, the CEO of China Jushi in 2016, serves as the committee secretary for the company's communist party committee.

"It's a great day in South Carolina," Haley says in a 2016 video message played at a signing ceremony in China to celebrate the deal and later obtained by ABC News. "I am so sorry I'm not there with you in person to celebrate what is a fantastic announcement by the Jushi Group."

– Chris Mueller

Ron DeSantis claim: Haley attempted to raise South Carolina’s tax on gasoline

“She kind of admitted that she did try to raise the gas tax.”

Haley responded to this claim by asserting that DeSantis distorted what happened near the end of her term as South Carolina’s governor.

She proposed in 2015 and 2016 to raise the gasoline tax – but it was paired with a cut of income taxes, according to PolitiFact. And because neither proposal passed, those taxes did not change.

Her 2016 budget proposal included a gas tax increase of 10 cents per gallon that would have been offset by a cut in the state income tax from 7% to 5%, WSPA-TV in Spartanburg, South Carolina, reported.

“I’m going to veto anything that is a net tax increase,” she said at the time, adding that the $131 million drop in income taxes would have made up for the $49 million in additional gas tax collections.

The president of Americans for Tax Reform, an advocacy group that pushes for lower taxes, in 2015 urged South Carolina lawmakers to support it, emphasizing the net tax decrease, The Post and Courier of Charleston reported.

– Joedy McCreary

Nikki Haley claim: 87,000 IRS agents are ‘going after middle America’

Haley repeated this misleading figure from her November 2023 GOP debate appearance. The 87,000 refers to a suggestion in a May 2021 U.S. Treasury Department report that included a proposal of what the Internal Revenue Service could do with an additional $80 billion in funding.

The IRS says audit rates on average households will not change, CNN reported in April. The money would help the IRS go after fighting high-end tax evasion, officials said.

One proposal would hire that many employees over the course of a decade – but not all at once. They would replace others in the agency’s aging workforce who have retired. The IRS has lost roughly 50,000 workers in five years due to attrition, The Associated Press reported.

– Andre Byik and Joedy McCreary

Ron DeSantis claim: He delivered on all of his campaign promises in Florida

“I’m the only one running who’s delivered on 100% of the promises I’ve made.”

This is false, and it’s the second straight debate in which DeSantis has brought it up. He has followed through on some of his campaign promises since being elected governor in 2018, but he has not fulfilled all of them, according to PolitiFact’s “DeSant-O-Meter” scorecard.

His most prominent broken campaign promises relate to tax cuts. In 2018, DeSantis pledged to work to lower the corporate tax rate in Florida, and while it temporarily dropped from 2019 to 2021 primarily as the result of federal changes, it returned to 5.5% in 2022 – the same tax rate it was before DeSantis took office.

The governor also failed to follow through on his pledge to lower Florida’s communication services tax, which is assessed on telecommunications, audio and video streaming, direct-to-home satellite and related services. Florida consistently has one of the highest such taxes in the country, a fact which has not changed since DeSantis took office.

-Brad Sylvester and Joedy McCreary

Prior fact checks: Haley debate claims cover track record, policy 

As we count down to the start of the debate, here’s a look back at what we’ve debunked in prior debates.

Haley’s claims in the four GOP debates in 2023 ranged from her tenure as South Carolina’s governor to domestic policy to foreign affairs.

She misleadingly claimed 87,000 IRS agents are “going after middle America,” misstated the nature of a survey that suggests TikTok is driving a surge of antisemitism and overstated how far South Carolina’s unemployment rate fell during her governorship.

Haley also falsely claimed DeSantis banned fracking in Florida, and she overstated the known casualty count in Ukraine.

But she correctly stated that the national debt increased by about $8 trillion during Donald Trump’s presidency, that 11 European countries have given more aid to Ukraine in terms of GDP than the U.S., and that fentanyl has killed more Americans than the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

– Andre Byik

Prior fact checks: DeSantis’ debate claims stem from record as Florida governor

DeSantis made an array of claims during the four GOP debates in 2023, many focusing on his record as governor of Florida.

In touting his record as the state’s top elected official, DeSantis falsely claimed he has delivered on all of his campaign promises, repeated a false claim that crime in his state is at a 50-year low and said his COVID-19 policies “led the country out of lockdown.”

He also mischaracterized Haley’s proposed reforms for legal immigration and wrongly claimed the Biden Administration wants to get rid of cash.

In addition, DeSantis has twice brought up an anecdote about a toddler who died after being exposed to fentanyl at an Airbnb property in Florida and referenced his executive order that directed the state to help Americans in Israel who were stranded due to the conflict with Hamas.

But he did not claim to have been a Navy SEAL, contrary to a social media post that includes an image from liberal group Occupy Democrats.

– Joedy McCreary

Abortion sparks debate, misinformation after Roe v. Wade ruling

Abortion rights are likely to be a key issue for voters as the 2024 presidential election nears.

Since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in June 2022, eliminating the constitutional right to have an abortion, more than a dozen states have banned, or attempted to ban, abortion. Meanwhile, progressive organizations and activists have scored seven straight victories in statewide ballots, most recently in Ohio.

Democrats have sought to use the issue to mobilize voters ahead of the 2024 election. Republican presidential candidates have generally been opposed to the procedure, but vary in how they would try to regulate it if elected.

Trump has suggested he would work with “both sides” of the abortion issue and has denounced total restrictions on abortions. He criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signing of legislation banning abortion after six weeks in his state. At the third GOP presidential debate in Miami, Haley said she considers herself "pro-life" but believes abortion is “a personal issue for every woman and every man.

Abortion has sparked a consistent flow of misinformation online:

– BrieAnna Frank & Hannah Hudnall

Debate background: Jan. 6 riot remains part of campaign

The Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot continues to loom over the field of GOP presidential candidates, even though none of the debate participants had direct ties to the storming of the Capitol or the certification of election results that day.

The candidates participating in tonight’s debate have largely agreed that those responsible for the events at the Capitol should be held accountable, although Ron DeSantis has balked at calling it an insurrection.

Speaker Mike Johnson has brought the events forward again by releasing footage from the Capitol, a process slowed by his decision to blur the faces of rioters. The released video was co-opted into the steady flow of misinformation surrounding the riot.

Here are some claims we’ve previously debunked:

– Nate Trela

Debate background: Supreme Court will rule on Trump ballot dispute

Misinformation has spread online about removing candidates from ballots, including in a claim that wrongly compares Trump’s situation to Abraham Lincoln’s in 1860. Our fact check notes Lincoln was not removed from any ballots.

The same can't be said for former President Donald Trump at this stage, though plenty of legal challenges await.

In late December, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Trump would not be allowed to appear on the state's presidential primary ballot because of his role inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. Trump has appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which agreed to hear arguments in February, before most states hold their primaries.

Maine became the second state to remove Trump from its primary ballot after the state's top election official, a Democrat, decided the "insurrectionist ban" in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution applies to Trump – the same reason he was removed from the ballot in Colorado. In response, Trump sued, calling the official a "biased decisionmaker."

There have been efforts in other states to remove Trump from the primary ballot, including Illinois and Massachusetts. California's top election official, though, has said Trump will remain on the ballot there, and Michigan's highest court rejected an appeal after a lower court decided political parties can put whichever candidate they choose on primary ballots.

– Chris Mueller

Debate background: Talk of Trump indictments, civil trial persists despite absence

Former President Donald Trump continues to loom large over the two Republican hopefuls on the debate stage.

Trump has not taken part in any debates during this election cycle and is holding a town hall instead of participating in this one. Yet he remains the party’s central figure in light of both his commanding lead in the polls and his unprecedented legal troubles.

Much of Trump’s focus has been on his civil fraud trial in New York, where prosecutors claim he committed fraud by inflating the value of his assets and are seeking an estimated $250 million in damages, among other penalties. A gag order was restored against the former president who has called the trial a “scam” and a “disgrace” and asserted the judge who ruled he committed fraud knew nothing about him.

The series of prosecutions against Trump began in March, when he was indicted for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush-money payments intended to silence two women before the 2016 election. Trump also faces charges for allegedly mishandling classified documents and allegedly conspiring to steal the 2020 presidential election, including his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Trump and several allies were indicted in August by a Georgia grand jury that accused them of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state, where Trump lost to President Joe Biden by about 12,000 votes.

Both Trump's candidacy and his legal woes have been the subject of an array of false or misleading claims on social media:

– Joedy McCreary

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DeSantis and Haley debate fact check: Separating lies from truth

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