VERIFYING claims from the fourth Republican presidential primary debate

On Wednesday, Dec. 6, four Republican presidential candidates participated in a debate at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. It was the fourth and final GOP primary debate ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy took part in Wednesday’s debate .

Former President Donald Trump did not participate in the debate, hosting a fundraiser in Florida instead. VERIFY fact-checked several claims from the debate. Ron DeSantis, on Nikki Haley’s position on allowing children to obtain gender-affirming care: “She thinks it’s fine and the law shouldn’t get involved with it.

” Haley said in an interview that “the law should stay out of” the issue of gender-affirming care, but has also stated she opposes such care for minors. In a June 5 interview on CBS , anchor Tony Dokoupil asked Haley about her stance on gender-affirming care. “What care should be on the table when a 12 year old child in this country, assigned female at birth, says ‘actually, I feel more comfortable living as a boy.

’ What should the law allow the response to be?” Dokoupil asked. Haley responded by saying, “I think the law should stay out of it, and I think parents should handle it. This is a job for the parents to handle.

And then when that child becomes 18 if they want to make more of a permanent change, they can do that. ” In an earlier interview with WPDE-TV on May 3, Haley made more specific statements about her stance on the issue. “You shouldn’t allow a child to have a gender-changing procedure, until the age of 18 when they are an adult and can make that decision, but we shouldn’t have taxpayers dollars ever going to that,” she said.

Haley also posted her response to WPDE-TV on her own YouTube channel . Haley’s campaign has responded to similar claims made by DeSantis before the debate with a statement, issued to various news outlets , reading in part, “Nikki Haley has long said she opposes gender-changing surgeries for minors. Bald-faced lies won’t save DeSantis.

” VERIFY requested explanation from the campaign on the assertion that DeSantis’s statement is a lie, but has not yet received a response. RELATED: Yes, the gay and trans ‘panic’ defense is still legal in a majority of states Vivek Ramaswamy: “. .

. We discovered this week that [Democratic donor Reid Hoffman] is one of Nikki Haley’s largest supporters. ” Yes, Democratic donor Reid Hoffman supported Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign.

In a post on LinkedIn , the social media platform’s co-founder and well-known Democratic donor Reid Hoffman said he “provided financial support to Nikki Haley’s super PAC. ” Dmitri Melhorn, Hoffman’s longtime political adviser, also confirmed to Forbes and the Washington Post that Hoffman donated $250,000 to a pro-Haley PAC called Stand for America. “I have invested in the Stand for America PAC supporting Nikki Haley because I agree with Jamie Dimon’s recent comments that Democrats should support Haley in the primary and Biden in the general election,” Hoffman wrote in the LinkedIn post.

While Hoffman said in his post that he will still “enthusiastically vote for Joe Biden” during the 2024 presidential election, his “first priority is to defeat” former President Donald Trump. Hoffman added that he is supporting Haley because he believes she is “the only Republican nominee other than Trump with any chance of winning the GOP nomination. ” Ron DeSantis: “Biden wants a central bank digital currency.

They want to get rid of cash. ” The federal government is not planning to replace cash with a central bank digital currency. Under Biden’s Executive Order 14067 , the Federal Reserve is tasked with looking into how a central bank digital currency (CBDC) might be created, and evaluating necessary steps and requirements for implementing one.

A CBDC is digital money “backed and issued by a central bank,” according to The Atlantic Council . In the United States, that central bank would be the Federal Reserve. The U.

S. does not currently have a CBDC and the Fed has not made any decisions on issuing a digital dollar. On its website , the Federal Reserve says it would only move forward with issuing a CBDC with “an authorizing law” passed by Congress.

Congress has not passed a law authorizing the Federal Reserve to issue a CBDC, though some lawmakers have introduced legislation aimed at preventing a digital dollar in the U. S. If the Fed does issue a digital dollar in the future, it does not mean the government would get rid of cash.

“There is nothing in the executive order that ends or eliminates cash. Period,” Aaron Klein, senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, previously told VERIFY . The Federal Reserve also says that it is “committed to ensuring the continued safety and availability of cash and is considering a CBDC as a means to expand safe payment options, not to reduce or replace them.

” The VERIFY team works to separate fact from fiction so that you can understand what is true and false. Please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter , text alerts and our YouTube channel . You can also follow us on Snapchat , Instagram , Facebook and TikTok .

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