By Melanie Jones: Subscribe to Melanie's RSS feed
January 27, 2012 6:21 AM EST
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum faced off last night in the final GOP debate in Florida before the Jan. 31 primary.
For the most part, the four remaining presidential candidates held nothing back in the debate. But several of their statements, while passed off as fact, either skirted the truth or were just plain wrong.
What answers did the candidates get wrong, and when did truth start to enter the realm of spin? Check out the full Florida 2012 Republican debate fact check below, from whether Obama really "undermines" Israel to how much Romney knew about his own ties to Freddie Mac.
1. 'A Ghetto Language'
During last night Republican primary debate, Newt Gingrich slammed Mitt Romney for running a Spanish-language radio ad in Florida claiming the Gingrich had labeled Spanish "the language of the ghetto."
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"It's taken totally out of context," Gingrich said. "I did not say it about Spanish. I said it in general about all languages."
"[It is] better for children to learn English in general," he concluded. "Period."
True or False
Both. Gingrich wasn't specifically referencing Spanish, but the original quote still doesn't look good.
Gingrich didn't stop at just promoting English in his speech to the National Federation of Republican Women in 2007.
The full quote reads: "We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto."
Although the former Speaker did not identify the 'ghetto language' as Spanish, the remark was widely taken to be a slur on the most common language spoken by U.S. immigrants, and Gingrich recognized as much.
A few days after the speech, the Republican primary candidate posted a video online apologizing for his choice of words, saying he regretted producing "a bad feeling within the Latino community."
2. How Many Languages?
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