Fact Checkers: Not Everyone Was Honest In Nevada Debate

As Nevada caucuses voters prepare to cast lots for Democrats vying to be president, some of the comments made in the Wednesday debate have gone under the scanner.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren's claim that Bloomberg called women 'horse-faced lesbians,' has not been substantiated. The quote Warren is referencing is from a booklet of alleged Bloomberg quotes given to him by an employee as a gift for his birthday in 1990.

One of the screaming points focused on how so-called stop and search (S&F) tactics used by New York City police when Michael Bloomberg ran the city. Although he inherited the program, stops exceeded the 5 million mark, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union. The former mayor said he reduced them by 95 percent in the final two years he was in office.

Former Vice President Joe Biden said Bloomberg was lying. Biden said more than 5 million blacks were thrown up against walls during this period. Slightly more than half of those individuals – approximately 2.6 million – were black, according to the NY ACLU analysis. Biden said the stops went down because the Obama Administration, which Biden was part of, put federal monitors in the city.

Now retired U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin told a cable news show S&F began during the administration of former mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani but expanded under Bloomberg. Scheindlin presided over the lawsuit against New York.

“Mayor Bloomberg said ‘when I realized it was bad toward the end, I ended it and [it] dropped 95 percent,’” she said. “That is not accurate.”

Biden is also wrong, she added. Scheindlin, not the Obama administration, ordered a private lawyer to monitor the program in 2014. Bloomberg left office in 2013.

Bloomberg attempted to score a zinger against Sen. Bernie Sanders with a little Cold War rhetoric. Bloomberg walked away with his only victory of the night, “It’s proof of the great country that America is that the best-known socialist in the country is a millionaire with three houses.” That is true.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg scored the greatest on the point, claiming he was the only one on the stage who was not a millionaire or billionaire. That is a fact.