Fact Checks of the 12th GO.P. Debate

Full CNN Republican Debate | GOP Presidential Debate March 10 2016 Miami Florida

Mr. Rubio accused Chris Christie of having a record similar to President Obama"s on issues like education, gun control and abortion.

Mr. Rubio, a senator from Florida, and Mr. Christie, the New Jersey governor, are attacking each other with a notable intensity, and in an interview Thursday on Fox Business Network, Mr. Rubio asserted that Mr. Christie has done a number of things that are very similar to the Obama agenda, giving several examples. We looked into his claims.

The fact of the matter is Chris Christie has supported Common Core and in fact has bad-mouthed Republicans that oppose it.

Mr. Christie was previously a supporter of the Common Core education standards. This is one of those areas where Ive agreed more with the president than not, he said in 2013.

But Mr. Christie had plenty of company: More than 40 states adopted the Common Core standards.

Mr. Christies bad-mouthing was also mild, particularly by his standards. He attributed some of the Common Core opposition among congressional Republicans to that knee-jerk reaction thats happening in Washington right now that if the president likes something, the Republicans in Congress dont, and vice versa.

Mr. Christie has since changed his position on Common Core, which has become an object of scorn among conservatives who view it as an example of government overreach. In May, Mr. Christie said that Common Core was simply not working.

Chris Christie has supported gun control. Chris Christie supported an assault weapons ban. Its the reason why he got into politics to begin with.

In 1993, Mr. Christie, then a 30-year-old lawyer, announced that he would try to unseat a Republican state senator.

"The issue which has energized me to get into this race is the recent attempt by certain Republican legislators to repeal New Jersey"s ban on assault weapons," Mr. Christie said in a statement, according to an article at the time in The Star-Ledger of Newark. "In today"s society, no one needs a semiautomatic assault weapon."

He took a similar stance two years later when he was running for the states General Assembly. Even as recently as 2009, when he was running for governor, Mr. Christie supported strict gun laws. FACT: Chris Christie supports the assault weapons ban and all current gun laws, his campaign said in a news release.

Mr. Christie has since moved away from his support of strict gun control laws and opposes banning assault weapons. His campaign website says that as governor, he has fought to defend gun rights, and highlights several instances in which he vetoed gun-related legislation.

In an interview on Wednesday on Fox News, he said that he had changed his mind since 1995, citing his time as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey.

I learned what the limitations are of these laws that people are talking about, Mr. Christie said, and how they much, much more greatly infringe on law-abiding citizens than they do anything to prevent crime.

Chris Christie personally contributed to Planned Parenthood.

This is another claim that dates back to the early days of Mr. Christies political career.

In 1994, Mr. Christie was running to be a Morris County freeholder, the New Jersey version of a county commissioner.

"I support Planned Parenthood privately with my personal contribution, and that should be the goal of any such agency, to find private donations, Mr. Christie was quoted as saying in a Star-Ledger article. The article also quoted Mr. Christie as saying it"s also no secret that I am pro-choice.

Mr. Christies campaign said on Friday that Mr. Christie has no recollection of donating to Planned Parenthood.

Mr. Christie has since changed his views on abortion, and like other Republican presidential candidates, he supports cutting off federal funding for Planned Parenthood. As governor, he has vetoed funding for Planned Parenthood.

Explaining his shift on the issue of abortion rights, Mr. Christie tells a story from 1995, when his wife was pregnant with their second child and he heard the heartbeat of his unborn daughter during a prenatal visit.

On that ride home, I said my position just is not justifiable, he said last summer on Fox News. That"s a life, and I cannot countenance the taking of that life.

Thomas Kaplan

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/fact-check.html