While interviewing Charlie Crist on CNN’s State Of The Union host Candy Crowley repeated numerous lies about Obamacare that came directly from Fox News and the Republican Party.
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During an interview with Democratic candidate for Florida governor, Charlie Crist, CNN State Of The Union host Candy Crowley said, “In the end, you did see that about 300,000 Floridians did lose the healthcare they currently had. They may have signed up by now. They have found alternatives, etc. But they had insurance that they liked, but it didn’t fit under the restrictions of what Obamacare wanted in an insurance policy. You also have this Medicare Advantage where it may see some cuts. We’re not sure how that will work out, but certainly in Florida, there is real fear that seniors who are using the Medicare Advantage plan will in fact see their list of doctors shrink.”
When Charlie Crist responded that he didn’t think that it would happen and that Republicans were using this as a fear tactic, Crowley came back with another lie, “But some did lose their insurance that they had that’s a fact.”
No, it’s not a fact. Candy Crowley was completely wrong. It turns out that she got her inaccurate information about Obamacare from an interview that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) did with Fox News in October 2013.
Video of Rubio on Fox News:
PoliFact graded that graded the idea that 300,000 Floridians lost their health insurance as mostly false, which on the warped PolitiFact grading system means that Rubio was totally lying. The 300,000 number comes directly from the Republican Party manipulating a notice the Florida Blue sent out to their policy holders.
Crowley was not only passing off Republican lies as fact, but she also completely ignored the truth.
A report by Rep. Henry Waxman and the Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee found that the actual number of people who lost their insurance due to the ACA was 10,000, so it impossible for 300,000 Floridians to have lost their health insurance.
The numbers don’t add up.
Candy Crowley also neglected to mention that less than a week ago, President Obama extended the period that people can keep their junk insurance policies for an additional year.
After Crowley repeated the Republican lies as fact this morning, the RNC and the Florida Republican Party both released videos claiming that she “fact checked” Crist on Obamacare.
This is how Republicans play the game. They get mainstream media outlets to give their falsehoods legitimacy by reporting them as fact. Republicans then use this newfound legitimacy to claim that their false statements are the truth. The willingness to use Republican talking points as fact turns someone like Candy Crowley into a information equivalent of a money launderer. They take dirty lies, and make them clean.
What Crowley did wasn’t fact checking. She was passing off lies as fact, and it was an absolutely disgraceful performance that should have viewers demanding both a correction and an apology.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
