All eyes were on Bernie Sanders during Tuesday night’s presidential debate

Reporter: Morgan Rynor
Published: Updated:
Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, and former Vice President Joe Biden, right, participate in a Democratic presidential primary debate at the Gaillard Center, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020, in Charleston, S.C., co-hosted by CBS News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

It was all eyes on Senator Bernie Sanders during Tuesday night’s presidential debate as competitors tried to slow his momentum, leading the pack in recent polls.

Between the yelling and arguing, front-runner Sanders, Tuesday night’s punching bag, explained his new funding plan for Medicare for All.

“‘Medicare for All’ will lower health care costs in this country by $450 billion a year and save the lives of 68,000 people who would otherwise have died,” Sanders said.

But is it true?

PolitiFact says it’s mostly false. While the study exists, many assumptions are flawed.

PolitiFact says it overestimates the potential saving and cherry-picks data in calculating mortality.

They say it ignored context that would create a dramatically different impression.

“Sanders at one point said it was going to be $40 trillion, then 30, then 17. It’s an incredible shrinking price tag. At some point, he said it is unknowable to see what the price tag will be,” a PolitiFact representative said.

Sanders has cited several different costs for his plan and also pressed on his recent “60 Minutes” interviews, praising some programs under Fidel Castro’s regime.

“I have opposed authoritarianism all over the world…What I said is what Barack Obama said in terms of Cuba, that Cuba made progress on education,” Sanders said.

To that, Joe Biden replied, “He did not in any way suggest that there was anything positive about the Cuban government. He acknowledged they did increase life expectancy, but he went on and condemned the dictatorship.”

In the CBS News poll of debate-watchers, viewers said Sanders impressed them the most of any candidate, followed closely by Biden and then Warren.

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