Fact checking Mike Pence’s CNN town hall in Iowa

Former Vice President Mike Pence took questions from voters in Iowa on Wednesday night during a CNN town hall.

Here are some of the claims he made:

Inflation

Pence claimed at the town hall that “families are struggling right now with record inflation.” At two other moments, he claimed, in present tense, that inflation is “at a 40-year high.”

Facts First: Pence’s claim that there is “record inflation” is false. His claims that inflation is “at a 40-year high” are, at best, out of date.

The US inflation rate hit a 40-year high in June 2022, 9.1%, but that was not close to the all-time record high of 23.7%, set in 1920. And that 9.1% rate last June was not even close to the record for the modern era, 14.8% in 1980.

In addition, the current inflation rate is nowhere near that 40-year high from mid-2022. After hitting 9.1% in June 2022, the inflation rate has fallen for 10 straight months. The most recent available rate, for April, was 4.9%.

From CNN’s Daniel Dale

Aid to Ukraine

Pence said that he and Trump “ended what was a ban during the Obama-Biden administration on any military resources at all” to Ukraine, whereas the Obama-Biden administration was providing “military meals and blankets.”

“We provided javelin missiles — all they were providing was military meals and blankets. We corrected that and Ukraine was better suited to be able to deal with this Russian invasion,” Pence said.

Facts First: This is not true, and reminiscent of comments frequently made by Trump, who has said that the Obama administration was only providing Ukraine “pillows and sheets.”

While it’s true that the Obama administration declined to provide weapons to Ukraine, it provided more than $600 million in security assistance to Ukraine between 2014 and 2016 that involved far more than meals and blankets (or pillows and sheets). The aid included counter-artillery and counter-mortar radars, armored Humvees, tactical drones, night vision devices and medical supplies.

From CNN’s Haley Britzky

Abortion

Pence also addressed his record on abortion regulations.

“Should any federal abortion ban also include exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother?” asked CNN’s Dana Bash.

“Those are exceptions that I’ve always supported, Dana, as you know,” Pence answered, pointing to his strong support of the Hyde Amendment, which blocks the use of federal funding for abortions except in the case of rape, incest or to save the woman’s life.

Facts First: This is false. Pence answered differently on an anti-abortion group’s voter’s guide questionnaire in the early 2010s and also supported legislation to tighten the Hyde Amendment.

In a 2010 Indiana anti-abortion group’s voter’s guide questionnaire that asked “under what circumstances do you believe abortion should be legal?,” Pence selected the option that stated “abortion should never be legal.” Two years later, he answered the same question by selecting the option that said “life of the mother only.”

Pence also co-sponsored legislation in 2011 to tweak the Hyde Amendment to narrow the definition of rape.

As governor, he did sign at least one bill that banned private insurance coverage of abortion in 2014 with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.

From CNN’s Em Steck

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