“500,000 Americans are going bankrupt. You know why they’re going bankrupt? Because they suffered a terrible disease, cancer or heart disease.”
The New York Times rated this: This is exaggerated.
Bernie Sanders
U.S. Senator. 49 claims checked by other fact-checking organisations, from 2019 to 2025. The ratings are theirs, in their own words.
“Some 200,000 people are in jail for the crime of being poor and not being able to afford bail.”
PolitiFact rated this: Half True
“500,000 people go bankrupt every year because they cannot pay their outrageous medical bills.”
Washington Post rated this: Three Pinocchios
“Last year, South Carolina spent $21,756 per prison inmate and $11,552 per student.”
PolitiFact rated this: Mostly True
“In 2016, counties hosting a Trump rally saw a 226% spike in hate crimes.”
PolitiFact rated this: Half True
“There are more assault rifles, as I understand it, in the hands of private citizens than in the hands of the United States military. We're talking about 5 to 10 million assault weapons in the hands of private citizens.”
PolitiFact rated this: Half True
“Right now, we have a dysfunctional health-care system. Eighty-seven million uninsured or under-insured, 500,000 Americans every year going bankrupt because of medical bills, 30,000 people dying while the health-care industry makes tens of billions of dollars in profit.”
PolitiFact rated this: Many numbers, fuzzy math
“Detroit "was nearly destroyed because of awful trade policy.”
The New York Times rated this: This is exaggerated.
“Trump's budget calls for "a $1.5 trillion cut in Medicaid over a 10-year period, $800 billion cut in Medicare, and billions in Social Security.”
The New York Times rated this: This is exaggerated.