Fact checking night two of the Detroit Democratic Debate

Democratic presidential candidates take the stage at the Democratic Presidential Debate at the Fox Theatre July 31, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Ten more Democrats jousted on a Detroit stage Wednesday in what was probably the last of the traffic-jammed, double-barreled presidential debates.

RELATED: See the fact check from night one here.

A look at the veracity of their rhetoric as the contenders fought not only to stand out to primary voters but to stay in contention for the winnowed-down debates to come:



THE FACTS: Castro is incorrect to suggest that police officers can't be held accountable for using excessive force. There's no bar to prosecuting officers for acts of force and violence, though the standards differ for local and federal prosecution.

To the extent he's suggesting that it is challenging to successfully prosecute a police officer, he is correct.

But that's not because of qualified immunity but rather because of the tall burden of proof, particularly on federal prosecutors. The Justice Department brings criminal charges against police officers in cases when they can prove that the officer intentionally violated someone's civil rights by using more force than the law allows. Department officials said they could not make such a case in the investigation Castro and other Democrats were discussing - the 2014 chokehold death of New York man Eric Garner.

Qualified immunity is a legal protection shielding public servants from legal actions for performing their jobs.


KAMALA HARRIS, senator from California: "Right now in America, we have seniors who every day - millions of seniors - are going into the Medicare system."





THE FACTS: The former vice president must have meant drug company executives, since insurance companies pay for medications - they don't sell them.


MICHAEL BENNET, senator from Colorado, in a message directed at President Donald Trump: "Kids belong in classrooms not cages."



Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Colleen Long, Calvin Woodward and Amanda Seitz contributed to this report.