Fact Check: Republican Primaries
Mitt's misleading mailer, Giuliani's crime stats and other reigns of error.
Dec. 7, 2007 — -- New Hampshire voters have started receiving this mailing from the Mitt Romney for President campaign that assails his opponents on the issue of illegal immigration.
The mailer alleges that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani "support amnesty" for illegal immigrants.
Tune in for more on this story tonight on "World News with Charlie Gibson" at 6:30 p.m. ET
The accusation makes for an eye-catching piece of political propaganda.
However, an ABC News fact check reveals that many of the claims in the mailer are simply not true.
None of the Republicans mentioned support "amnesty" -- which is allowing illegal immigrants to become citizens without a penalty or arduous process.
That has become a popular claim among opponents of the immigration reform bill that McCain brokered with Democrats, which is supported by President Bush, but the allegation's constant repetition does not make it true.
Maybe opponents do not think the barriers to citizenship are high enough, or the penalties for illegally entering the country harsh enough, but the bill does not constitute "amnesty."
The charge is all the more interesting coming from Romney, who in November 2005 told the Boston Globe that a different immigration reform proposal by McCain was "quite different" since that 2005 effort -- which was arguably more liberal than the 2006 version -- required illegal immigrants to work for years, pay taxes, not take government benefits, pay a fine and register with the government.
"That's very different than amnesty, where you literally say, 'OK, everybody here gets to stay,'" Romney told the Globe two years ago. "It's saying you could work your way into becoming a legal resident of the country by working here without taking benefits and then applying and then paying a fine."
Romney's campaign based their claim about Thompson on a partial quote he gave to Fox News, outlining three possible options he supports to solve the immigration problem.
"You're going to have to, in some way, work out a deal where they can have some aspirations of citizenship," Thompson said on Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes" in April 2006.
And that's where Romney stopped quoting. But here's the rest of what Thompson said: "... but not make it so easy that it's unfair to the people waiting in line and abiding by the law."
Political watchers say campaigns often put misleading or inaccurate information in mailers, because they don't get the attention TV ads do.
"The campaigns have thought direct mail is under the radar, that it doesn't get the scrutiny that the TV ads so," said Bill Adair, Politifact.com editor.
Romney's not the only candidate to put out less than truthful information about a rival. In November, Giuliani assailed Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts
"He had a very, very poor record dealing with crime," Giuliani told New Hampshire voters.
In an interview with The Associated Press, he elaborated: "While he was governor, violent crime went up in Massachusetts."
The only problem with that claim? It's not true.
While individual violent crimes such as murder increased during Romney's time as governor, from 2003 until January 2007, according to the same FBI crime statistics Giuliani was using, the number of incidents in the category of "violent crimes" went down from 30,377 in 2003 to 28,701 in 2006.
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