Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ office crafted and published a video attacking Fox News commentators for mocking Sanders’ claims that the proposed Senate health care bill — which was recently shelved due to a lack of votes — would cause “thousands” of people to die.
Sanders’ Twitter account posted the video, which reached almost three minutes in length, with the caption: “Fox News may not like it, but these are the facts: Thousands of our fellow Americans will die if the Republican health care bill is passed.”
WATCH:
Fox News may not like it, but these are the facts: Thousands of our fellow Americans will die if the Republican health care bill is passed. pic.twitter.com/VBQRm8wtMZ
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) July 3, 2017
Tweets that aren’t personally signed by Sanders are “from a staffer,” according to the socialist senator’s Twitter profile.
Sanders relied on a PolitiFact fact-check as the basis for attacking Fox News’ health care coverage. The fact-checking site rated his claim “mostly true.” (FLASHBACK: PolitiFact Said ‘Mostly True’ That Obama Admin Got All Chemical Weapons Out Of Syria)
PolitiFact, which in 2008 gave Barack Obama a “true” rating for his false claim that under Obamacare “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” relied on several studies to conclude that Sanders’ claim was “phrased generally enough to be defensible.”
When rating Sanders’ claim, the fact-checkers conceded that “we can’t say with any specificity how many deaths will occur. It’s important to note that the studies provide estimates only, and each study found a slightly different result.” (RELATED: Politifact Says Trump Is Right, But Rates His Remark ‘Mostly False’)
Fox News host Kennedy fired back at Sanders on Twitter, writing: “Can you please explain why so many helpless vets died while you chaired the Veterans’ Affairs Committee? Bad track record!”