Fact-checking claims on the Israel-Hamas war from the third 2024 GOP presidential debate

Five Republicans seeking to oust President Joe Biden from the White House in 2024 sparred over the Israel-Hamas war, the threat from China and the U.S. approach to terrorism in the third GOP presidential primary debate Wednesday night.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., repeatedly expressed support for Israel and denounced Hamas, while criticizing Biden for his administration’s response.

Here are some of the claims about the Israel-Hamas war that PolitiFact checked during the Miami debate:

Ron DeSantis: "We had Floridians that were over there after the attack. He (Biden) left them stranded; they couldn't get flights out. So I scrambled resources in Florida. I sent planes over to Israel, and I brought back over 700 people to safety."

On Oct. 12, the Biden administration announced that the next day that the U.S. government would arrange charter flights to assist U.S. citizens and their immediate family members to depart Israel.

The federal government offered 6,900 seats by air, land and sea to Americans in Israel. Through Oct. 31, about 1,500 U.S. citizens and their family members had left Israel via federal government transport, a State Department spokesperson told PolitiFact.

DeSantis signed an Oct. 12 executive order allowing the state of Florida to evacuate Americans from Israel. Approximately 700 Americans have flown from Israel to Florida on four flights, according to information reported Oct. 24 by DeSantis’ office.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management told PolitiFact that the flights will cost about $32 million. The flights were free for passengers.

DeSantis: "There could have been more hostages" had Florida not sent planes to Israel to evacuate Americans. 

We can’t rate a hypothetical, but this statement ignores the timeline of when hostages were taken.

Multiple media outlets reported that Hamas took about 240 hostages during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Israel had secured towns in the area by Oct. 10.On Oct. 12, DeSantis signed an executive order allowing Florida to evacuate Americans from Israel. The first flight offered by DeSantis landed in Tampa on Oct. 15.

Chris Christie: While U.S. attorney in New Jersey after 9/11, "We stopped any hate crimes that were going on, either against Jewish Americans in New Jersey or Muslim Americans in New Jersey."

The Asbury Park Press ran the numbers in 2016. Hate crimes did, in fact, drop.

Total reported hate crimes in 2010 numbered 775, the newspaper reported. The total number of hate crimes then dropped each year through 2015 — from 606, to 553, 459, 373 and, finally, 367 in 2015.

Religiously motivated hate crimes also trended downward until 2015. That year, they increased nearly 10% in New Jersey.

DeSantis: "I already acted in Florida. We had a group Students for Justice of Palestine; they said they are common cause with Hamas, they said we're not just in solidarity, this is what we are. We deactivated them."

This doesn’t tell the whole story. There were no Florida chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine that made public statements about aligning with Hamas.

The group’s national body referred to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel as "the resistance" in an Oct. 12 toolkit that included advice campus chapters could use to host protests in support of Palestinians. In one section, the toolkit stated that "Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement."

This language spurred DeSantis to close chapters on Florida campuses, citing a state law about "knowingly provid(ing) material support … to a designated foreign terrorist organization." This affected chapters at the University of Florida and the University of South Florida.First Amendment and constitutional law experts expressed doubt about DeSantis' use of the law and said the anti-terrorism statute doesn’t apply to speech.

Tim Scott: "I believe that we have sleeper terrorist cells in America. Thousands of people have come from Yemen, Iran, Syria and Iraq."

This needs context.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection releases the number of times immigration officials encounter a known or suspected terrorist each fiscal year. But the government doesn’t disclose the nationalities of the people apprehended.

Data about how many people from Yemen, Iran, Syria and Iraq have crossed U.S. borders under President Joe Biden’s administration aren’t available.

In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2023, CBP encountered a person on the terrorist watchlist 591 times. Most of those encounters occurred at ports of entry on the northern border. People from this list who are encountered at the border can be denied entry into the United States.

Scott’s comment came as he discussed southern border security. However, Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, recently testified to Congress that his analysis of terrorist attacks in the U.S. from 1975 to 2022 showed that none of the people involved had crossed the southern border illegally.

DeSantis: "Not only is (Biden) not helping the Jewish students who are being persecuted. He is launching an initiative to combat so-called Islamophobia."

This is misleading. Biden has taken steps to combat both antisemitism and Islamophobia.

The Biden administration on Nov. 1 announced the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia in the United States. The announcement followed the Oct. 14 killing of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old Palestinian American Muslim boy, and the attack on his mother in their home outside Chicago. Authorities said their landlord, indicted on murder charges in the case, targeted the family because of their Muslim faith.

Biden has denounced antisemitism multiple times during his presidency, including after Hamas attacked Israel.

In May, the Biden administration announced the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, which includes steps for federal officials to address the Jewish community’s security needs.

On Nov. 7, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona denounced Islamophobia and antisemitism on college campuses.

See more fact-checks of claims made during the debate in the American-Stateman's online and print editions this weekend.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Fact-checking claims on the Israel-Hamas war from the third GOP debate