GOP town hall fact check: What Ramaswamy, Pence, Haley, Hutchinson and Burgum said

Republican presidential hopefuls came to New Hampshire last week and answered questions directly from voters in a series of town hall forums. Some of their responses checked out, but other claims were false or misleading.

Five candidates took part in the forums presented by USA TODAY, the USA TODAY Network and Seacoastonline at the Exeter Town Hall, where Donald Trump, Barack Obama and many other former presidents have campaigned.

• More: Vivek Ramaswamy is an outsider. Here's why he says it's a good thing: 5 takeaways in N.H.

• More: Nikki Haley tells N.H. voters why Trump shouldn't be the president: 'Leave the negativity and chaos'

• More: Mike Pence has some tough words for GOP hard-liners: N.H. town hall takeaways

• More: 5 key takeaways from the Doug Burgum town hall in N.H.: Here's what he would focus on as president

• More: Asa Hutchinson at Exeter Town Hall: 'we need a course correction in the Republican Party'

Topics ranged from energy and the environment to taxes and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here's where the candidates were on – and off – the mark:

Ramaswamy claim: Government-funded programs in Philadelphia offer crack pipes, needles

“I’ve been to Kensington, in the inner city of Philadelphia. You know what happens there? The aid programs, including funded by the government, hand out crack pipes and needles as a form of aid.”

This claim by Vivek Ramaswamy, a tech entrepreneur and political newcomer, is only half true.

Like many communities around the country, Philadelphia has a needle exchange program that provides clean needles for drug users to slow the spread of disease.

"Clean needles are an evidence-based intervention proven to save lives, included in the White House’s recommendations for addressing the overdose epidemic," Sarah Peterson, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Mayor's Office, told USA TODAY in an email.

More: A new 'fentanyl fighter' hits a market crowded with overdose reversal drugs

The city’s website notes the benefits of such programs in preventing the spread of infections including hepatitis C and HIV. But the website makes no mention of offering crack pipes – because there's no such program.

Peterson said the city distributes safe smoking kits, but those do not include pipes.

It echoes a similar claim that USA TODAY debunked in 2022, which asserted that President Joe Biden’s administration was spending $30 million on crack pipes as part of its program to reduce health risks tied to drug use. The program allowed for grantees to purchase safe smoking kits, but crack pipes were not among the approved materials.

Ramaswamy claim: There’s a 25% fatherlessness rate in the US

“25% fatherlessness rate in this country. Yes, we ought to have empathy for kids who grow up in those households, who are eight times more likely to end up in prison, 10 times more likely to end up in poverty, over 10 times less likely to graduate from high school and enter and get a college degree.”

The fatherlessness statistic Ramaswamy cited matches 2022 data from the U.S. Census Bureau that found about a quarter of the 73 million children under 18 living without fathers in the home.

There's less clarity about exactly how much more likely other negative outcomes are as a result, though research shows the lack of a father figure increases the chances of other negative life outcomes.

More: 'The streak is now broken': US poverty rate over time shows spike in 2022 levels

The Census Bureau in 2020 found that children in fatherless households were four times more likely to be in poverty, well short of the 10 times cited by Ramaswamy.

Other studies we found used slightly different metrics, confirming a correlation but with different figures.

• Teens with involved fathers were 98% more likely to graduate from college, according to a 2014 report from the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute. It was based on numbers from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which surveyed students in grades 7–12 during the 1994–95 academic year.

• Children living in female-headed families with no spouse present had a poverty rate that was more than four times higher than that of married families, according to the National Center for Fathering, a nonprofit research group.

• And children in father-absent families faced higher odds of incarceration than those from mother-father families, with youths who never had a father in the household facing having the highest odds, according to a 2004 study by researchers from Princeton and the University of California San Francisco.

Pence claim: The Trump administration's tax cuts were the largest in U.S. history

"We cut taxes more than any other administration in history."

This claim by former Vice President Mike Pence is false. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law by then-President Donald Trump in December 2017. An analysis by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Budget determined "it would definitely not be the largest in history," but would instead be the eighth-largest as a percent of gross domestic product since 1918 and the fourth-largest in inflation-adjusted dollars.

More: US government shutdowns used to be rare. That’s increasingly no longer the case.

The Washington Post found Trump's tax cut amounted to nearly 0.9% of GDP, which means Trump's tax cut was smaller than tax cuts passed under several previous administrations. For instance, the Economic Recovery Act of 1981 passed under President Ronald Reagan was 2.89% of GDP. By the same measurement, Trump's tax cut was also smaller than two tax cuts passed under his predecessor, President Barack Obama.

Pence claim: COVID-19 originated in a Chinese laboratory

"The virus came from a Chinese lab."

Some polls show many Americans believe COVID-19 leaked from a lab, but Pence's assertion is still far from settled.

The White House said in February there was not a consensus across the government on the origins of the virus, as USA TODAY reported at the time. That announcement followed reports that the Energy Department had concluded the pandemic most likely was caused by an unintentional lab leak in China. However, the department's conclusion was made with “low confidence,” meaning the level of certainty was not high, according to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

More: Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine jointly awarded to scientists for COVID-19 work

Biden had previously asked intelligence agencies to investigate the origins of the virus, but they were not able to reach a consensus, according to The Washington Post, which noted that most of the agencies favored, with "low confidence," the "natural spillover" theory.

NPR reported in February that scientists who have studied the origins of the pandemic are far less divided, saying there is "very convincing" data and "overwhelming evidence" to indicate an animal origin.

Haley claim: I have always fought for transparency with money in politics

“I'll always fight for transparency (in political spending), for you to see everything in government and otherwise. I did that in South Carolina, I did it at the U.N. I think you need to see everything that is possible to see and then you can make the best decision.”

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s response to a question about political spending fails to note that she has specifically fought against donor transparency for her own political nonprofit.

Haley was asked about how to counteract the influence of big money donors in politics, and she said donors to political action committees and candidates must be disclosed, and that identifying large financial backers can help voters recognize potential influences.

More: Biden raises $71 million in 3rd quarter, far outpacing Trump and the Republican field

However, Haley founded a political nonprofit after leaving the Trump administration called Stand for America. As a 501(c)(4) organization, it has the option to keep donors’ names private. It did so, but Politico obtained an unredacted tax filing for the nonprofit from 2019 that identified dozens of donors who had not given to Haley’s PAC of the same name, where their donations would have been public.

Haley called the release a violation of tax law and threatened to sue the New York attorney general’s office because the released version of the filing had a marking indicating the office had been in possession of that copy. USA TODAY could not find any media reports saying the lawsuit had been filed.

Open Secrets reported that Haley’s nonprofit raised more than $25 million in the four-plus years between its founding and when she joined the presidential race. The nonprofit’s funds cannot be used for a campaign, but it is a way of staying connected to donors and funding policy promotion efforts between campaigns.

Haley claim: South Carolina has the lowest recidivism rate in the country because of her reforms

"Now in South Carolina, when someone leaves the fence, they have a job to go to the next day. We have the lowest recidivism rate in the country.”

The claim is statistically correct, and the rate improved during the Haley administration, according to media reports. South Carolina’s recidivism rate – defined as the percentage of prisoners released who return to state custody within three years – is a nation-leading 19%, according to a study by the Virginia Department of Corrections. Other studies with different definitions also place recidivism around 20%.

More: 'Persistent overcrowding': Fulton County Jail issues spark debate, search for answers

While governor, Haley introduced programs to prepare inmates for life after incarceration. Those changes included job training, help with housing and other support services, steps that continued after she left office. State officials credit that approach with keeping former inmates from reoffending.

Hutchinson claim: Biden canceled leases on Alaska’s North Slope

“President Biden canceled the oil leases from the Alaskan slope. This is after leases have been made. I will immediately open those lands back up for leasing so we can produce oil and we can get the price down at the pump.”

This is not an accurate description of what Biden did. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson appears to be conflating a pair of actions taken by the Department of Interior on Sept. 6. The agency proposed a rule that would reduce the acreage available for drilling on Alaska’s North Slope while also canceling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The changes on the slope would not cancel any existing leases but would close off 10.6 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska from being used for drilling for oil. The slope produced nearly 500,000 barrels of oil daily in 2022, about a quarter of its peak in 2008.

More: Alaska oil drilling: Willow project critics go viral with petition pressuring Biden

No private companies held the leases canceled in the Arctic refuge, an area of environmentally-sensitive federal land in Alaska, according to the Associated Press. Nine leases were awarded at a 2021 auction, but an energy company and a real estate company both canceled their leases in 2022, according to media reports. The remaining leases were all held by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a corporation owned by the state government. Alaska officials expressed interest in partnering with oil companies to develop and drill the land when it won the auctions, but that hasn't happened yet.

If Hutchinson meant to say opening up Arctic leases, their impact on gasoline prices is purely hypothetical. The Energy Information Administration said in a 2018 report that it could take 10 years after leases are issued before oil from the refuge would enter the market because more studies must be performed, and infrastructure must be built.

Hutchinson claim: States cannot get waivers to add work requirements to Medicaid programs

“Right now, I could not put in a work requirement, which I tried to do in Arkansas, that if you’re able-bodied and you don’t have small children at home, then you have to work or you have to be in worker training or you have to volunteer.”

This claim is largely accurate.

Thirteen states received waivers during the Trump administration to institute work requirements for at least some people in their Medicaid programs, although Arkansas was the only one to drop people from the program for non-compliance, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. The others either paused implementation or held off on enforcing the requirements because of threats of litigation or the COVID-19 pandemic.

More: Helpers few and far between for rural Americans kicked off Medicaid after pandemic

But the Biden administration revoked all waivers in 2021, pointing in part to a federal report that found work requirements in Arkansas – even before the pandemic – did not increase employment and caused about 18,000 Arkansans to lose coverage.

However, Georgia won a court fight last year to implement a work requirement as part of a Medicaid expansion effort, applying the requirement only to people who become eligible for Medicaid under expanded criteria. That program began on July 1 but was not a new waiver under Biden.

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Burgum claim: US is best at removing carbon dioxide

"The United States has taken more CO2 out of the air than any other country in the world."

This claim by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is true in terms of absolute numbers, but there's more to the story.

The U.S. reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by about 760 million metric tons per year from 2000-14, according to a 2018 report from the bipartisan Environmental and Energy Study Institute – the most recent version available. The drop was about four times as large as the one in the United Kingdom, which ranked second with an annual cut of 170 million metric tons.

More: Visualizing climate change's wrath: Global warming's dire impact on Earth explored

But because the U.S. is also one of the world’s top carbon dioxide producers, that represents a relatively small percentage drop of 8%. The report says most countries had cuts of at least 10%. Denmark trimmed its emissions by 30%.

Burgum claim: Nearly $2 billion slashed from budget early in term as North Dakota governor

“We cut $1.7 billion out of our state budget in my first four months in office. … We know how to balance budgets.”

His figure is right, but he left out some important context by taking credit for it.

Those cuts early in Burgum's term came when lower oil and commodity prices led to drops in revenue, according to a report by InForum. The budget assembled by Burgum and state lawmakers in 2017 cut state general fund spending from $6 billion to $4.3 billion.

More: Do I really need that? How American consumers are tightening purse strings amid inflation

But Burgum may be taking too much credit for that balanced budget. The state constitution explicitly requires lawmakers and the governor to approve a balanced budget every two years.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What Republican presidential candidates got right (and wrong) in NH