Two hours, and during the last GOP debate of the year Tuesday night, the candidates and their moderators said the name “ISIS” 112 times.
That’s nearly once per minute. And yet, it turns out, a lot of untrue statements were made about ISIS and Syria.
So tonight, we’re giving those statements a reality check.
“Assad is one of the main reasons why ISIS even exists to begin with. Assad is a puppet of Iran. And he has been so brutal toward the Sunni within Syria that he created the space that led to the people of Syria themselves to stand up and try to overthrow him.”
That was Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) explaining why ISIS is in power in Syria in the first place. Rubio says it is the fault of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
Backing up this new and completely false narrative, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had this to say:
“And that’s the way ISIS has been created and formed here. ISIS is created and formed because of the abuse that Assad and his Iranian sponsors have rained down on the Sunnis in Syria.”