Fact Check

Was 'Trump' Uttered 1,326 Times During the Democratic Debates?

If numbers matter, this meme was only off by a thousand-plus.

Published July 1, 2019

MIAMI, FLORIDA - JUNE 27: Democratic presidential candidates (L-R) Marianne Williamson, former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, former tech executive Andrew Yang, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) take the stage for the second night of the first Democratic presidential debate on June 27, 2019 in Miami, Florida.  A field of 20 Democratic presidential candidates was split into two groups of 10 for the first debate of the 2020 election, taking place over two nights at Knight Concert Hall of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, hosted by NBC News, MSNBC, and Telemundo. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
Image Via Getty Images
Claim:
The name "Trump" was spoken 1,326 times during the first 2020 Democratic Party presidential debates.

In late June 2019, a set of statistics purportedly showing the "Democratic Debates by the numbers" started spreading on social media, leading with a reference to U.S. President Donald Trump:

The Twitter accounts pushing the numbers claimed that the word "Trump" was said 1,326 times during the debate, "free" was said 683 times, the Spanish language was spoken 14 times, and the word "America" was spoken only twice. Not one of these statistics is accurate.

The Democrats held two debates to accommodate a large field of candidates. The first 10 candidates gathered for a debate on June 26, while the second 10 candidates took the stage the following night. Transcripts (as well as video) of these events are readily available online.

We counted the number of times "Trump," "free," and "America" were spoken during both nights of debates and found the actual numbers to be quite different from the viral meme. According to our count, the candidates and the moderators said the word "Trump" 41 times on the first night and 53 times the second night for a grand total of 94 times. The viral meme was off by about 1,200.

We found approximately 18 instances of the word "free" during both nights of the debate (for a total of 36, not 683). Some 86 iterations of the word "America" came up during night one, and 99 uses of "America" on night two (for a total of 185, not twice.)

Getting a clear count on how often Spanish was spoken during the first round of debates was a little more difficult, but the meme's claim that the language was spoken "14 times" seem, again, to be grossly exaggerated. During the first night of debates, candidates Beto O'Rourke and Corey Booker both answered a question in Spanish, while Julián Castro used the word “adios" during his closing statement. On night two, Pete Buttigieg greeted moderator José Diáz Balart in Spanish, but delivered his answers in English. By our count, Spanish was spoken four times during the debate, not 14.

Sources

Beckwith, Ryan.   "All of the Highlights From Night 2 of the 2020 Democratic Debate."     Time.   28 June 2019.

Morin, Rebecca.   "Some 2020 Democrats Spoke in Spanish During Their First Debate. Was it 'Hispandering'?"     USA Today.   30 June 2019.

Taylor, Ryan.   "Transcript from First Night of the 2019 Democratic Debates."     Rev.com.   27 June 2019.

Taylor, Ryan.   "Transcript from Night 2 of the 2019 Democratic Debates."     Rev.com.   28 June 2019.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.