Opinion

There was a moment during the vice presidential debate when Senator JD Vance stated that “in Springfield, Ohio, and in communities all across this country you’ve got schools that are overwhelmed, you’ve got hospitals that are overwhelmed, you’ve got housing that is totally unaffordable because we’ve brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes” to which moderator fact checked and stated: “And just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary protected status.” Senator Vance responded by stating to Margaret Brennan, the moderator: "Margaret, the rules were that you were not going to fact check.” It is true that CBS News which sponsored the debate had indicated that there would be no live fact checking, but the candidates could fact check each other and had a QR code that allowed viewers to fact check. Thus, technically, Brennan was fact checking.