A new ad from the Republican Party of Florida tries to tie former Republican Governor and Democratic Congressman Charlie Crist to President Joe Biden.
As part of the ongoing series, “Truth be Told,” Fox 4 Investigates continues to put the campaign ads to the test.
“Crist votes with Biden 100% of the time,” the ad claims.
That’s true, according to a congressional analysis by the website fivethirtyeight.com.
It’s important to point out that same website shows many democrats in congress vote with the President 100% of the time.
And for more perspective, during the Trump administration, we saw similar numbers of republicans voting with the President.
The next claim is something a lot of republicans are tying to democrats across the country.
“Crist teamed up with Biden to hire 87,000 IRS agents to audit the middle class,” the ad claims.
That is misleading, bordering on false.
Crist did vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, which does include nearly $80 million to the IRS.
However, that 87,000 agents' claim is false.
The number comes from a 2021 IRS report which says the money from congress would help the agency hire nearly 87,000 new employees by 2031.
The report says the money would go toward “hiring new specialized enforcement staff, modernizing antiquated information technology, and investing in meaningful taxpayer service.”
The same report also says enforcement would only go against those with the highest incomes, $400,000 a year and above.
Certainly not the middle class like the ad claims.
“Crist even supported Biden’s agenda to defund the police,” is one of the final claims made in the ad.
The claim is false.
The ad claims that President Biden’s statement on police reform negotiations from September of 2021 advocates defunding the police.
It does not.
The statement from the President did advocate passage for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act which does not call for defunding the police.
Instead, the bill, which died in the Senate, called for a ban on no-knock warrants, created a federal registry of police misconduct complaints and required that federal uniformed police officers wear body cameras.
