WASHINGTON (AP) - The Republican presidential debaters misfired in assertions about Supreme Court nominees and more.
A look at some of the claims and how they compare with the facts:
TED CRUZ: "We have 80 years of precedent of not confirming Supreme Court justices in an election year."
MARCO RUBIO: "It has been over 80 years since a lame-duck president has appointed a Supreme Court justice."
THE FACTS: Cruz is wrong. Rubio is in the ballpark.
Anthony Kennedy was confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 3, 1988, in the final year of Ronald Reagan's presidency, by a 97-0 vote. That was a presidential election year.
Presidents don't appoint justices to the high court; they nominate them for Senate confirmation. Kennedy was nominated in in 1987 and confirmed the next year. That makes Rubio closer to correct.
Rubio and other Republicans argued that President Barack Obama, as a lame duck, should not fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, but leave it to the next president - which they hope will be one of them.
But the example of Kennedy, who is still on the court, shows that presidents in their last year aren't always powerless in shaping the court - and not shy about trying.
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JEB BUSH: "Russia is not taking out ISIS. They're attacking our team."
DONALD TRUMP: "Jeb is so wrong. You've got to fight ISIS first. ... We've been in the Middle East for 15 years and we haven't won anything. We've spent $5 trillion in the Middle East."
THE FACTS: Both spoke with too broad a brush. Russia is bombing both the Islamic State group and Western-backed rebels. But the U.S. and its partners say the majority of Russia's strikes haven't targeted IS fighters, and that its most recent offensive near Aleppo is primarily hitting "moderate" opposition forces.
As with most things in Syria, however, the picture is unclear because some of the moderates are fighting alongside other extremist groups, like the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.
Trump's figure for total U.S. expenditures in the Middle East, though, appears significantly inflated. In November, Trump cited a $2 trillion figure. That number roughly matches the amount of money the U.S. spent fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2015, according to the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.