Reality Check: Who’s pants on fire in debate?

By CNN’s Reality Check Team

The Republican candidates for president gathered Saturday in Manchester, New Hampshire, for their eighth debate, and CNN’s Reality Check Team spent the night putting their statements and assertions to the test.

The team of reporters, researchers and editors across CNN selected key statements and rated them true; mostly true; true, but misleading; false; or it’s complicated.

By Tom LoBianco, CNN

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz defended himselfd against questions of why his staff told Iowa caucusgoers that Ben Carson was “suspending campaigning” after Monday night.

Earlier in the week, Cruz had been calling CNN’s reporting Monday night “true and accurate,” but he changed his message Saturday night.

“CNN reported that Ben was not going from Iowa to New Hampshire or South Carolina, rather, he was, quote, taking a break from campaigning,” Cruz said.

“I regret that subsequently CNN reported on that. They didn’t correct that story until 9:15 p.m. that night. So from 6:30 p.m. to 9:15 pm that night, that’s what CNN was reporting,” Cruz said.

But Cruz completely misstated CNN’s reporting from Monday night. At no point in the night did CNN report on air or online Carson was taking a break from campaigning or suspending campaigning.

And since the original reporting was accurate, there was nothing to “correct” in subsequent reports.

CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash accurately cited CNN reporter Chris Moody’s report of the Carson campaign statement on-air Monday night.

“Ben Carson is going to go back to Florida, to his home, regardless of how he does tonight here in Iowa. He’s going to go there for several days and then afterwards he’s not going to go to South Carolina,” Bash said. “He’s not going to go to New Hampshire. He’s going to come to Washington, D.C. and he’s going to do that because the National Prayer Breakfast is on Thursday and people that have been following Ben Carson’s career know that’s really where he got himself on the political map, attending that prayer breakfast and really giving it to President Obama at the time.”

Repeating: At no point did CNN ever report that Carson was suspending his campaign.

Verdict: False.

By Kevin Liptak, CNN

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie claimed that President Barack Obama and his former top diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, support sending payments to terrorists in exchange for releasing detained Americans.

“This President and his former secretary of state are for paying ransom for hostages,” Christie said. “When you do that, you endanger even more Americans around the world to be the subject of this type of hostage taking and illegal detention.”

The question of paying ransom for hostages rose to prominence in the past several years as ISIS gained strength, capturing Americans and, in some cases, beheading them in gruesome propaganda videos.

In those cases, the U.S. government refused to pay ransoms for its citizens’ release, in keeping with longstanding government policy barring paying concessions to foreign terrorists.

That policy drew ire from some of those hostages’ families, who said they were threatened with legal action by the U.S. government for raising their own funds to pay for their loved ones’ release.

In June, Obama announced changes to the U.S. hostage policy that clarified private citizens would not be prosecuted if they attempted to raise money for a ransom themselves.

But he said in no uncertain terms that the government itself would not pay ransoms to terrorists.

“I am reaffirming that the United States government will not make concessions, such as paying ransom, to terrorist groups holding American hostages,” Obama said. ” I firmly believe that the United States government paying ransom to terrorists risks endangering more Americans and funding the very terrorism that we’re trying to stop. And so I firmly believe that our policy ultimately puts fewer Americans at risk.”

There’s no evidence any ransoms have been paid by the U.S. government and the President has made clear in his statements that he supports longstanding U.S. policy against the practice. There’s also evidence that Clinton ever said anything that could be construed as supporting ransom payments to hostage-takers.

Verdict: False.

By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney

Asked about his plan for health care, Donald Trump lashed out at insurers.

“The insurance companies are getting rich on Obamacare. The insurance companies are getting rich on health care and health services and everything having to do with health,” he said.

Certainly, insurers have been doing pretty well in recent years. Health care has been one of the “healthier” sectors of the economy, particularly as the nation ages and needs more medical services. Obamacare was expected to be a boon for insurers, bringing them millions of new customers who would obtain coverage on the individual insurance exchanges.

But whether insurers are actually getting rich on Obamacare is another matter. UnitedHealth likely wouldn’t agree with Trump. The insurance titan just reported it expects to lose nearly $1 billion on the individual health exchanges for 2015 and 2016, in large part because Obamacare enrollees are proving to be sicker and costlier than expected. To limit enrollment for 2016, it increased prices, eliminated marketing and commissions and withdrawn its top-tier products. And it is weighing exiting Obamacare next year.

Other large players, including Aetna and Anthem, have said recently that they are disappointed with their Obamacare exchange businesses.

Some smaller insurers have also suffered. At least a dozen cooperative insurers set up and funded by Obamacare failed in 2015.

In its third year, Obamacare has yet to prove yuuugely profitable for many insurers.

Verdict: False.

By Lisa Rose, CNN

Responding to a round of boos as he tussled with Jeb Bush over eminent domain, Trump said he was getting a Bronx cheer because the room was packed with jilted donors and special interests. “We have all donors in the audience,” said Trump. “And the reason they’re not loving me — excuse me — the reason they’re not loving me is I don’t want their money.”

There were 1,000 people in the audience, according to the Republican National Committee. The number of donors was 75. The rest of the crowd was a mix of college students, state party officials and guests invited by the candidates as well as the event’s media partners.

The RNC says donors made up less than 10% of the audience.

For that reason we give our own Bronx cheer. Our verdict is false.