According to a July poll from NewsNation, 72 percent of Republican voters believe the criminal justice system isn’t tough enough on crime. That’s compared to 58 percent of voters overall, and just 42 percent of Democrats.
-Analysis by FiveThirtyEight

Pence was pressed on crime in some of the nation's major cities -- with rates that spiked parallel with the COVID-19 pandemic, though they have since dropped in some areas -- and whether the Trump administration's COVID-19 policies were in part to blame.

Pence deflected, saying, "The Democrats have been talking about defunding the police for the last five years. And we ought to be funding law enforcement, particularly in our major cities, at unprecedented levels."

-ABC News' Tal Axelrod

Scott was asked if he's bought and paid for after Ramaswamy said he's the only candidate on stage who isn't bought and paid for. Possibly mishearing the question, he responded, "Absolutely." The moderators repeated it and he responded, "Absolutely not."

Then Scott proceeded to chide the rest of the stage for attacking one another.

"Here is what the American people deserve. It's a debate about the issues that affect their lives. Going back and forth and being childish is not helpful to the American people to decide on the next leader of our country,” Scott said.

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim

Scott and Pence have both mentioned a federal 15-week abortion ban. A majority of Republican primary voters say they support a such a ban, according to a July survey from The New York Times/Siena College. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans said they support a 15-week ban, including 41 percent who say they strongly support such a ban. Thirty-six percent oppose it and 6 percent are unsure.
-Analysis by FiveThirtyEight

This is … what we call, a zombie stat. It’s Mostly False.

The Biden administration never proposed hiring 87,000 additional or new IRS agents.

This 87,000 figure comes from a May 2021 Treasury Department assessment of how it would use $80 billion to improve IRS operations. The report said the IRS would add 86,852 new full-time positions.

But even in the 2021 plan, not all of the hires would be auditors, or work in enforcement. The report said the money would go toward many things, including "hiring new specialized enforcement staff, modernizing antiquated information technology, and investing in meaningful taxpayer service."

Although the agency’s staff would increase, it’s key to note that over half of the IRS workforce is close to retirement. The plan was created with that exodus in mind and aims to hire thousands of people to simply maintain current levels. Today, the IRS has about 80,000 employees.

"The IRS will lose about 50,000 people over the next five or six years," said Natasha Sarin, Treasury’s counselor for tax policy and implementation. "A lot of this hiring is about replacing those people."
-Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact