The zombie claim about Navy ship numbers returns to the 2016 campaign trail

GOP presidential hopefuls — official and unofficial — descended on New Hampshire and delivered a series of speeches. Almost every candidate spoke about the need to ramp up defense spending, and at least three spoke on the shrinking number of ships in the Navy.

Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also made a similar comparison as Graham and Walker, though Christie’s statement was less specific than the ones the other two made. Christie said the United States is “underselling our national defense right now. We’re going from a 600-ship Navy down to a 260-ship Navy in a world that’s extraordinarily more dangerous than at almost anytime in my life.”

Mitt Romney’s comments about the number of ships in 1916 and 1917 versus the number in 2012 gained attention during the 2012 presidential cycle. The Fact Checker awarded Romney Three Pinocchios for the comparison. Several other organizations reached similar analyses.

Read the full article at The Washington Post.