Fact-check: Ed Markey, Seth Moulton debate in MA Senate Democratic primary

Sen. Ed Markey and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton lobbed a series of familiar attacks during a Democratic primary debate for a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts but also debated a surprise accusation about an alleged connection between Markey and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Moulton said Markey’s name appears in the Epstein files as someone who met with a lobbyist working on behalf of Epstein. Markey replied, “I have never met Jeffrey Epstein” and said both Epstein’s actions and Moulton’s line of questioning were “absolutely reprehensible.”

The rest of the debate resurfaced distinctions between the candidates who are otherwise broadly aligned on many policy issues. They debated their campaign finance histories and stock holdings and touched on age — Markey is 80, and Moulton is 47.

The debate was sponsored by WFXT Boston 25 and GBH News, in collaboration with media partners El Planeta and the Bay State Banner, and was held at WFXT’s studio in Dedham. 

PolitiFact covered the debate live as part of its partnership with WCVB-TV.

PolitiFact fact-checked the Epstein allegation, the candidates’ release of health records, Moulton’s record on transgender policy and the division over Medicare for All. The primary is Sept. 1.

Moulton to Markey: “Why would you even take a meeting with a lobbyist on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein?” 

Moulton said Markey’s name appears in the Epstein files, a reference to the federal government’s investigative files pertaining to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019. Being in the files is not evidence of wrongdoing — many politicians’ names are in the records and they have not been accused of or charged with crimes.

Moulton asked why Markey met with a lobbyist on behalf of Epstein and “how could you do that long after he was convicted?” 

Markey replied, “I have never met Jeffrey Epstein,” and denounced Epstein’s actions and Moulton’s line of questioning as “absolutely reprehensible.”

Markey met with colleagues of lobbyist Bob Crowe in 2015 regarding Karim Wade, the son of Senegal’s then-president. Wade had been sentenced in Senegal for corruption. Justice Department files show that Crowe forwarded an email with details about that meeting to Epstein. 

The email doesn’t say that Markey knew Epstein was involved in Wade’s case.

The meeting was about seven years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction over soliciting prostitution from a minor, and before his 2019 arrest on federal charges regarding sex trafficking of minors.

The Miami Herald reported that Epstein paid Wade’s legal fees and paid Crowe’s lobbying firm, Nelson Mullins, $100,000. The firm lobbied Congress and the State Department, arguing Wade’s charges were politically motivated. 

Markey was the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health at the time. 

Crowe’s colleague also invited Epstein to attend a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser that included Markey in November 2015. 

Markey called on Trump to release the Epstein files in 2025. 

Markey: Moulton “has thrown those (transgender) kids under the political bus.”

After President Donald Trump’s 2024 win, Moulton told The New York Times that Democrats prioritize avoiding offending people rather than speaking honestly about challenges Americans face. He also said, “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.” Moulton stood by his comments despite criticism from national and local party members.

But Moulton has also cosponsored the Equality Act, which would include LGBTQ people as a protected class within the Civil Rights Act. He voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which would ban people whose biological sex at birth was male from any school athletic programs for women or girls.

In January 2025, Moulton said at a town hall, “As a political party in the United States, we should welcome debate, we should entertain it. I don’t know what the exact right answer is on these contentious issues, but we should at least have the debate.” 

In a March 2025 op-ed, Moulton said he believed “there should be reasonable restrictions for safety and fairness.” Critics of his stance booed him at a 2026 LGBTQ pride parade in Boston. 

Moulton: “I’ve offered to disclose my health records, (Markey) refuses.”

This is accurate, but health records aren’t a requirement for congressional candidates.

A post-Watergate federal law requires public officials to disclose their financial interests, but not their health records.
Senators’ health and age has been a discussion topic this summer amid the July 11 death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and as Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has missed more than a month of work after a fall led to his hospitalization.

Moulton has publicly called on Markey to release his health records and has committed to releasing his own. Markey’s campaign has not committed to doing so and called it a distraction from other issues. As of July 15, Moulton had not released his health records; his campaign told GBH they had been requested from the Department of Veterans Affairs health system. Moulton is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.

Markey: Moulton “does not support Medicare for All.” 

Markey is correct: Moulton does not share Markey’s support for Medicare for All, a proposal to cover all Americans with a government-run single-payer health plan.

Markey is a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All bill filed in the Senate in 2025. Moulton has not sponsored the House bill.

Markey has supported Medicare for All for several years to provide healthcare to all residents.

During Moulton’s 2019 bid for president, he did not support Medicare for All and called for improving the Affordable Care Act instead. Moulton said at the time that he thought consumers should be able to keep their private insurance.  

“We need to make sure that everybody in America has access to quality affordable healthcare,” Moulton said in 2019. “And I don’t think we do that by forcing everyone onto a government one-size-fits-all program designed in 1963.”

During the debate, Moulton said that “health care, housing and education should all be human rights in our country. I think that after years of trying the senator’s plan, which has not gotten healthcare for all, we need a different approach that will bring down healthcare costs and ensure that everybody in America has healthcare.”