The Clinton campaign’s slippy rhetoric on Trump’s ‘immigrant’ plans

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump frequently — and falsely — says he opposed the Iraq War “from the beginning,” ahead of the invasion. He uses this as a contrast to Hillary Clinton, who in 2002 voted in favor of authorization for President George W. Bush to launch an invasion if negotiations failed with Iraq over […]

Fact Checker video: Donald Trump’s most outrageous Four-Pinocchio claims
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has a tenuous relationship with facts, and we’ve been keeping track of his whoppers in our ongoing tally of his Four-Pinocchio ratings. But some of his claims were more absurd than others, with no basis in fact. Such as when he insisted that he saw “thousands and thousands” of Muslims […]

Gary Johnson’s claim that states operate at a deficit because of federal education requirements

“The Department of Education gives every state about 11 cents out of every school dollar that every state spends, but it comes with 15 cents’ worth of strings attached. So it’s really a negative to take federal money. You know, you’ve got to accomplish A, B, C and D to receive your 11 cents, but […]

Indiana AG touts a debunked and rejected ‘fact’ on sex trafficking

“13 is the average age kids are first used in the sex trade.” — billboard in Indiana, near the Indianapolis 500 Speedway Regular readers know that last year the The Fact Checker exposed a series of false statistics associated with sex trafficking of children. All too often, we found, politicians and organizations credulously accepted flimsy or […]

Trump supporters’ false claim that Trump U judge is a member of a pro-immigrant group

“Trump’s complaints about the judge and the law firm in the Trump University case are valid and reflect a growing pattern of politicized ‘justice.’ Criticizing the judge for his membership in a radical La Raza San Diego group would have been legitimate. Focusing on ethnicity was not.” — Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), interview […]

Sorry, Donald Trump, the ‘Mexican’ judge was just following the law

“He [Judge Gonzalo Curiel] is giving us very unfair rulings, rulings that people can’t even believe. This case should have ended years ago on summary judgment. The best lawyers — I have spoken to so many lawyers — they said, this is not a case. This is a case that should have ended.” –Donald Trump, […]

Trump’s claim that Elizabeth Warren made a ‘quick killing’ in foreclosures

“Goofy Elizabeth Warren, sometimes known as Pocahontas, bought foreclosed housing and made a quick killing. Total hypocrite!” —Donald Trump, in a tweet, May 25, 2016 Donald Trump lashed out at Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for being a hypocrite after Warren attacked Trump for saying, before the housing bubble burst in 2008, that he hoped to […]

Bernie Sanders’s claim that the Fed can rescue Puerto Rico like it rescued Wall Street

“If the Federal Reserve could bail out Wall Street, it can help the 3.5 million American citizens in Puerto Rico improve its economy and lift its children out of poverty. Today, I am calling on the Fed to use its emergency authority under Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act to pave the way for […]

Here’s a guide to Clinton’s claims about Donald Trump

Hillary Clinton’s foreign-policy speech in San Diego was mostly a very long attack on Donald Trump, with many citations of the statements he has made on foreign policy. Below is a guide to some of her key claims, along with the context in which Trump made them. In most cases Clinton was on target, though in […]

Bernie Sanders’s ‘factually incorrect’ delegate math

“Literally eight months before the first ballot was cast in Iowa, she had almost all of the superdelegates on board. That is an absurd system. … Now, on Tuesday night, on the 7th, you are going to hear from media saying that Hillary Clinton has received 80 or 90 delegates from New Jersey and other states…the […]

Mitch McConnell earns Four Pinocchios for a very stale talking point on household income

“People are legitimately unhappy. The average person is about $3,000 or $4,000 a year worse off today than when President Obama came to office, [so] you can understand the anxiety and the desire for a kind of quick turnaround.” — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), remarks during interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” May 31, […]

Clinton’s exaggerations about Trump and Sanders on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’

Hillary Clinton appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on May 22 and made several claims about her opponents that stretch the truth or lack context. In part, she relied too much on media accounts without doing enough double-checking about the facts. As we often warn, the burden of the evidence rests with the speaker. Politicians […]

Roger Goodell’s shell-game response to charges of NFL influence over brain-injury grants

“A congressman issued that report without even talking to any of our advisers. I don’t think that’s appropriate. I don’t think that’s the right way to do things.” –NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, remarks at a news conference, May 24, 2016 The Fact Checker does not often delve into sports issues, but a colleague suggested this […]

No, Donald Trump, there’s nothing ‘fishy’ about Vince Foster’s suicide

Donald Trump “called theories of possible foul play ‘very serious’ and the circumstances of [Vince] Foster’s death ‘very fishy.’” — “Trump escalates attack on Bill Clinton,” The Washington Post, May 24, 2016 Donald Trump appears intent on dredging up every last bit of every Clinton controversy, including the 1993 death of the Clintons’ close personal […]

Trump’s flip-flop on whether the Bill Clinton sex scandals are important

“Nobody in this country was worse than Bill Clinton with women. He was a disaster. He was disaster.” — Donald Trump, remarks during a rally in Eugene, Ore., May 6, 2016 A key part of Donald Trump’s strategy to damage the image of Hillary Clinton — on track to be the first female presidential nominee of a major […]

Recalling Hillary Clinton’s claim of ‘landing under sniper fire’ in Bosnia

One of our all-time great fact checks was The Fact Checker’s March 21, 2008, report on Hillary Clinton’s false claim that she arrived in Bosnia “under sniper fire.” The article, written by our former colleague Michael Dobbs, was quickly followed by CBS News, PolitiFact and others — and ultimately became a defining moment in the 2008 […]

Is Iran ‘already violating’ the nuclear deal by ‘illegally testing ballistic missiles?’

“Senator Johnny Isakson fought President Obama’s reckless deal with the Iranian regime. Now Iran is already violating the agreement — illegally testing ballistic missiles, threatening Israel and supporting terrorism in the Middle East.” — Voiceover in a political ad by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), “Terrible Deal” This ad begins with Isakson, who is running for […]

Did Clinton laugh about a rapist’s light sentence and attack sexual harassment victims?

“Democrat Senate candidates need to ask themselves: Can they really support Hillary Clinton? She’s a living history of scandal, lies and spin. Defended an accused child rapist, then laughed about his lenient sentence. Whitewater. Travelgate. Chinagate. Filegate. She politically attacked sexual harassment victims, pretended she landed under sniper fire. Benghazi. The Clinton Foundation. FBI investigation. […]

Clinton campaign’s claim that Trump would ‘force schools to allow guns in classrooms’

“FACT: Donald Trump would force schools to allow guns in classrooms on his first day in office.” — Hillary Clinton campaign post on Twitter, May 14, 2016 One of the nine things the Clinton campaign says “every voter in America needs to know about Donald Trump” is that he would get rid of gun-free zones […]

How Trump may have walked into a trap set by a Clinton super PAC

(This is not really a fact check, though we provide missing context for one quote used in a campaign ad.) One of the most famous political ads of all is the “Daisy” commercial run by the Lyndon Johnson campaign in 1964. If you watch it closely, you will see it never mentions the name of […]

Have Republicans really spent $7 million on the Benghazi Committee?

“Republicans have now spent more than two years and nearly $7 million of taxpayer funds.” — statement by Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), May 8, 2016 In statements and tweets, Democrats accused the House majority of spending nearly $7 million in taxpayer funds for the Select Committee on Benghazi, which is probing the deaths of […]

Trump’s claim that ‘young, strong men’ dominate the European migrant crisis

“Look at what’s happening all over Europe. It’s a mess and we don’t need it. … When you look at that migration, you see so many young, strong men. Does anyone notice that? Am I the only one? Young, strong men. And you’re almost like, ‘Why aren’t they fighting?’ You don’t see that many women […]

Donald Trump’s unsupported claim that crime is ‘through the roof’ because of illegal immigration

“People that shouldn’t have been here, people that should’ve never been allowed to come over the border, and they come here like it’s nothing. … You know, I’m looking at statistics where your crime numbers are so crazy, they’re going through the roof, so we can’t have it anymore.” –Donald Trump, rally in Costa Mesa, […]

Recidivism Watch: Trump’s false claim that he opposed the Iraq war

“The war in Iraq is a disaster. I was against it from the beginning. We should have never been there.” — Donald Trump, interview with Greta van Susteren, Fox News, May 11, 2016 For the umpteenth time, Donald Trump falsely claimed he was against the 2003 Iraq war “from the beginning.” He contrasted his stance […]

Trump’s false claim that ‘there’s nothing to learn’ from his tax returns

“There’s nothing to learn from them.” — Donald Trump, explaining why he won’t release his tax returns, in an interview with the Associated Press on May 11, 2016 Donald Trump has a history of promising to release his tax returns — and then not doing so. In 2011, when Trump was spearheading the movement questioning whether President […]

Kerry’s claim that Iran has only received ‘$3 billion’ from the nuclear deal

“Do you remember the debate over how much money Iran was going to get? Sometimes you hear some of the presidential candidates putting a mistaken figure out of $155 billion. We never thought it would be that. Others thought it would be about a $100 billion because there was supposedly $100 billion that was owed […]

A dark money group’s misleading claim that the Puerto Rico debt plan is a ‘bailout’

“Small investors like Teresa own 80 percent of Puerto Rico’s debt. … This is a bailout of Puerto Rico on the backs of savers like Teresa. Congress wants to bail out Puerto Rico with Teresa’s retirement savings.” –political ad by Center for Individual Freedom The Center for Individual Freedom is a 501(c)(4) “dark money” group […]

Recidivism Watch: Clinton’s claim on ‘material marked classified’

“There was never any material marked classified that was sent or received by me.” — Hillary Clinton, interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” May 8 One of Clinton’s standard lines about her email system popped up again over the weekend. We had examined this claim in detail back in August, noting that Clinton’s very careful […]

History lesson: More Republicans than Democrats supported NAFTA

“NAFTA was signed by Bill Clinton. NAFTA has been a catastrophe, an absolute catastrophe for our country.” —Donald Trump, interview with Bret Baier of Fox News, May 6, 2016 “NAFTA was given to us by Clinton. We can’t take any more of the Clintons.” —Trump, during a rally in Charleston, W.V., May 6 “NAFTA, signed […]