On Wednesday night, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump faced off for their final debate before the election on November 8th. The debate was moderated by Fox News’ Chris Wallace, who did a pretty good job of keeping the candidates on topic. The topics covered at the debate included debt, entitlements, immigration, the economy, the Supreme Court, foreign hot spots, and “fitness to be president.” While each candidate took shots at each other, Clinton outlined a number of her proposals. Each candidate wrapped up the final debate with a one-minute closing statement. Clinton asked for America’s vote saying:
“Well, I would like to say to everyone watching tonight that I’m reaching out to all Americans — Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Because we need everybody to help make our country what it should be. To grow the economy, to make it fairer, to make it work for everyone. We need your talents, your skills, your commitment, your energy, your ambition. You know, I’ve been privileged to see the presidency up close and I know the awesome responsibility of protecting our country and the incredible opportunity of working to try to make life better for all of you. I have made the cause of children and families really my life’s work — that’s what my mission will be in the presidency. I will stand up for families against powerful interests, against corporations. I will do everything I can to make sure you have good jobs with rising incomes, that your kids have good educations from preschool through college. I hope you will give me a chance to serve as your president.”
While pundits will argue who won and who lost last night’s debate, what is important is who you feel will best represent you. This political cycle has become more about personality and less about the issues at stake. Both candidates have outlined a series of policies they believe are important to them and that says a lot about their beliefs. What is key is that on November 8, you have a choice. You have a voice at the ballot box and make sure it is heard. Vote.
Watch a video replay of the debate below. And more importantly, VOTE on November 8th.
On Sunday night, presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off in the second of three debates. The debate was intended to be a town hall style event moderated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC’s Martha Raddatz; however, it quickly descended into a series of personal attacks. Clinton hammered Trump for his comments about women, Muslims, immigrants, and everyone else has insulted. Trump went after Bill Clinton’s sexual scandals and threatened to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton if he is elected. For 90 minutes, the candidates bickered, and occasionally, spoke about policy.
While pundits will argue who won and who lost last night’s debate, what is important is who you feel will best represent you. This political cycle has become more about personality and less about the issues at stake. Both candidates have outlined a series of policies they believe are important to them and that says a lot about their beliefs. What is key is that on November 8, you have a choice. You have a voice at the ballot box and make sure it is heard. Vote.
A video replay of the debate is below.
Hillary for America responded to the debate with two press releases. The first is titled “Results are In: Clinton Won the Debate” and second is titled “Another Night of Trump’s Lies.” Both press releases are below.
Results Are In: Hillary Clinton Won The Debate
The results from the second presidential debate are crystal clear, Hillary Clinton is the victor. Last night, Donald Trump repeated the same falsehoods he’s spewed since the start of his campaign, admitted to evading federal taxes for years and tried to mask his offensive comments and actions against women as “locker room talk.” Post-debate polls and journalist have agreed there’s only one candidate fit to be commander-in-chief.
@nytimes: Clinton endured the nuclear attack and Trump solved none of his problems.
@HuffingtonPost: Political figures from both parties thought Trump’s performance was a disaster
@Mic: Hillary Clinton won the second #debate, mostly because Donald Trump totally imploded
LA Times: Second presidential debate updates: Hillary Clinton won again, our analysts say “… He [Trump] had a big hole to climb out of, and he did not do it. He was snappish throughout, repeatedly interrupting Clinton and badgering the moderators. He repeated falsehoods — that neighbors of the San Bernardino terrorists saw bombs in their apartment and said nothing, that he had never tweeted about a sex tape involving last week’s Trump target, a former Miss Universe … Clinton, by contrast, was knowledgeable on policy matters and handled criticisms … It seems unlikely that he will benefit in any meaningful way from tonight’s debate, and it’s very possible she will benefit.”
Washington Post: On Twitter, Hillary Clinton won the debate “In general, Twitter users were more favorable to Clinton than Trump — in line with the snap polls. This was particularly true when she addressed the tape of Trump’s lewd comments about women and in the half-hour after the debate.”
New York Times: “With Donald J. Trump’s campaign engulfed in crisis, the second presidential debate promised a clash of grand proportions: a decisive, even cataclysmic showdown between one candidate on his heels and the other, Hillary Clinton, emerging as a strong front-runner.”
Reuters: “Wall Street rose on Monday morning amid gains across most sectors, driven by oil prices, and as Democrat Hillary Clinton was widely seen as the winner of the second presidential debate. A Clinton presidency would be more positive for the markets because her positions are more well known than those of her Republican rival Donald Trump, according to a Reuters poll.”
Economic Times: Hillary Clinton ‘clear winner’ of 2nd presidential debate: Polls “Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton today emerged as the “clear winner” after the second US presidential debate … Trump fell back on the tricks he has learned from his years in pro wrestling and reality television, making clear how deep his cynicism goes and how little regard he has for his party, let alone the presidency … The editorial added that during the debate, Trump “struggled” to construct coherent statements of his own policies, “wandering down strange, shadowy alleyways as he pursued his various claims about Clinton”, including that she, not he, was responsible for his birth”
Washington Post: “Winner: Hillary Clinton: … Clinton went into this debate with massive momentum in the race — much of it caused by Trump’s stumbles — and didn’t make any sort of glaring error that would allow the Republican back into the contest. She was steady, knowledgeable and pleasant — even in the face of some very personal attacks — throughout. And she let Trump talk, which, as has been the case since he got into the race, is always his undoing.”
New York Magazine: “On Sunday night, the Republican presidential nominee was asked why he had bragged about committing sexual assault. Donald Trump dismissed such boasts as locker-room talk, promised to prosecute his chief political opponent, attacked Hillary Clinton for allegations of sexual violence made against her husband (despite the fact that numerous women have made such allegations against Trump himself), all while sniffling into his microphone 93 times … Most early metrics suggest that Clinton won the debate”
Slate: “She had to appear unruffled while Trump, stewing and pacing, loomed behind her, physically menacing her with his bulk. He threatened to have her imprisoned if elected; she betrayed not a hint of rage or shock … Trump bullied and lied. He once again dismissed his hot mic boasts about sexual assault as “locker-room” talk. He denied sending an early morning tweet telling Americans to check out the (nonexistent) sex tape of a former Miss Universe, when the tweet, less than two weeks old, is on the internet for all to see”
Huffington Post: “The town hall format allowed Trump to stalk the stage, lurking behind Clinton as she answered questions, and he muscled his way into directly confronting the Democratic nominee on issues such as her emails and her modest record of accomplishment in Congress. He proudly admitted that he had indeed used $916 million in tax write-offs against his income, but attacked Clinton for not changing the very law he used … But other polls, including from CNN, showed Clinton winning handily.”
Business Insider: Clinton scores decisive victory over Trump in 2nd debate “A CNN/ORC instant poll taken immediately after Sunday night’s presidential debate in St. Louis gave Hillary Clinton a decisive victory over Donald Trump.Fifty-seven percent of 537 registered voters surveyed in the immediate aftermath of the political showdown said the Democratic nominee won the contest.”
The Oxford Eagle: Hillary Clinton won the presidential debate tonight over Donald Trump “Trump, the Republican, missed on facts in accusations against Clinton, he rambled at times late in the debate, and he spoke over moderators and Clinton at times. Trump even dissed his Republican vice presidential running mate at one point, when he disagreed with running mate Mike Pence’s position on the proper strategy to deal with the civil war and humanitarian crisis in Syria.”
Iowa State Daily Editorial: Clinton wins second presidential debate “… Trump seemed to cycle through sound bite arguments and, like last time, gave very little of anything resembling a straight answer. Almost immediately, Trump received questions about his latest scandal: his 2005 comments that depicted the Republican candidate bragging about sexual assault. And while Trump seems to think that this “locker room talk” means very little when faced with his favorite talking point, ISIS, he failed to show the American public not only remorse, but a stance that showed anything other than complete disregard for severity of sexual assault and the power of words.”
Denver Post Editorial: Trump doubles down on desperate strategy in second debate “Trump’s attacks before and during Sunday’s debate represented a cynical Hail Mary pass that we hope objective voters see through as the desperate acts of a badly damaged politician.Rather than trying to reverse the perception of him presented by a video recording in which he talks about women as if he were a common thug, Trump chose to blame Hillary Clinton for her responses to well-known problems she and her husband dealt with years ago. Only in a mind as unprincipled and undisciplined as Trump’s does such an argument make sense.”
Miami Herald Editorial: In debate, Trump’s scorched earth vs. down-to-earth Clinton “Donald Trump had one job at Sunday night’s debate: Persuade the group of undecideds in the room and beyond that his misogynistic bragging in a video that surfaced last week has absolutely no bearing on his fitness to be president. News flash: Donald Trump is unfit to to be president. He ducked, dodged, backtracked, spoke in ridiculously broad generalities — Hillary Clinton was a “disaster” as a U.S. senator — took responsibility for absolutely nothing … It was more of his scorched-earth approach, based on the belief that he will make life better for Americans simply because he says so.”
Las Vegas Sun Analysis: Donald Trump didn’t win anyone over with performance in second debate “Sunday night in St. Louis, Donald Trump proved yet again he’s not interested in winning over any voters outside of his loyalists. After reiterating a tepid apology for his disgusting hot-mic remarks in a 2005 video, he tried to divert attention from it by discussing former President Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs and pledging to have a special prosecutor investigate Hillary Clinton over her email scandal if he were elected president. Classic Trump, the same as when he challenged moderator Anderson Cooper of CNN over the debate rules, saying he was in a “one-on-three” situation against Cooper, Clinton and moderator Martha Raddatz from ABC News. … As for those who question Trump’s fitness to serve, however, he did nothing to convince them to vote for him.”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial: A debate unlikely to win voters over to Trump’s side “Trump made clear he is not aiming for a campaign reset but instead will use misogyny as a theme to attack his opponent. As angry accusations flew between him and Clinton, Trump stated bizarrely, “We have a divided nation … because of people like her. Believe me, she has tremendous hate in her heart …tremendous hatred.” In response to the laundry list that Hillary Clinton gave of his insulting treatment of women, Latinos, Muslims, immigrants and disabled people, Trump’s response was to wave it off along with the scandal that erupted Friday regarding his 2005 remarks: “It’s just words, folks. Just words. … That was locker room talk.” He then, inexplicably, tried to transition from that to a critique of the Obama administration and the Islamic State. … Whether Trump managed to win over undecided voters with his show Sunday night is anyone’s guess. This newspaper is unswayed in our belief that he is dangerously unfit to be the next president.”
Chicago Tribune Editorial: Donald Trump may have lost the 2016 election in 2005 “The recording strikes Americans who’ve reliably loathed Trump as another we-told-you moment. They wonder, correctly, why all Republicans and Trump converts weren’t long ago repelled by his notorious comments about women, Mexicans, Muslims and others he has diminished. Why, Republicans, are you just now offended? Fair question. One answer: because this raw revelation reaches a more frightful order of magnitude. Here we have Trump not only demeaning women but describing how he preys on them. … We’ll be surprised if this week’s opinion polls don’t suggest that millions of Americans are finished with Trump. After Sunday night, this fate both echoes and looms: He may have lost the 2016 election in 2005.”
Salt Lake Tribune Editorial: Trump’s performance in Sunday’s debate did little to steady his ship “With all the slime attached to Trump’s campaign, and not just in the past few days, his only hope of repairing the damage to his own chances, and to the whole election cycle, would be for him to make a convincing case, in the little time remaining, that in spite of everything he has the ideas, the skills and the temperament to lead this nation. He didn’t do that Sunday.”
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Desperation, thy name is Donald Trump: Thoughts after the second presidential debate “Perhaps the only suspense that remains in the final month of this race is whether Trump will face this adversity with any dignity. Spoiler alert: The Trump who showed up Sunday in St. Louis for his second debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton seems determined to go down in a blaze of desperation. The New York businessman is grasping for anything that might stop the bleeding from a series of self-inflicted wounds dating to their first face-off nearly two weeks ago…If Trump’s goal Sunday was to reassure his remaining supporters and to keep undecided voters from giving up on him, he failed before the Washington University debate even began.”
Dallas Morning News Editorial: Debate exposes the same old mile-wide-and-inch-thin Trump “With Republicans in panic mode — some even encouraging Trump to step down in favor of vice presidential nominee Mike Pence — Trump showed himself Sunday to be incapable of contrition. He also exhibited an inability to describe any strategy he would employ — from health care to Syria — if elected to the White House. While Democrat Hillary Clinton talked more about policy and tactics, Trump resorted to broad-brush — and often bewildering — attacks, such as saying Clinton “has tremendous hate in her heart.”
Boston Globe Editorial: Vile words drown Trump’s mediocre performance “AS HIS FELLOW Republicans deserted him one by one, Donald J. Trump put up the best fight he’s capable of at the second presidential debate in St. Louis on Sunday night. But it was nowhere close to good enough. Trump wasn’t convincing as a potential president. … There are probably no magic words that Trump could have said that would have undone the damage he has inflicted on his campaign. If anything, Sunday’s debate will make it easier for his fellow Republicans to leave him to his fate.”
Another Night of Donald Trump’s Lies
Donald Trump kept fact checkers busy after last night’s debate. In the 12 hours following the debate, he garnered more than 75 fact checks. From his wild exaggerations to dangerous falsehoods, Trump continued his pattern of bold-faced lying to millions of viewers. Here are just some of the reviews of Trump’s untrue statements on topics including taxes, foreign policy, his own offensive comments and more.
Trump’s Lies About His Own Offensive Comments to Women:
AP: “Donald Trump, asked whether his early morning tweets directing people to check out a sex tape showed discipline, said: ‘It wasn’t ‘check out a sex tape.’’ THE FACTS: Wrong. Trump told his 12.2 million Twitter followers to check out a sex tape as he criticized a former Miss Universe.”
CNN: “Trump: I didn’t say ‘check out the sex tape’ VERDICT: FALSE”
FactCheck.org: “Trump said he never tweeted ‘check out a sex tape’ in the wee hours of the morning a few days after the first presidential debate. That’s false — he did.”
Huffington Post: “During Debate, Trump Denies Telling People To Check Out A Sex Tape On Twitter. Yeah, well, he literally directed people to check out a sex tape on Twitter.”
NPR: “[DJT:] I have great respect for women. Nobody has more respect for women that I do. [FACT CHECK:] Trump has had many occasions to make this claim over the course of the campaign, dating back to his tense interaction with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly during the first Republican primary debate in Cleveland in August 2015, when Kelly reminded him of his history of offensive comments about women. Here is a partial list compiled by PBS.”
Politifact: “Trump said the tweet he sent out ‘wasn’t saying, ‘check out a sex tape’’ but rather to ‘just take a look at’ Machado’s background. That’s ridiculous. While Trump did urge his Twitter followers to check out Machado’s ‘past,’ he literally wrote ‘check out sex tape’ in the tweet. We rate his statement Pants on Fire!”
NPR: “[TRUMP:] No I didn’t say that at all. [FACT CHECK:] He did say that. The exact words were, ‘You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.””
Trump’s Lies About the Economy & Taxes:
Huffington Post: “Trump’s $20 Trillion Debt Line Is Ridiculous”
NPR: “[DJT:] We have no growth in this country. There is no growth. [FACT CHECKER:] The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international economic organization, evaluated the U.S. economy this summer and concluded: ‘Seven years after the financial crisis, the US economy has rebounded: output has surpassed its pre-crisis peak by 10%, robust private-sector employment gains have sharply reduced unemployment, fiscal sustainability has been largely restored and corporate profits are high.’”
AP:“Trump wrong on Clinton tax claim… DONALD TRUMP: ‘She is raising your taxes, and I am lowering your taxes. …She’s raising everybody’s taxes massively.’ HILLARY CLINTON: ‘He would end up raising taxes on middle-class families’ THE FACTS: Clinton is not raising taxes on ‘everybody.’ Nearly all of Hillary Clinton’s proposed tax increases would affect the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.”
Buzzfeed Reporter: “Trump says AGAIN that the US has the highest taxes in the world. That’s…untrue.”
FactCheck.org: “Trump said of Clinton’s plan, ‘She is raising everybody’s taxes massively.’ Everybody? No. Analyses by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center and the pro-business Tax Foundation both concluded that almost all of the tax increases proposed by Clinton would fall on the top 10 percent of taxpayers. Hardest hit would be the less than 0.1 percent of taxpayers who earn more than $5 million per year.”
Huffington Post: “Note To Trump: This Is How The Senate Works. Trump seems to misunderstand how the Senate works. He accused Clinton of not doing enough to get rid of the carried interest loophole when she was a senator. Clinton noted that she has been in favor of getting rid it for years.”
Huffington Post: “Trump Says He’ll Get Rid Of A Wall Street Loophole. His Tax Plan Says He Won’t.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump admitted that he used a $916 million loss declared on his 1995 tax returns to avoid paying federal income taxes. But he refused to say how many years he paid no income tax and simultaneously claimed to have paid a ‘tremendous’ amount of taxes. More questions than answers.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said that growth is “down to 1 percent” and that taxes in the United States are the “highest in the world” Wrong.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said he would reduce the tax rate on business income to 15 percent. Not exactly.”
Washington Post: “Fact Check: IRS audit doesn’t prohibit Trump from releasing taxes”
Washington Post: “Fact Check: Trump’s wrong on the U.S. being the highest taxed nation”
Trump’s Lies About The Affordable Care Act:
AP:“Trump overstates cost of Obama’s health plan. DONALD TRUMP: Obamacare ‘is going to be one of the biggest line items very shortly.’ THE FACTS: Trump vastly exaggerates the cost of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The cost of the coverage expansion in Obama’s health care law is nowhere near what the government spends on Medicare and Medicaid, for example.”
FactCheck.org: “He also cherry-picked high proposed premium increases in the exchanges, and he said that the law should be replaced with ‘something absolutely much less expensive,’ when repealing the law is expected to increase federal deficits.”
FactCheck.org: “Finally, Trump said that the ACA is ‘unbelievably expensive for our country. … We have to repeal it and replace it with something absolutely much less expensive.’ But the CBO and Joint Committee on Taxation’s latest estimates on the impact of repealing the law find doing away with it would likely increase federal deficits over the 2016-2025 time period.”
Trump’s Lies About Hillary Clinton and Health Care:
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said that Mrs. Clinton “wants to go to a single-payer plan” like the health care system in Canada. Untrue.”
NPR: “[DJT:] But she wants to go to single-payer. [FACT CHECKER:] Clinton does not support single-payer. She supports expanding Medicare to people 55 and over, but has not come out in support of a complete overhaul of the health system so that it would be more like Canada or many European health systems.”
Politifact: “Trump says Clinton ‘wants to go to a single-payer plan’ for health care. She has consistently said she would fight efforts to repeal Obamacare and would try to improve it. She said she wants a public option to be ‘possible’ but she has not called for moving to a system of only single payer. Clinton has not called for a single-payer plan. At times, she has praised the health care systems of other countries that have a single-payer plan, but she has not advocated that plan for the United States. We rate Trump’s claim False.”
AP:“Trump wrong on Clinton and health care. DONALD TRUMP: ‘She (Clinton) wants to go to a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster…she wants to go to single-payer, which means the government basically rules everything.’ THE FACTS: It’s Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — not Clinton — who supports a Canada-style government-run health care system.”
Buzzfeed: “Trump falsely claims Clinton is proposing Canada-style healthcare system.”
FactCheck.org:“Trump used an old GOP scare tactic, wrongly claiming that Clinton wanted to implement a government-run, ‘single-payer,’ health care system, like Canada’s… Clinton supports making Medicare available to those over age 55, and creating a ‘public option,’ or a federal insurance plan, that would compete with private plans on the ACA exchanges. She hasn’t called for a single-payer system.”
Trump’s Lies About Immigration:
Buzzfeed: “Donald Trump claimed that the US doesn’t have borders. ‘We’re going to have borders on our country that we don’t have now,’ Trump said. But enforcement along the US-Mexico border has never been higher. There are currently about 21,000 agents patrolling more than 6,000 miles of the nation’s borders.”
CBS News: “TRUMP: ‘I understand the border. She doesn’t. She wants amnesty for everybody.’… It is not true that Clinton supports ‘amnesty for everybody,’ but she does want to make it easier for people who came here illegally to stay by passing legislation with a path to citizenship.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump says Mrs. Clinton wants “amnesty for everybody, come on in, come on over.” Not her position.”
NPR: “[DJT:] […] we are letting people into this country that are going to cause problems and crime like you’ve never seen. We’re also leading drugs for through our southern border at a record clip. At a record clip and it shouldn’t be allowed to happen. [FACT CHECKER:] Apprehensions at the Southwest border—a proxy for attempted crossings—have dropped by 79 percent from the peak in 2000. The Pew Research Center reports more Mexicans left the US than entered between 2009 and 2014.”
NPR: “[DJT:] ICE just endorsed me. They’ve never endorsed a presidential candidate. [FACT CHECKER:] The federal bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not make an endorsement. A union of immigration and customs officers voted to endorse Trump.”
Washington Post:“Trump overstates, by a lot, when he said Syrian refugees are coming to the United States by the “hundreds of thousands.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said we have hundreds of thousands of people pouring into the United States from places like Syria, and we have no idea who they are. Way off.”
Buzzfeed: “Trump’s said the US took in ‘tens of thousands’ of Syrian refugees. That is not accurate.”
CBS News: “Donald Trump says ‘tens of thousands’ of people from Syria are coming to the U.S. TRUMP STATEMENT: ‘We are going to areas like Syria, where they’re coming in by the tens of thousands.’ FACT CHECK: False.”
Trump’s Lies About Muslims and Terrorism:
Buzzfeed: “Trump falsely claimed that Muslims in the United States are not reporting terror plots to the authorities. Trump cited San Bernardino where he said there were ‘bombs on the floor’ of the suspects’ apartment. There has never been any evidence that this was the case.”
CBS News: “Donald Trump claims that ‘many people’ saw bombs at the apartment of the San Bernardino shooters. TRUMP STATEMENT: ‘We have to be sure that Muslims come in and report when they see something going on. When they see hatred going on, they have to report it. As an example: San Bernardino, many people saw the bombs all over the apartment of the two people that killed 14 and wounded many, many people.’ FACT CHECK: False. To this day, no one has said they’ve seen bombs in the apartment of the San Bernardino shooters’ apartment.”
CBS News: “Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton will not say the phrase ‘radical Islam.’ TRUMP STATEMENT: ‘When there’s a problem, you have to state what the problem is or at least say the name. She won’t say the name and President Obama won’t say the name.’ FACT CHECK: False. Clinton used the term in June during an interview on NBC News’ ‘Today Show.’”
CNN: “Trump: ‘Many people saw the bombs all over the apartment’ VERDICT: FALSE”
FactCheck.org: “In stressing that Muslims need to notify the police of wrongdoing in their communities, Trump claimed without evidence that ‘many people saw the bombs all over the apartment of the two people that killed 14 and wounded many, many people’ in San Bernardino last year.”
Huffington Post: “Fact Check: Trump’s Claim That ‘Many People Saw The Bombs’ In San Bernardino Is False”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said Mrs. Clinton has never used the phrase ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ Just flat wrong.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said ‘many people saw’ bombs all over the apartment of a couple who committed the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif. Not true.”
Politifact: “Trump said of Clinton, ‘These are radical Islamic terrorists and she won’t even mention the word.’ After the Orlando shooting, Clinton said she had no problem saying ‘radical Islamism’ which is similar but not the same as ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ She has also said that leaders should be careful not to demonize the religion of Islam, and that the United States needs specific strategies to fight ISIS. We rate this claim Mostly False.”
Washington Post: “Fact Check: Trump’s false claim on San Bernardino”
Huffington Post: “Don’t Believe Trump: No Syrian Refugees In The U.S. Have Been Linked To Terror”
Trump’s Lies About the Iraq War:
AP: “DONALD TRUMP: ‘I would not have had our troops in Iraq.’ Trump has repeatedly said in the campaign he opposed the Iraq War before it started. But the facts are clear: He did not.”
Buzzfeed: “Trump: ‘I was against the war in Iraq.’ No. He wasn’t.”
CBS News: “Donald Trump says he was against the war in Iraq, and that suggestions he was not have been debunked. TRUMP STATEMENT: ‘I was against the war in Iraq,’ Trump said, as he did in the first debate with Clinton. ‘It has not been debunked.’ FACT CHECK: False and false.”
CNN: “Trump: ‘I would not have had our people in Iraq.’ VERDICT: FALSE”
CNN: “Trump: My opposition to the Iraq War “has not been debunked” VERDICT: FALSE”
FactCheck.org: “And finally Trump pins too much blame for the rise in ISIS — whose origin dates back to the Bush administration — on the troop withdrawal…”
Huffington Post:“Donald Trump Continues To Lie About The Iraq War”
FactCheck.org: “Trump repeated that he ‘was against the war in Iraq’ and claimed that this ‘has not been debunked.’ But we have found no evidence that he was against the Iraq War before it began.”
Washington Post: “Fact Check: Yes, Trump’s Iraq War claim has been debunked.”
NPR: “[DJT]: I was against the war in Iraq. [FACT CHECKER:] There is no evidence to support this claim.”
Trump’s Lies About Libya:
FactCheck.org:“Trump conveniently leaves out that he posted a YouTube video in February 2011 voicing support for U.S. intervention in Libya to remove Moammar Gadhafi from power, and that he told CNN in a 2007 interview that the U.S. should ‘declare victory [in Iraq] and leave … [T]his is a total catastrophe and you might as well get out now, because you just are wasting time.’”
FactCheck.org:“It’s been half a year, and Trump is still making the false claim that ‘ISIS has a good chunk’ of Libyan oil fields. We first flagged this statement in April, when an expert on Libya’s oil operations told us there’s no evidence that the Islamic State has control of any oil fields in that country.”
Washington Post:“Fact Check: Trump’s wrong on ISIS and Libyan oil”
AP:“Trump wrong that IS is taking Libyan oil. DONALD TRUMP: ‘ISIS has a good chunk of their oil,’ referring to Libya. THE FACTS: Not quite. While it is true that the Islamic State group has targeted Libya’s oil fields and has aspired to grab some of the country’s oil resources, as it did in Syria, there is no evidence that it is reaping any revenue from Libyan oil. The prospect of the extremist group seizing Libyan oil is one reason the U.S. has conducted limited airstrikes against the Islamic State in Libya, where it now has a very small presence.”
FactCheck.org: “Trump said that ‘Ambassador [Chris] Stevens sent 600 requests for help’ before he was killed in an attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012. But as the Washington Post Fact Checker reported, not all 600 came from Stevens, nor were they all requests for security upgrades, as it may have appeared to those watching or listening to the debate.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said Clinton ignored 600 requests for increased security from J. Christopher Stevens, the ambassador to Libya, and only communicated with Sidney Blumenthal. Extremely misleading”
Washington Post: “THE FACT CHECKER | Trump made a ludicrous claim that U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens made 600 requests for help before he perished in the attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi.”
Huffington Post: “Clinton refused to answer Stevens’ calls for help, Trump claimed… However, repeated GOP-led investigations into the Benghazi incident have found no evidence to blame Clinton for the deaths of Stevens and three other Americans there in a 2012 attack.”
Lies About Iran:
CBS News: “Donald Trump claimed that the Iran nuclear deal meant the United States paid Iran $150 billion. TRUMP STATEMENT: ‘When I look at the Iran deal and how bad it is for us, it’s a one-sided transaction where we’re giving back $150 billion dollars to a terrorist state.’ FACT CHECK: False.”
CNN: “Trump says US is giving $150 billion to Iran REALITY CHECK: FALSE”
Washington Post: “Fact Check: Trump’s claim that Iran got $150 billion from the United States. THE FACTS: Trump always makes it sound like this is U.S. taxpayer money — and he always uses a too-high estimate.”
Trump’s Lies About Syria:
Buzzfeed:“Trump falsely declared that ‘Aleppo has already fallen.’”
Huffington Post: “Meanwhile, he added, only Assad’s coalition is fighting ISIS. In fact, Assad and his allies have focused on targeting civilians opposed to his rule and rebels who remain embedded among them ― allowing extremist militants to spread for years and control much of the country.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump accused Mrs. Clinton of being there for President Obama’s “line in the sand” in Syria. She said she wasn’t. Trump is wrong.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said Syria, Russia and Iran are fighting the Islamic State. Mostly misleading.”
NPR: “[DJT:] I think that it basically has fallen. OK? It basically has fallen. [FACT CHECKER:] Aleppo has not fallen to the Syrian government.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said that the United States signed a “peace treaty” to bring an end to the civil war in Syria. Not even close.”
Trump’s Lies About Russia:
Huffington Post: “Trump said he has no special ties to Russia, despite his campaign’s multiple ties to the country’s business and his stated admiration for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.”
NPR: “[TRUMP:] I don’t deal there and no businesses there have no loans from Russia. [FACT CHECKER:] Trump may not have current business ties with Russia, but he has in fact tried to engage his business interests with Russia since the 1980’s.”
Buzzfeed Reporter: “Trump just said ‘we don’t know if it is the Russians doing the hacking.’ Ummm… no.”
NPR: [DJT:] But I notice anytime anything wrong happens they like to say the Russians we don’t know if it’s Russian. [FACT CHECKER:] The U.S. intelligence community and Department of Homeland Security said Friday that Russia is behind this year’s campaign of hacks and the release of information related to the 2016 campaign.”
New York Times: “Mr. Trump said “maybe there is no hacking,” in response to Mrs. Clinton’s claim that Russians are engaged in an unprecedented effort to influence the election — on Mr. Trump’s behalf. Hacking is endemic.”
Trump’s Lies About Clinton’s Emails:
FactCheck.org: “Trump twisted the facts when he directly addressed Clinton about her use of a private email system while secretary of state. ‘You get a subpoena and after getting the subpoena you delete 33,000 emails. And then you acid wash them — or bleach them, as you would say — a very expensive process,’ Trump said…. there is no evidence that Clinton knew that the emails were deleted after the subpoena was issued.”
Trump’s Lies About Birtherism:
FactCheck.org:“Trump is wrong about Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton’s 2008 campaign manager. Solis Doyle has said that a ‘rogue volunteer coordinator’ in Iowa was immediately fired when the campaign found out that the aide forwarded an email promoting the birther conspiracy.”
FactCheck.org: “Trump: ‘Sidney Blumenthal — he’s another real winner that you have — and he’s the one that got this started’ As for Blumenthal, he has denied a claim made by McClatchy’s former bureau chief James Asher that Blumenthal, a senior adviser to Clinton’s 2008 campaign, encouraged McClatchy to chase the story of Obama’s birth… Other than that, there is no clear evidence to support Asher’s account.”
NPR: “[TRUMP:] Well, you owe the president an apology because, as you know very well, your campaign Sidney Blumenthal, he’s another real winner that you have. And he’s the one who got this started along with your campaign manager and they were on television just two weeks ago he was saying likely that. [FACT CHECKER:] We have fact-checked Trump’s birther claims previously (several times) online and on air. […] As we noted, ‘There’s a big difference between what fringe supporters of Clinton said at the time, who were disavowed by the candidate, and the campaign Trump himself undertook in the subsequent years.’”
Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton discuss a point during their first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, U.S., September 26, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson – RTSPKQO
On Monday evening, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump faced off in a debate that kept fact checkers busy. The candidates debated several topics including national security, racism, and their plans to create new jobs. They did not waste enough time attacking each other with Trump going after Clinton’s stamina and Clinton criticizing Trump’s business failures and his attitude toward women. The moderator for the debate, NBC’s Lester Holt was largely absent from the event with the candidates answered his questions then going back-and-forth with each other. Watch a full replay of the debate below, and the next presidential debate is scheduled for October 9.
Hillary for America responded to last night’s debate with a new video and a links to a series of articles calling Clinton the winner of the debate. Watch the video below and click the links to read the articles.
Hillary for America arranged for a number of debate watch parties across the country. The watch parties and fundraising events were held in Orlando, Florida (with guest Tim Kaine); Brookline, Massachusetts (with guests Michelle Kwan and Kathleen Sebelius); New York City (with guest Uzo Aduba); New York City (Hillary for America sponsored); Chicago, Illinois (with Chicago LGBT for Hillary); Seattle, Washington; and Austin, Texas.
Hopefully everyone was able to watch last night’s Democratic Debate on CNN. In the first debate between the Democratic candidates, it was clear that Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders are the front runners and, in the majority of the countless reaction, review, and “who won” articles, Clinton has been declared the winner of last night’s debate. She was precise, strong on policy, and strong against her opponents. Her experience in national politics took center stage (both figuratively and literally). Clinton will now hit the road and continue her campaign before the next debate in November.
Below are two brief review videos from the CNN debate, and a full video from the debate will be added once a high quality version is available.
Hillary Clinton Speeches 