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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Fact check: Trump makes at least 19 false claims in one-hour Fox town
hall with women
By Daniel Dale, CNN
Updated:
1:20 PM EDT, Wed October 16, 2024
Source: CNN
Former President Donald Trump, who trails with women in recent national
polls, participated in a Fox News town hall event on Tuesday in front
of a female audience.
He told a bunch of lies.
The Republican presidential nominee made at least 19 false claims in
the one-hour event that aired Wednesday morning – most of them
debunked earlier in the campaign but some of them new, notably
including an absurd claim that he is “the father of IVF.”
Trump’s falsehoods included repeat lies on the subjects of abortion,
immigration, inflation and national security. Here is a fact check.
Opinions on Roe v. Wade: Trump repeated his false claim that
“everybody,” even “the Democrats” and “the liberals,”
wanted the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision overturned and the
power to set abortion policy left to individual states; he added,
“Nobody wanted it to be in the federal government.”
It’s that “everybody” wanted Roe overturned or that “the
Democrats” did. A large majority of Americans and an overwhelming
majority of Democrats wanted the Supreme Court to preserve Roe in 2022,
according to numerous polls. Democratic support for Roe exceeded 80%
in many polls and 90% in some polls.
Trump and in vitro fertilization (IVF): Trump declared that he is
entirely in favor of IVF. But Trump also falsely claimed, “I’m the
father of IVF.” This is just nonsense. The first child conceived
through IVF was born in 1978; Trump, clearly, had nothing to do with
it, and he in this same town hall answer that he only recently had IVF
explained to him by a Republican senator.
Harris’ border role: Trump, criticizing his election opponent Vice
President Kamala Harris, repeated his false claim that President Joe
Biden “made her border czar.” Biden never made Harris “border
czar,” a label the White House has always emphasized is inaccurate.
In , Biden gave Harris a more limited immigration-related assignment
in 2021, asking her to lead diplomacy with El Salvador, Guatemala, and
Honduras in an attempt to address the conditions that prompted their
citizens to try to migrate to the United States.
Harris’ border visits: Trump, speaking about Harris and the border,
repeated his false claim that “she never even went there.” Harris
did go to the border as vice president, ; for not having gone, and
some later argued that she didn’t go frequently enough, but the claim
that she “never” went has not been true for more than three years.
An immigration chart and migration levels: Trump repeated his false
claim that his favorite immigration chart – which he had fortunately
turned his head to look at when a gunman tried to kill him at a
campaign rally in July – shows that “the day I left office” had
the lowest level of border crossings.
The chart doesn’t show that. In fact, the arrow on the chart that
Trump keeps saying points to a record-low level of southern border
crossings on the day or week he left office , when Trump still had more
than eight months left in his term and global migration had slowed to
a trickle because of the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. After hitting
a roughly three-year low (not an all-time low) in April 2020, migration
numbers at the southern border increased each month through the end of
Trump’s term.
The number of migrants: Trump, speaking about migration, his false
claim that “21 million people came in over the last three years, with
them.” Through August, the country had about 10.3 million
nationwide “encounters” with migrants during the Biden-Harris
administration, including millions who were rapidly expelled from the
country; even adding in so-called “gotaways” who evaded detection,
by House Republicans as being roughly 2 million, there’s no way the
total is “21 million.”
The border wall: Trump repeated his false claim that he built “571
miles of wall” on the southern border. That’s a significant
exaggeration; official government shows 458 miles were built under
Trump – including both wall built where no barriers had existed
before and wall built to replace previous barriers.
Immigration judges: Trump, criticizing the fact that asylum seekers who
arrive at the border have access to a US legal process before they are
deported, falsely claimed that “No other country has judges at the
border.” In reality, the US is far from the only country to let
asylum seekers make their case before judges or legal tribunals.
“This statement is patently false,” James Hathaway, then a law
professor and Director of the Program in Refugee and Asylum Law at the
University of Michigan, in response to a previous version of Trump’s
claim. “It is completely routine in other countries that, like the
U.S., have signed the UN refugee treaties for asylum-seekers to have
access to the domestic legal system to make a protection claim (and to
be allowed in while the claim is pending).”
The legal status of immigrants in Springfield, Ohio: Trump falsely
claimed, “They just dropped 30,000 illegal aliens in Springfield,
Ohio.”
This is false in more than one way. While we don’t know the
immigration status of each and every Haitian immigrant in Springfield,
the community is, on the whole, in the country lawfully. The
Springfield city website , “YES, Haitian immigrants are here legally,
under the Immigration Parole Program. Once here, immigrants are then
eligible to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).” Republican
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine that the Haitian immigrants “are there
legally” and that, as a Trump-Vance supporter, he is “saddened”
by the candidates’ disparagement of “the legal migrants living in
Springfield.”
Second, nobody “dropped” the immigrants in Springfield; the
city’s Haitian residents were . Rather, they because of employment
opportunities, affordable housing and the presence of a Haitian
community, among other factors.
And while there is no official tally of the number of immigrants in
Springfield, Trump’s “30,000” figure exceeds local estimates. The
website for the city of Springfield there are an estimated 12,000 to
15,000 immigrants in the county that includes Springfield, where the
total population is . Chris Cook, the county’s health commissioner,
in July that his team estimated the best number was 10,000 to 12,000
Haitian residents in the county.
Immigrations in Springfield: Trump claimed that immigrants in
Springfield are on “probation,” and he added, “Probation is for
prisoners.” This is false in two ways.
First, Trump got his terms wrong. Many Haitians came into the country
under a – not “probation” – that gives permission to enter the
US to vetted participants with US sponsors. And though the word
“parole” is who are let out early on certain conditions, in the
context of immigration policy, “parole” does not mean that someone
was let out of prison or had ever been in prison.
Rather, as the federal government on its website, “The Immigration
and Nationality Act (INA) allows the secretary of homeland security to
use their discretion to parole any noncitizen applying for admission
into the United States temporarily for urgent humanitarian reasons or
significant public benefit.” The government has to grant entry to
certain people fleeing crises in Cuba, Vietnam, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Lebanon and elsewhere.
Current inflation: Trump tried to dismiss the decline in inflation over
the last two years, and he falsely said, “You know when they say,
‘Well, we’re stopping inflation cause it went down now to 4.5%.’
Well, 4.5% is very high, very high, meaning it’s going up. Because
it was at 3.” The most recent available inflation rate at the time
Trump spoke here was , not 4.5%, and this was the slowest rate since
February 2021, not a jump from a lower rate.
Cumulative inflation under Biden-Harris: Trump, speaking about total
inflation under the Biden-Harris administration, said, “They say
21%, I think it’s 50%.” Trump’s “50%” figure is baseless;
during the Biden-Harris administration has indeed been about 21%.
Inflation records under Biden-Harris: Trump repeated his false claim
that the US has all-time record inflation under the Biden-Harris
administration, saying, “We had the worst – they say it’s in 48
years – I say ever. We had the worst inflation in the history of our
country.”
The US hit a 40-year high in June 2022, when it was 9.1%, but that
was not close to the all-time of .
Trump’s tax cuts: Trump repeated his false claim that “I gave you
the largest tax cuts in the history of our country.” Expert analyses
have that his 2017 tax cut law was not the largest in US history,
either in percentage of gross domestic product or in inflation-adjusted
dollars.
Oil from Venezuela: Trump, criticizing Venezuelan oil, repeated his
false claim that “the only refinery that can do it is in Houston,
Texas.” refine Venezuelan oil.
Trump and US troops in Syria: Trump falsely claimed, “I got out of
Syria.” Trump reduced the US military presence in Syria but
throughout his presidency, even after he US troops were “out”
(other than to protect oil sites, he added). Two US troops , his last
calendar year in office.
Trump and the defeat of ISIS: Trump, touting the defeat of the ISIS
terror group, repeated his false claim that “it was supposed to take
literally five years and I did it in a month.” Aside from the fact
that Trump doesn’t merit sole credit, the ISIS “caliphate” was
declared fully liberated into his presidency.
The US military presence in South Korea: Trump falsely claimed the US
has “42,000 soldiers” in South Korea. show that Trump’s figure
is a significant exaggeration; as of June 30, 2024, there were 27,076
US military personnel in South Korea, including civilians working for
the Department of Defense.
South Korea’s payments for the US military presence: Trump, speaking
again of the US military presence in South Korea, falsely claimed that
“they” (South Korea) “don’t pay,” adding that Biden “said
they don’t pay anymore.”
In fact, South Korea agreed under Biden and Harris to pay more for the
US military presence than it had been paying during the Trump era.
Completing the negotiations that began under Trump, South Korea —
meaning its payment that year would be about $1 billion — and then
additional increases in 2022 through 2025 tied to increases in South
Korea’s defense budget.
The two countries for another deal covering the period from 2026 to
2030, which would begin with an 8.3% increase over the 2025 payment.
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