NEWS

Fact-checking the presidential debate between Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump

Editors
USA TODAY

A running compilation of fact-checking during the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Did Trump oppose the war in Iraq? The Republican nominee claimed Clinton’s assertion that he supported the war in Iraq was “wrong.” As PolitiFact details, Trump voiced support for the invasion of Iraq before later criticizing the war. (It's complicated.) Here he is telling Howard Stern he was in favor of the war.

Clinton's job numbers inflated. Independent projections of jobs created under Clinton's economic plan are nearly 7 million below her forecast.

What’s a tax form show, anyway? Trump remains the first Republican nominee since 1980 to not release his tax returns. During Monday’s debate, Trump claimed that his holdout was irrelevant, saying his financial disclosure forms revealed more than his tax returns ever would. Not so, Politifact found: Trump’s tax returns would reveal his effective tax rate and the kinds of taxes he paid as well as how much he gave to charity, the site reported, rating Trump’s claim as false.

The verdict on stop-and-frisk: Trump continued his praise of former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani's policing programs, including the unconstitutional stop-and-frisk policy. But a look at the numbers shows the historic low in city crime occurred during a period when stop-and-frisk wasn't in play. Additionally, a Washington Post analysis found Trump cherry-picked his stats.

Stiffing the little guy: Clinton, noting that her father was a drapery hanger, attacked Trump the businessman for a record of not paying small contractors. That statement is backed up by a USA TODAY investigation that found found hundreds of people – carpenters, dishwashers, painters, even his own lawyers – who say he didn’t pay them for their work.

On that global warming hoax: Trump denies saying that global warming was an elaborate hoax constructed by the Chinese to put U.S. manufacturers at a disadvantage. The Twitter, however, says otherwise.

Trump’s TPP claim is gold: During Monday’s debate, Trump claimed that Clinton, now a critic of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, once called it “the gold standard” of trade deals. “No,” Clinton said, she didn’t. But Trump was right, the Washington Post found. In 2012, Clinton said the “TPP sets the gold standard in trade agreements to open free, transparent, fair trade, the kind of environment that has the rule of law and a level playing field.”

Who signed NAFTA? Trump's assertion that Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement is technically incorrect. George H. W. Bush sighed it into law; Clinton approved later implementation measures.

No, ISIS has not been around since the forties. One of Trump's most hyperbolic retorts to Clinton, "You've been fighting ISIS your whole life," doesn't take a political scientist to debunk. The terrorist organization dates back to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Clinton was born in 1947.

Rooting for the housing bubble to break: Clinton's claim that Trump was hoping for the real estate market to crash in 2006 can be tied to an audio book he recorded. Trump said: "I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy."

How many jobs? FactCheck.org takes Trump to task on creating jobs "like we haven't seen" since Ronald Reagan.

Depends on the definition of small: The Washington Post takes issue with the "small" loan Trump got from his father. Among the findings: Trump admitted in a 2007 deposition that he borrowed at least $9 million from his future inheritance when he encountered financial difficulties.

Trump misses on China's influence over North Korea nukes: Trump stated that "China should go into North Korea" to stop its nuclear program, adding, "China is totally powerful when it comes to North Korea.” A USA Today analysis found China likely won’t intervene because North Korea serves its interests.

Analysis: Why China won't halt North Korea's nuclear program

Liar, liar, pants on fire: Who has the worst track record of sticking to the facts? According to PolitiFact's fact-checking since Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump announced their candidacies, Trump leads Clinton in the "pants on fire" category with 18 percent of his statements deemed as such compared to 3 percent of Clinton's.