The first of a scheduled two debates ended last night between Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The debate was moderated by a strangely calm Lester Holt, who many claimed was hesitant in allowing both candidates to run overtime and not answer specifics. There were a lot of issues that both candidates needed to be pressed on when it came to fact checking but overall it was Trump who was allowed to skate by with weak answers and defy facts. Here are some of the issues that Trump was dead wrong on:
Trump: “You look at what China is doing for country in terms of making our product, they’re devaluing their currency and there’s nobody in our government to fight them.”
Fact: For the past few years China has sold off over $4 trillion in foreign exchange reserves to prop up the value of its currency. President Obama has engaged in high-level talks to reduce hacking and IP theft.
Trump: “So Ford is leaving, you see that their small car division, leaving. Thousands of jobs leaving Michigan, leaving Ohio, they’re all leaving.
Fact: Ford Motor Company announced that it is not leaving the US. In addition, Ford CEO Mark Fields says zero jobs will be lost in Michigan because Ford will build two new vehicles at that plant. Further, unemployment in Michigan is 4.5 percent; Ohio’s rate is 4.7 percent. Both are lower than the national average of 4.9 percent.
Trump: “Well, for one thing and before we start on that my father gave me a very small loan in 1975 and I built into a company that’s worth many many billions of dollars with some of the greatest assets in the world and I say that only because that’s the kind of thinking that our country needs.”
Fact: Trump’s father gave him multiple loans through his early business years that were in the millions.
Clinton: “Donald thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. I think it’s real.”
Trump: “I did not — I do not say that.”
Fact: “On Dec. 30, 2015, Trump told the crowd at a rally, “Obama’s talking about all of this with the global warming and … a lot of it’s a hoax. It’s a hoax. I mean, it’s a moneymaking industry, OK? It’s a hoax, a lot of it.”
Trump: “Our energy policies are a disaster. Our country is losing so much in terms of energy, in terms of paying off our debt.”
Fact: The U.S. has been the world’s leading producer of natural gas since 2011 and the top producer of oil since 2013. Gas has been cheaper under President Barack Obama.
Trump: “No wonder you’ve been fighting ISIS your entire adult life.”
Fact: The rise of ISIS began in the 1990s and peaked in power in 2013-2014. Clinton was born in 1947.
Trump: “We have the worst revival of an economy since the Great Depression.”
Fact: Private sector employers have added 15.1 million jobs since the peak of the recession in 2010. Unemployment, which peaked at 10 percent in October 2009, has fallen to 4.9 percent. Unemployment among African-Americans, which peaked at 16.8 percent in March 2010, has fallen to 8.1 percent. And unemployment among African-American young people is not 58 percent as Trump claimed, but 26.1 percent.
Trump: Claims he will not release his taxes because he is under audit by the IRS and cannot.
Fact: The IRS commissioner has stated that an audit doesn’t prevent anyone from releasing his or her taxes.
