Fact Checking The Donald–The Lies Were Plentiful And Non-Stop

If you were brave enough to watch Donald Trump’s acceptance speech last night–and some of us actually did–you probably began to wonder: Is what he’s saying true, or is he just talking out of his ass? The answer, you won’t be surprised to learn, is that a large majority of what Trump said–the “facts” and “statistics” he reeled off–were complete bullshit. Let’s pause for a moment and take a closer look at some of the most egregious examples:

“The number of new illegal immigrant families who’ve crossed the border so far this year already exceeds the entire total from 2015.”

Nope, not even close to being factual.

Considering immigrants crossing as families this year, 29,682 people in families were intercepted coming across the southern border since January, according to the Border Patrol. Total immigrant family crossings in 2015 were 53,840 people, the agency’s stats show.

Hillary Clinton proposes admitting new Syrian refugees “despite the fact that there’s no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they are or where they come from.”

Also a complete and total lie.

The federal government has an exhaustive screening process for refugee, and it’s a process that takes 18 to 24 months to complete and includes in-person interviews and biometric checks. That’s the main reason the U.S. has taken in so few Syrian refugees, despite President Obama’s promise to increase that number.

“The Iran [nuclear] deal … gave back to Iran $150 billion.”

This is a favorite talking point for right-wing politicians and the uninformed, but it’s simply not correct.

Some Iranian assets were frozen under sanctions imposed by the United States prior to the nuclear deal. The deal does allow Iran to access some of this money as the U.S. and other countries lift sanctions on Tehran. However, other sanctions remain in place and so far, Iran has only received a few billion dollars under the deal. They have not received a $150 billion payday as Trump tries to assert.

“Decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by [the Obama] Administration’s rollback of criminal enforcement. Homicides last year increased by 17% in America’s fifty largest cities.”

Uh, no. Not even close.

Trump is citing a 17% increase in homicide in America’s 50 largest cities in 2015, a figure that seems to come from a Washington Post analysis of data the paper compiled earlier this year. The FBI’s annual report for 2015 is still not out, but a half-year report out in January had murders up 6.2% nationally. But it should be noted that murder rates have declined nationally under Obama from 5.4 per 100,000 in 2008 to 4.5 in 2014

These are just the most glaring examples from last night’s speech. Quite frankly, whenever Trump opens his mouth, fact checkers have to work overtime to keep up. But he’ll keep on lying, and we’ll keep on calling him out.

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org

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