It was the president’s first response to Trump’s Thursday night speech at the Republican National Convention, in which the party’s standard bearer painted a bleak picture of the United States and positioned himself as a singular figure who could fix the nation’s problems.
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Some of the statistics and facts he cited checked out.
TRUMP CLAIM: We all remember the images of our sailors being forced to their knees by their Iranian captors at gunpoint.
TRUMP: The nuclear deal “gave back to Iran $150 billion and gave us nothing”.
“I am certain that it was a decision that President Obama truly regrets”.
TRUMP CLAIM: My opponent wants to essentially abolish the 2nd amendment. Clinton has spoken out for modest gun control measures that are permissible under Supreme Court precedent, such as background checks and a ban on assault weapons.
Trump: “Homicides previous year increased by 17 percent in America’s 50 largest cities. That’s the largest increase in 25 years”. “When considering 5- and 10-year trends, the 2014 estimated violent crime total was 6.9 percent below the 2010 level and 16.2 percent below the 2005 level” the Federal Bureau of Investigation reports.
“When it comes to crime, the violent crime rate in America has been lower during my presidency than any time in the last three, four decades”.
TRUMP CLAIM: The number of new illegal immigrant families who have crossed the border so far this year already exceeds the entire total from 2015.
But there were also facts.
TRUMP: “The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by nearly 50 percent compared to this point a year ago”. In Fiscal Year 2016 (which ends in September), the number stands at 51,000 – so higher than in 2015, but lower than 2014 (see here and here). The Pew Research Center found that 23.5 percent of the country’s 55.3 million Latinos live in poverty, compared with 24.7 percent in 2010. But Trump isn’t correct that 58 percent of African American youth are unemployed. “Here at our convention, there will be no lies”, Trump said. In 2014, the number jumped to 13 million – but the rate actually DECLINED to 23.6 percent.
THE FACTS: He’s right.
Fact Check: The national debt was $10.6 trillion on the day Obama took office.
For all that caution, US officials acknowledge that the Islamic State group could try to place operatives among refugees.
As for Trump’s claim that Clinton faces no effect, that may be true in a legal sense. But she also said she would improve the already extensive vetting process, especially from Syria.
THE FACTS: Trump is correct that Clinton backed NAFTA and China’s entry into the WTO, which took place while her husband was president.
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THE FACTS: It’s an exaggeration to suggest Clinton, or any secretary of state, is to blame for the widespread instability and violence across the Middle East.
