Presidents — regardless of party — tend to take credit for good things that happen under their watch, regardless of how much influence their actions may have had. Exhibit A: Former President Barack Obama said the fact that the United States is now the world’s biggest oil producer didn’t happen “suddenly.” Instead, “that was me, people.”
President Trump went on the attack against Michael Cohen, saying his former personal attorney is a “weak person” trying to avoid jail time by “lying” about negotiations with Russian officials about a possible Trump Tower development in Moscow. But the president twisted several facts in service of his points.
In a Nov. 27 interview with the Washington Post, President Donald Trump made a series of inaccurate statements. He questioned the cause of climate change, praised a nonexistent method for wildfire prevention and even recycled a long-debunked news story from the 1970s.
President Donald Trump wrongly tweeted that the largest federal appellate court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, is “overturned more than any circuit in the country, 79%.”
With gasoline prices plummeting, President Trump gave himself a third-person pat on the back via Twitter: “thank you President T.” Energy experts say the decline is largely motivated by market forces outside the president’s control. But experts attribute at least part of the drop to the administration’s decision to soften Iran sanctions.
After a group of migrants tried to breach the U.S. border at Tijuana, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said there were no “reported serious injuries on either side of the border.” But President Donald Trump told reporters the same day that “three Border Patrol people yesterday were very badly hurt through getting hit with rocks and stones.”
President Donald Trump in recent days has engaged in some post-election spin. He claimed that Gov. Rick Scott won the Senate race in Florida “by a lot,” and tweeted that the “Midterm results” for House Republicans “were better than other sitting Presidents.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper examines bogus claims about voter fraud in this week’s fact-checking video in collaboration with FactCheck.org.
Rep. Ted Deutch accused Florida Gov. Rick Scott of “trying to manipulate the outcome of elections,” providing examples that went beyond the facts.
The Republican National Committee and others have taken to claiming that the number of job openings exceeds the number of job seekers for the first time “in history,” a sweeping claim that is without factual support, and likely false.