This week’s edition of Groundhog Friday, our wrap-up of repeated claims we’ve debunked before, includes claims on guns, health insurance premiums, wages and income inequality.
Groundhog Friday
Person: Donald Trump
Video: Obama, Clinton Not ISIS ‘Founders’
In this week’s fact-checking video, CNN’s Jake Tapper refutes Donald Trump’s claim that President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “founded ISIS.”
Trump’s False Obama-ISIS Link
Donald Trump claims that President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “founded ISIS.” But the origin of the Islamic State terrorist group dates back to the Bush administration.
Clinton’s Economic Speech
Two days after Donald Trump gave a major speech on economics in Detroit, Hillary Clinton came to Michigan to offer a rebuttal. We found that Clinton stretched the facts on a few points.
Clinton’s Trumped Up Zika Claim
Hillary Clinton falsely claimed that “my opponent in this race, his campaign officials” have called Zika “an insignificant issue.” That was said by an unpaid local supporter of Donald Trump. Trump himself has called Zika a “big problem.”
Trump’s Baseless Claim on Iranian Execution
Donald Trump speculates that Shahram Amiri — an Iranian nuclear scientist who defected to the U.S. and reportedly became a CIA spy — was executed in Iran recently “because of Hillary Clinton’s hacked emails.” There is no evidence of that.
Trump’s Economic Speech
Donald Trump made several false and misleading statements in a speech at the Detroit Economic Club on Aug. 8.
Police Shootings Not at a Record Level
Donald Trump wrongly said that “they’re shooting our police at record levels.” The record for police firearm deaths, and deaths of officers overall, in recent decades was set in the 1970s.
Trump’s Revised 9/11 Claim
Donald Trump said that a reporter was “trying to change his story” after writing an article that Trump said supported the discredited claim that Trump watched “thousands and thousands” of people in New Jersey celebrate the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Groundhog Friday
This week’s wrap-up of repeated claims includes several we heard during the parties’ national conventions.