Fact Check

John McCain and Donald Trump: fellow travelers in conspiracy theories about ISIS and President Obama

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Now I understand why John McCain endorsed Donald Trump and steadfastly refuses to disavow him: they are both fellow travelers in conspiracy theories about ISIS and President Obama.

Back in June after the nightclub shooting in Orlando, McCain said: Obama ‘directly responsible’ for Orlando shooting:

McCain buttonSen. McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, spoke to reporters in the Capitol Thursday while Obama was in Orlando visiting with the families of those killed in Sunday’s attack and some of the survivors.

“Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al-Qaida went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama’s failures, utter failures, by pulling everybody out of Iraq,” a visibly angry McCain said as the Senate debated a spending bill.

“So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies,” McCain said.

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Questioned on his startling assertion, McCain initially repeated it: “Directly responsible. Because he pulled everybody out of Iraq, and I predicted at the time that ISIS would go unchecked and there would be attacks on the United States of America. It’s a matter of record, so he is directly responsible.”

I did a fact check at the time to explain how McCain’s Neocon wanderlust for war with Iraq opened the door to Al Qaida in Iraq, the predecessor of Daesh or ISIL (ISIS). McCain bears responsibility as much as anyone. How the ‘McMedia’ fail to hold John McCain accountable.

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Fact checking Clinton’s acceptance speech

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Screenshot from 2016-07-29 14:15:45The New York Times says Hillary Clinton delivered an acceptance speech that was remarkably without hard facts, and offered few concrete numbers or assertions to examine. There were, however, a few factual assertions that could be checked — so we did. Fact-Checking Hillary Clinton’s Acceptance Speech.

Similarly, The Washington Post says Hillary Clinton delivered an acceptance speech that was relatively sparse in terms of facts and figures that could be checked. (We don’t fact-check opinions.) Here’s a roundup of some of the most noteworthy claims that were made. Fact-checking Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech at the 2016 DNC.

Other fact check organizations do not follow the Post‘s policy and subjectively rate opinions. Make of this what you will.

FactCheck.org suggests that Clinton and other Democrats played loose with some facts. FactChecking Clinton’s Big Speech.

Politifact found the few statements it fact checked mostly true (and took a different position than FactCheck.org in some cases, because both are subjective). Fact-checking Hillary Clinton’s acceptance of the Democratic Nomination.

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About Last Night . . . Fact Check

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Early in his speech last night, Donald Trump challenged the fact  checkers:

Liar-LiarIt is finally time for a straightforward assessment of the state of our nation.

I will present the facts plainly and honestly.

We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.

So if you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully crafted lies, and the media myths — the Democrats are holding their convention next week.

But here, at our convention, there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else.

You all knew that this was a lie before the words had even finished crossing his lips. It was followed by numerous more lies, distortions, manipulations of data and cherry-picking of data that the fact checkers have been having a field day with today. There are far too many to reproduce here, so I am providing links below.

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Trump’s Tower of Lies

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Cartoon_18In November 2015, the Washington Post’s Fact Checker Glenn Kessler commented that Donald “Trump has already earned more Four-Pinocchio ratings than any other candidate this year.” Trump’s outrageous claim that ‘thousands’ of New Jersey celebrated the 9/11 attacks.

PolitiFact awarded its much coveted Lie Of The Year Award to Donald Trump, for all of his 2015 campaign misstatements:

It’s the trope on Trump: He’s authentic, a straight-talker, less scripted than traditional politicians. That’s because Donald Trump doesn’t let facts slow him down. Bending the truth or being unhampered by accuracy is a strategy he has followed for years.

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PolitiFact has been documenting Trump’s statements on our Truth-O-Meter, where we’ve rated 76 percent of them Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire, out of 77 statements checked. No other politician has as many statements rated so far down on the dial.

In considering our annual Lie of the Year, we found our only real contenders were Trump’s — his various statements also led our Readers’ Poll. But it was hard to single one out from the others. So we have rolled them into one big trophy.

To the candidate who says he’s all about winning, PolitiFact designates the many campaign misstatements of Donald Trump as our 2015 Lie of the Year.

 Essentially “The Donald” is a lie machine, insert your quarter and out spews a torrent of lies.

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Trump denies saying what he said multiple times last week

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The day after the Orlando nightclub attack Donald Trump said it wouldn’t have been as bad if the clubgoers had been armed. Trump: If clubgoers had guns, Orlando tragedy wouldn’t have been as bad:

Donald_Trump_hair“If you had some guns in that club the night that this took place, if you had guns on the other side, you wouldn’t have had the tragedy that you had,” the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said Monday on CNN.

“But if you had guns in that room, even if you had a number of people having it strapped to your ankle or strapped to their waste, where bullets could have flown in the other direction right at him, you wouldn’t have had the same kind of a tragedy.”

In Atlanta on Wednesday, Trump said that the death toll in Sunday’s deadly shooting in an Orlando nightclub might have been lower if more clubgoers had been carrying guns. Trump: Fewer people would’ve died if the Orlando clubgoers had guns:

“If the bullets were going in the other direction, aimed at the guy who was just in open target practice, you would have had a situation folks, which would have been horrible, but nothing like the carnage that we as all people suffered this weekend,” Trump said during a raucous Wednesday rally in downtown Atlanta.

In Texas on Friday, Trump told supporters hat the Orlando massacre wouldn’t have happened if the murdered clubbers had been armed. Donald Trump says Orlando shooting would have been averted if the victims were armed – and that Omar Mateen dying would have been ‘a beautiful, beautiful sight’:

‘If we had people, where the bullets were going in the opposite direction, right smack between the eyes of this maniac…’ he said, pointing between his own eyes, and pausing for cheers and applause.

‘…And this son of a b**** comes out and starts shooting, and one of the people in that room happened to have (a gun) and goes boom, boom… You know what? That would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight, folks.’

Then this happened on Sunday.

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