Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton had their second presidential debate on Sunday night in St. Louis. We tallied their false claims.
The totals: 33 false claims for Trump, five false claims for Clinton 鈥 a near-identical margin to the first debate two weeks ago, when we found Trump made 34 false claims and Clinton made four.
Donald Trump, Republican
1. Falsely said, 鈥淚n San Bernardino, many people saw the bombs all over the apartment of the two people that killed 14 and wounded many, many people鈥uslims have to report the problems when they see them.鈥 (Nobody saw bombs in the home of the terrorists.)
2. Falsely said, 鈥淚’ve gotten to see some of the most vicious commercials I’ve ever seen of Michelle Obama talking about you, Hillary.鈥 (There are no Michelle Obama attack ads against Clinton.)
3. Falsely said, 鈥淲e have the slowest growth since 1929.鈥 (The economy is growing. According to CNBC, it contracted in eight individual years since 1930.)
4. Falsely said, 鈥淚CE just endorsed me. They’ve never endorsed a presidential candidate.鈥 (Trump was not endorsed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a branch of the government, but by a union of its employees.)
5. Falsely said, 鈥淪he is raising everybody鈥檚 taxes, massively.鈥 (Clinton鈥檚 tax hikes are for very wealthy people. Says the Tax Policy Center: 鈥淣early all of (Clinton鈥檚) tax increases would fall on the top 1 per cent; the bottom 95 per cent of taxpayers would see little or no change in their taxes.鈥)
6. Falsely accused Clinton of laughing at a 12-year-old rape victim: 鈥淗er client she represented got him off and she’s seen laughing at the girl who was raped.鈥 (Clinton laughed at various points of a 1980s interview about the case 鈥 but never at the victim. For example, she said that her client had passed a polygraph lie test, and she added, with a laugh, 鈥渨hich forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs.鈥)
7. Falsely said of the 鈥渂irther鈥 controversy: 鈥淵ou know very well, your campaign Sidney Blumenthal 鈥 he’s the one that got this started along with your campaign manager and they were on television just two weeks ago, she was, saying exactly that.鈥 (There is no evidence that Blumenthal or Clinton鈥檚 campaign manager started the conspiracy theory that Trump promoted for years; her campaign manager did not support Trump鈥檚 assertion on TV.)
8. Falsely said, 鈥淪he wants to go to a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster. Somewhat similar to Canada.鈥 (Clinton is not calling for a single-payer system like Canada鈥檚; she wants to add a 鈥減ublic option鈥 to the current system, but she would not transform the system.)
9. Falsely said Bill Clinton 鈥減aid an $850,000 fine to one of the women, Paula Jones who is also here tonight.鈥 (Clinton paid a $25,000 fine to Arkansas authorities, but his $850,000 payment to Jones was a settlement, not a fine.)
10. Falsely said, 鈥淗undreds of thousands of people coming in from Syria when we know nothing about them. 鈥 (The U.S. has accepted about 12,500 Syrian refugees. And the refugees are subjected to an extensive vetting process.)
11. Falsely said, 鈥淟ast year, we had almost $800 billion trade deficit. Other words, trading with other countries. We had an $800 billion deficit.鈥 (The trade deficit last year was $532 billion. It was $746 billion when trade in services, at which the U.S. excels, is excluded from the count.)
12. Falsely said, 鈥淛ust today policeman were shot 鈥 two, killed.鈥 (Two officers were shot and killed the day before the debate, not that day.)
13. Falsely said, 鈥淚 will tell you we are cutting (taxes) big league for the middle-class.鈥 (The vast majority of Trump鈥檚 tax cuts go to the rich, and some analyses suggest the middle-class will actually pay more taxes. The Tax Foundation found that the middle quintile of earners would get an income boost of 1.3 per cent.)
14. Falsely said, 鈥淚 was against the war in Iraq. Has not been debunked.鈥 (Trump expressed only support for the war before the invasion. His claim has been repeatedly debunked.)
15. Falsely said, 鈥淥ur taxes are so high. Just about the highest in the world.鈥 (The U.S. has below-average taxes for the industrialized world. It is among the highest with regard to corporate taxes alone, but Trump did not specify.)
16. Falsely said about his tweet about Alicia Machado: 鈥淣o, there wasn鈥檛 鈥樷檆heck out a sex tape.鈥欌 (That is precisely what Trump wrote, just over a week ago: 鈥淐heck out sex tape.鈥)
17. Falsely said, 鈥淐hicago; you take a look at Washington, D.C., we have an increase in murder within our cities.鈥 (Murder is down in D.C. this year. There were 106 homicides as of Oct. 7, compared to 120 at the same time last year.)
18. Falsely said of Clinton, 鈥淪he made $250 million by being in office. She used the power of her office to make a lot of money.鈥 (Forbes magazine found $230 million in combined income for the Clintons between 2001 and 2014, but the majority of that was income Bill Clinton earned after he left office. 鈥淗illary didn鈥檛 bring in the sort of money her husband did until 2013, when she left her post as Secretary of State,鈥 Forbes wrote.)
19. Falsely said he was 鈥減retty much self-funding鈥 his campaign. (This was not true even early in the primaries, but especially not now. Trump has accepted tens of millions in donations from others.)
20. Falsely said, of Libya, 鈥淚SIS has a good chunk of their oil. I’m sure you probably have heard that.鈥 (ISIS has not done so. 鈥淭hey wanted to disrupt it, destroy it, not to run it,” energy analyst Matthew Bey told CNBC in September.)
21. Falsely claimed Clinton is pledging to leave the carried interest tax loophole untouched: 鈥淰ery interesting why she’s leaving carried interest.鈥 (Clinton is even vowing to get rid of the loophole by executive action if necessary.)
22. Falsely alleged that Clinton went through a 鈥渧ery expensive process鈥 to 鈥渁cid wash鈥 or 鈥渂leach鈥 her deleted emails. (The emails were deleted with a free software program, called BleachBit.)
23. Falsely said of the Iran deal: 鈥淚t’s a one-sided transaction where we’re giving back $150 billion to a terrorist state.鈥 (Writes the Associated Press: 鈥淭he deal allowed Iran to get access to its own money that was frozen in foreign bank accounts, estimated at about $100 billion. The U.S. didn鈥檛 give Iran $150 billion.鈥)
24. Falsely said, 鈥淢aybe there is no hacking. But they always blame Russia. And the reason they blame Russia because they think they’re trying to tarnish me with Russia.鈥 (There was hacking. The U.S. intelligence community last week accused Russia of responsibility, as independent cybersecurity experts did previously; there is no evidence they did so to tarnish Trump.)
25. Falsely said, 鈥淛ust take a look at Russia, and look at what they did this week where I agree, she wasn’t there but possibly she’s consulted. We sign a peace treaty. Everyone’s excited.鈥 (There was no 鈥減eace treaty鈥 about Syria, nor any agreement this week. The U.S. and Russia agreed to a temporary ceasefire in September.)
26. Falsely said, 鈥溾ome horrible things like Obamacare, where your health insurance and health care is going up by numbers that are astronomical, 68 per cent, 59 per cent, 71 per cent.鈥 (It is a major exaggeration to suggest that most people will see such increases. While a small number of Obamacare plans may spike this much, the vast majority will not. Estimates of various kinds put the increase at 5 per cent to 25 per cent. And non-Obamacare premiums are rising slower than they did under George W. Bush.)
27. Falsely said, 鈥淗er and Obama, whether you like it or not, the way they got out of Iraq, the vacuum they’ve left, that’s why ISIS formed in the first place.鈥 (ISIS was formed long before Obama鈥檚 troop withdrawal; it even started using the name 鈥淚slamic State鈥 during the Bush presidency.)
28. Falsely said, of the Benghazi attack, 鈥淎mbassador Stevens sent 600 requests for help. And the only one she talked to was Sidney Blumenthal who is her friend and not a good guy by the way.鈥 (The Washington Post, which looked deeply into the 鈥600 requests鈥 claim, found that 鈥渇ew if any鈥 of the messages were from Stevens himself, and that many of the 600 were identified as 鈥渃oncerns,鈥 not 鈥渞equests,鈥 which have different meanings in bureaucratic parlance. The requests did not go directly to Clinton, and not all of them were denied. As for Blumenthal, the New York Times wrote, 鈥淚t is manifestly untrue to suggest, as Mr. Trump did, that he was only person she listened to on Benghazi.鈥)
29. Falsely said, of his hotel development in a historic building near the White House, 鈥淭he United States government, because of my balance sheet, which they actually know very well, chose me to do the Old Post Office鈥ne of the primary area things, in fact, perhaps the primary thing was balance sheet.鈥 (Trump did not win the project primarily because the government approved of his balance sheet, numerous news stories from the time of the decision make clear.)
30. Falsely said 鈥渏obs are essentially nonexistent鈥 in the 鈥渋nner cities.鈥 (Of course, millions of people living in urban cores are employed; many inner cities are thriving.)
31. Falsely said, 鈥淎frican- Americans now 45 per cent poverty in the inner cities.鈥 (It has never been clear how Trump defines 鈥渋nner cities鈥 鈥 he appears to use the phrase synonymously with 鈥渂lack neighbourhood鈥 鈥 but he appeared to be mangling the statistic he usually uses in his speeches: 鈥45 per cent of black children under the age of six live in poverty.鈥 Overall black poverty is 24 per cent; it is well under 45 per cent even in several cities with a significant black poverty challenge, such as Memphis (35 per cent).
32. Falsely said, 鈥淭he Canadians, when they need a big operation, they come into the United States in many cases, because their system is so slow.” (Though some Canadians go to the U.S. for operations, Trump鈥檚 鈥渢he Canadians鈥 and 鈥渋n many cases鈥 make this such an inaccurate generalization as to be false. Scarce data suggest a tiny percentage of Canadians go to any other country for any kind of care: 1 per cent in 2014, according to an estimate in a study by the conservative Fraser Institute, and some experts think the Fraser number is too high.)
33. Falsely claimed Clinton could have changed the tax code 鈥測ears ago鈥 had she tried to do so: 鈥淪he鈥檚 a United States senator.鈥 (Clinton was correct that her powers on such issues were very limited with a Republican president in office.)
Hillary Clinton, Democrat
1. Falsely said, of the Khan family, 鈥淒onald insulted and attacked them for weeks over their religion.鈥 (Trump鈥檚 personal attack on the Khans lasted about a week, not 鈥渨eeks,鈥 and the specific insult to their religion in particular lasted even less time.)
2. Falsely said, “We are now, for the first time ever, energy independent.” (Wrote the Associated Press: 鈥淔or the first time in decades the United States gets more energy domestically than it imports, but it is not yet energy independent, as the country continues to rely on oil imports from the Mideast and elsewhere.鈥)
3. Falsely said, of Trump鈥檚 talk of her emails, 鈥渆verything he just said is absolutely false.鈥 (Trump made at least some correct statements, including that 33,000 emails were deleted.)
4. Falsely said, 鈥淪ince the Great Recession the gains have all gone to the top.鈥 (Wrote the New York Times: 鈥淣ot anymore. Median household income rose sharply last year for the first time since the Great Recession, rendering Mrs. Clinton’s comments out of date.鈥)
5. Falsely said, 鈥淓ight million kids, every year, have health insurance because when I was first lady, I worked with Democrats and Republicans to create the children’s health insurance program.鈥 (This is an overstatement of her role in the effort, especially the part about working with Republicans; the Washington Post found that she played a significant behind-the-scenes role pushing for the bill with her husband鈥檚 administration, but did not personally work across the aisle on it.)
Both maybe true and maybe false
Trump said, 鈥淔irst of all, she was there as secretary of state with the so-called line in the sand.鈥 Clinton responded, 鈥淣o, I wasn’t. I was gone.鈥 Both of them could be considered correct or incorrect. Trump is right that Clinton was still secretary of state when Obama drew a 鈥渞ed line鈥 against the Syrian regime鈥檚 use of chemical weapons, in 2012. But Clinton was right that she was out of office when Syria actually crossed the line, in 2013.