OnTheIssues Fact Checking: on Principles & Values
Donald Trump:
I have a daughter and son-in-law who are Jewish
When asked about relations with Israel, Donald Trump responded, "I have tremendous love for Israel. I happen to have a son-in-law and a daughter that are Jewish, OK? And two grandchildren that are Jewish." Is that true?We fact-checked and found that
Trump's daughter Ivanka, converted to Judaism in 2009 and is raising Donald's grandchildren under Jewish tradition. According to Vogue magazine (Feb. 25, 2015), Ivanka in 2007 met her future husband Jared Kushner, who is an Orthodox Jew and a real estate
developer in New York. Ivanka converted to Judaism prior to their marriage in 2009, and they keep a kosher home and, Ivanak says, "we observe the Sabbath; from Friday to Saturday we don't make phone calls. It's an amazing thing when you're so connected--
for [our daughter] Arabella to know that she has me, undivided, one day a week We don't do anything except play with each other, hang out with one another, go on walks together. Pure family.
Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on 2016 GOP primary debate in Miami
Mar 11, 2016
Donald Trump:
A businessman, not a lifelong politician
PENCE: Hillary Clinton and Senator Kaine--God bless you for it--career public servants. That's great--Donald Trump is a businessman, not a career politician. He actually built a business. Those tax returns that came out publicly this week show that he
faced some pretty tough times 20 years ago. But like virtually every other business, he used what's called net operating loss. We have a tax code that actually is designed to encourage entrepreneurship in this country.KAINE: But why won't he release
his tax returns?
PENCE: His tax returns showed he went through a very difficult time, but he used the tax code just the way it's supposed to be used. And he did it brilliantly.
KAINE: How do you know that? You haven't seen his tax returns.
PENCE:
Because he's created a business that's worth billions of dollars today. This whole riff about people saying he didn't pay taxes for years--Donald Trump has created tens of thousands of jobs. And he's paid payroll taxes, sales taxes, property taxes...
Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate
Oct 4, 2016
Donald Trump:
FactCheck: "We have the best testing in the world"? Not!
Trump: "Cases are up because we have the best testing in the world and we have the most testing. No country has ever done what we've done in terms of testing. We are the envy of the world. They call and they say the most incredible job anybody's done is
our job on testing. You look at other countries; they don't even do tests."OTI FactCheck: Trump refers to the total number of tests--the US is indeed first. The US is not first in testing per capita. For countries over a million population in early
2021:
| Country | Tests (millions) | Tests per million population |
|---|
| UAE | 29M | 2.9/M |
| Denmark | 15M | 2.7/M |
| Bahrain | 3M | 1.7/M |
| Cyprus | 2M | 1.3/M |
| Israel | 12M | 1.2/M |
| UK | 83M | 1.2/M |
| Singapore | 7M | 1.2/M |
| USA | 338M | 1.0/M |
Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on Fox News Sunday 2020
Jul 19, 2020
Donald Trump:
FactCheck: 2016 was Trump's 3rd run for presidency, not 1st
The term "Stable Genius," the title of the book, comes from a core fact that can be fact-checked:In January 2018, a national discussion was under way about the presidents fitness for office--specifically, his mental acuity and physiological
health. "Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart," he continued. "I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try).
Is it true that Trump became president on his first try? No! He ran in 1999-2000 (see his Jan. 2000 campaign book, The America We Deserve), for the Reform Party nomination, and ran in 2011-2012 (see his
Dec. 2011 campaign book, Time to Get Tough), for the Republican Party nomination. The mainstream press forgets those two campaigns, and Trump capitalized on that complicity in 2016--which was his third try, not his first!
Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on A Very Stable Genius, p. 6
Jan 21, 2020
Gabriel Gomez:
FactCheck: Markey authored successful bills over 22 years
In the broadcast debate, Gabriel Gomez repeated his charge that Ed Markey had authored no successful bills in the House. Markey cited a few, and Gomez said they were only co-sponsorships or amendments. So we looked up bills (not amendments) which Markey
introduced (authored, not co-sponsored) which became law, and found this list:- 2010 H.R.4689: Latest Title: National Alzheimer's Project Act
- 2009 H.R.2866: Latest Title: Improving Access to Clinical Trials Act
- 1993 H.R.616: Securities
Exchange Act Amendment
- 1992 H.R.2977 & H.R.6180: Telecommunications Authorization Act
- 1990 H.R.3657: Market Reform Act
- 1990 H.R.3656: Gas Related Activities Act
- 1990 H.R.3265 Federal Communications Commission Authorization Act
- 1989
HR.3310 & 1987 HR.2472: Appropriations for National Telecommunications and Information Administration
- 1988 H.R.5133: Latest Title: Insider Trading and Securities Fraud Enforcement Act
- 1988 H.R.4118: Latest Title: Public Telecommunications Act
Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on 2013 MA Senate debate
Jun 5, 2013
Joe Biden:
FactCheck: No, only 50% of recent presidents were Ivy league
Joe Biden claimed that he would be the "first person without an Ivy League degree to be elected president," in the context of white privilege. Is that claim true?We checked, and no, it's not even close to true. Rasmussen College published "U.S.
Presidents with College Education: From Learners to Leaders," on 4/24/2013, including the following list. Of recent presidents, the list is split evenly into 8 Ivy Leaguers and 8 not:
- Donald Trump, U. Penn (Ivy League)
- Obama, Columbia & Harvard
(Ivy League)
- W. Bush, Yale & Harvard (Ivy League)
- Clinton, Yale (Ivy League)
- H. W. Bush, Yale (Ivy League)
- Reagan, Eureka College (not Ivy)
- Carter, US Naval Academy (not Ivy)
- Ford, Yale (Ivy League)
- Nixon, Whittier (not Ivy)
-
Johnson, Texas State (not Ivy)
- Kennedy, Harvard (Ivy League)
- Eisenhower, US Military Academy (not Ivy)
- Truman, U. Missouri (not Ivy)
- Roosevelt, Harvard (Ivy League)
- Hoover, Stanford (not Ivy)
- Coolidge, Amherst (not Ivy)
Source: OnTheIssues Fact-check on CNN Town Hall 2020
Sep 17, 2020
Michael Bennet:
Jewish mother survived Holocaust in Warsaw Ghetto
Michael Bennet said in the first round of Democratic primary debates about Trump's policy of separating children from their parents at the Mexican border, "When I see these kids at the border, I see my mom, because I know she sees herself, because she
was separated from her parents for years during the Holocaust in Poland." Does that mean Michael Bennet's mother is a Holocaust survivor from the Warsaw Ghetto and therefore that Bennet is Jewish? We checked.Yes, Bennet's mother, Susanne Christine
Klejman, was born in the Warsaw Ghetto (where Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany imprisoned Polish Jews during WWII), in 1938. Her parents survived and she emigrated to America in 1950.
Bennet's father, Douglas Bennet, is a Christian. Under Jewish religious
law, anyone born to a Jewish mother is automatically Jewish, including those with Christian fathers. Michael Bennet married his wife via an Episcopal priest, and says he believes in God, but observes neither Jewish nor Christian religious rituals.
Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on June Democratic Primary debate
Jun 27, 2019
Paul Ryan:
FactCheck: "Progressivists" is intentionally insulting term
Ryan uses the term "Progressivist vision" on p. 131; the same term is used on p. 98, p. 112, & pp. 129-132. The term has no political meaning except to insult Ryan's opponents. There are no political groups in America who call themselves "progressivists.
The term is akin to using "Democrat Party" as an insulting term for "the Democratic Party" (there is no "Democrat Party," and no one uses that term except in a derogatory manner). The authors, evidently, attempt here to invent a new derogatory term.
Ryan further misleads readers by asserting, "Left-of-center politicians stopped calling themselves 'liberals' and started calling themselves 'Progressives.' I can't say precisely why they made this switch." That is factually incorrect.
Liberals and progressives are distinct factions in the Democratic Party, akin to libertarians vs. Christian conservatives in the Republican Party. Hillary Clinton represented the liberal faction in 2008; Barack Obama represented the progressive faction.
Source: OnTheIssues.org FactCheck on "Young Guns"
May 2, 2011
Ted Cruz:
FactCheck: McCain was born in US territory, not Panama
Ted Cruz asserted, "If a soldier has a child abroad, that child is a natural-born citizen. That's why John McCain, even though he was born in Panama, was eligible to run for president."We checked the facts and Ted Cruz is wrong--McCain was NOT born in
Panama, but in the Panama Canal Zone, which at that time was a US. territory. Cruz claims, falsely, that McCain was the child of soldiers abroad--that would have been the case if McCain's parents had crossed the border to the country of Panama, but they
chose to stay in US territory.
On the constitutional term "natural-born citizen", OnTheIssues follows the "stamp rule": What postage stamp would one use at the place one was born? McCain's parents would've used US stamps in the Canal Zone, so McCain is
eligible. Barry Goldwater was similarly questioned in 1964 because he was born in Arizona territory before it became a state--he also passes the "stamp rule." George Romney, born to US parents in Mexico, does not pass the "stamp rule"--nor does Cruz!
Source: OnTheIssues FactChecking on Fox Business 2016 GOP debate
Jan 15, 2016
Ted Cruz:
FactCheck: Yes, Cruz speaks Spanish & understands Univision
Marco Rubio accused Ted Cruz of being unable to understand Univision (a Spanish-language TV station); Cruz demonstrated Rubio wrong by responding in Spanish:- CRUZ: Marco went on Univision in Spanish and said he would not rescind Pres. Obama's
illegal executive amnesty on his first day in office.
- RUBIO: Well, I don't know how he knows what I said on Univision because he doesn't speak Spanish.
- CRUZ: ¨Marco, qu‚ quieres? Ahora mismo, en espa¤ol: ¨Qu‚ quieres? ["Marco, what do you want?
Right now, in Spanish, what do you want?"]
- RUBIO: Look, this is a disturbing pattern now, because for a number of weeks now, Ted Cruz has just been telling lies. And here is the truth, Ted Cruz supported legalizing people that were in this country.
Both Senators accused each other of lying; we won't comment on the other accusations, but Rubio was clearly incorrect in his assertion that Cruz speaks no Spanish.
Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on 2016 CBS Republican debate in S.C.
Feb 14, 2016
Ted Cruz:
OpEd: attacking "New York values" is anti-Semitism
[OnTheIssues editor Jesse Gordon, who is Jewish, writes]: We accuse Senator Ted Cruz of anti-Semitism because of his repeated comments on "New York values," in which he includes long-established code words against Jews.Cruz said, "Everyone understands
that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro-gay-marriage, focus around money and the media."
The code words are "money and the media." Those false concepts--that Jews control the banks and control the press--are key
concepts of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a fictional attack on Jews published in the 1920s, and cited as "fact" by anti-Semites ever since.
It is generally true that NYC Jews--and all New Yorkers--are socially liberal. But Cruz chooses
instead to hint darkly at stereotypes of Judaism rather than saying it openly--because saying it openly is political suicide. In the 1980s, presidential candidate Jesse Jackson never recovered from his "Hymietown" reference--and neither should Cruz!
Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on Fox Business Republican debate
Jan 14, 2016
Donald Trump:
The Big Lie was the Election itself
Why is it that the Unselect Committee of totally partisan political hacks, whose judgment has long ago been made, not discussing the rigged Presidential Election of 2020? It's because they don't have the answers or justifications for what happened.
They got away with something, and it is leading to our Country's destruction. They want all conversation concerning the Election "Canceled." Just look at the numbers, they speak for themselves. They are not justifiable, so the complicit media just calls
it the Big Lie, when in actuality the Big Lie was the Election itself.[OnTheIssues FactCheck: Trump is referring to the House committee investigating the insurrection of January 6. As for the 2020 election, neither Trump nor any of
his partisans have produced any evidence that it was in any way "rigged": numerous courts have studied several states results and found no valid evidence that would alter the election results].
Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on Jan. 6 Riot (2024 candidates)
Jan 6, 2022
Donald Trump:
FactCheck: Claims GOP is growing as 30,000+ left
Trump said at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference, shortly after the January 6 Capitol insurrection, "The Republican party defends the interests of working American families. That's why the party is growing so rapidly." FactCheck by The
Hill: More than 30,000 voters who had been registered members of the Republican Party have changed their voter registration in the weeks after pro-Trump supporters attacked the Capitol. The massive wave of defections is a virtually unprecedented exodus.
Source: Reuters/OnTheIssues FactCheck on 2021 CPAC Conference
Feb 28, 2021
Donald Trump:
January 6 commemoration is political theater: a distraction
Biden, who is destroying our Nation with insane policies of open Borders, corrupt Elections, disastrous energy policies, unconstitutional mandates, and devastating school closures, used my name today to try to further divide America. This political
theater is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed. [OnTheIssues FactCheck: In fact, Biden did not use Trump's name at all in his speech "I Fear For Our Democracy", referring 16 times to the "former president."]
Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on Jan. 6 Riot (2024 candidates)
Jan 6, 2022
Donald Trump:
Endorsed by 4 major newspapers (but 50+ endorse Harris/Walz)
The Trump campaign noted, "Major newspapers have withheld endorsements" of Harris--is that true?FactCheck:Wikipedia reports 4 major newspapers have endorsed Trump while 50+ have endorsed Harris (we define "major" as "cited often by
OnTheIssues"):
Source: OnTheIssues/Wikipedia FactCheck on 2024 endorsements
Oct 28, 2024
Kamala Harris:
Endorsed by 50+ major newspapers (with 4 endorsing Trump)
The Trump campaign noted, "Major newspapers have withheld endorsements" of Harris--is that true?FactCheck:Wikipedia reports 4 major newspapers have endorsed Trump while 50+ have endorsed Harris (we define "major" as "cited often by
OnTheIssues"):
Source: OnTheIssues/Wikipedia FactCheck on 2024 endorsements
Oct 28, 2024
Page last updated: Nov 03, 2024