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| Image: Newsweek |
CNN released a Fact Check shortly after former President Donald Trump delivered a speech in Florida at the Republican CPAC conference (Conservative Political Action Conference).
In the article titled "Fact check: Trump delivers lie-filled CPAC speech" appears to be filled with more falsehoods than claimed of the Trump speech which opens with calling the speech "a speech filled with debunked lies".
Trump Lost the Election Fair and Square
This also means that nobody can say the election was legitimate or call this allegation "baseless" or :false" either. This includes CNN and as such, this is a false claim.
Early Morning Vote Batches
CNN reports that Trump's question: "What happened at 3:02 in the morning?" is a lie.
First, he asked the audience a question, he didn't state anything false. While he was referring to ballots being delivered after the election date, he did not make an allegation.
Secondly, CNN states that:
"...in several lawsuits over the election, judges determined the witness affidavits claiming they saw literal late night dumps of ballots were baseless and not evidence of fraud"
Which is absolutely false. They premise this statement with a ruling by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kenny.
However, Judge Kenny did not state that the affidavit evidence was "baseless", what he actually said was that the "plaintiffs' affiants did not have a full understanding of the TCF absent ballot tabulation process" and therefore "misinterpreted" what they saw and this was because he felt affidavits from election officials adequately explained what was going on.
This doesn't mean the affidavits were false or "baseless", in fact they were accurate and worthy of checking into. Ultimately the Judge held that they were explainable.
Additionally, Exhibit A comes into play in this regard since non-legislative rulings are what allowed late ballots to begin with.
Both of these statements by CNN are false claims of Trump lying.
More Votes Than People
CNN claims that Trump lied when he referred to Detroit's precinct irregularities. They base this claim on "former and current Michigan state officials" telling them:
these imbalances are often clerical errors which are addressed as part of the canvassing process and not indicative of widespread fraud
Clerical error or not, the imbalances did exist and Trump did not claim "widespread fraud". There is nothing offered by CNN to support a lie told by Trump, in fact they offer data supporting Trumps statement.
Insinuating Trump told a lie here is clearly disingenuous and a false claim.
Biden and the Keystone Pipeline
"In one of his first official acts -- which was incredible, because again, he talked about energy, he never said he was going to do this -- he canceled the Keystone pipeline"
This is claimed to be misleading because Biden's campaign "announced" that this would be done in May of 2020.
They are referring to a largely unreported statement made by Stef Feldman, who worked on the Biden campaign, implying that if elected, the Biden administration would revoke the Keystone permit.
However, Stef Feldman is not Joe Biden. Trump's statement is not a lie nor is it misleading, it's an accurate fact.
CNN's claim is simply false, as they themselves admit.
Biden and fracking
CNN claims Trump lied about Biden and fracking when he said Biden flip-flopped on banning fracking.
The truth is Biden made several public statements both in support of fracking and banning fracking but for proof from CNN themselves in support of Trump's statement, they published an article on October 23rd, 2020 outlining Biden's flip-flopping on the issue complete with video and references.
This is clearly a false claim as proven by CNN themselves.
Refugees
Your family still can't go out to eat at local restaurants, but Joe Biden is bringing in thousands upon thousands of refugees from all over the world. People that nobody knows anything about. We don't have crime records. We don't have health records.
CNN counters this with:
While it is true that Biden is planning to significantly increase the number of refugees the US accepts, it's wrong to suggest that the US doesn't know "anything about" the refugees it brings in. Refugees are rigorously vetted; the admissions process includes an interview assessment by US government personnel, medical screening, and various types of background checks, including fingerprint checks against databases maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense.
Trump Falsehood: Florida, Ohio, Iowa
"no president has ever lost an election after carrying Florida, Ohio and Iowa."
CNN bases this claim on the Fact that then candidate Richard Nixon lost to John F. Kennedy in 1960 after winning Florida, Ohio, and Iowa. However, Nixon wasn't "President" in 1960 and wouldn't become President until 1969.
Trump did not say "no person" or "no candidate", he said "no President" and he is absolutely correct. Not one single United States President has ever lost an election having won Florida, Ohio, and Iowa.
CNN stating this is a falsehood is a false claim. What Donald Trump said is a true and completely accurate statement.
Trump Falsehood: Deportations to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador
CNN debunks their own false claim as a false fact check themselves when calling Trump's statement a falsehood when he said the Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador refused:
...to take back illegal alien gang members, including MS-13
They stated there was no indication from ICE of "widespread problems" of deportation which notably wasn't anything Trump stated and then admits that:
ICE officials said there were some exceptions to the three countries' general cooperativeness
Trump did not state that these countries were uncooperative in general, he just stated specifics related to gang members, pointing out MS-13.
Notably, all three countries refusal to accept deportees had become so problematic in 2020 that Trump had to threaten Visa denials to press them to comply. These countries began using COVID-19 as an excuse to limit entry. (See reference 1)CNN claim is a false claim.
Trump's stance on the war in Iraq
According to Phrasemix, "I guess so" means:
...a very useful phrase for reluctantly agreeing with someone. "Reluctantly" agreeing means agreeing but also showing that you're not completely happy to agree. (See Ref. 2)
While it is impossible to know exactly what Trump was thinking, it certainly sounds as if he did not support invading Iraq and every public statement made by Trump in regards to the war in Iraq has been in opposition to it.
Additionally, Trump has always been an outspoken critic of George W Bush and at the time, he was also a Democrat and good friends with Bill and Hillary Clinton.
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| Image: NBC |
Given the foregoing, the presumption that Trump indeed did oppose the invasion of Iraq is far more believable than the contrary.
Regardless, there is no clear evidence either way other than those close to Trump who claim he oppose the war privately and as such, CNN is clearly making a false claim.
The trade deficit with China
CNN states:Trump repeated one of the most frequent false claims of his presidency -- his lie that, in the past, the US used to have a trade deficit of about $500 billion with China.
As quoted, CNN suggests that Trump is intentionally lying and this is premised with their version of the facts:
Trump was wrong again. The US had never had a $504 billion (or $500 billion) trade deficit with China before Trump took office. The record was set in the Trump era: a $380 billion deficit in goods and services trade with China in 2018.
They are both wrong. In 2018 the trade deficit according to the United States Census Bureau was nearly 419 billion. 418,953.9 to be exact (See Ref. 3).
This deficit has dropped over 100 billion dollars following the Trump tariffs. In 2020, the trade deficit with China equated to 108,153.4.
Whereas CNN is correct in that Trump did exaggerate this number (apparently citing the import trade which is over 500 billion), they make a false claim themselves in that the US did not report a dramatic difference of 380 billion.
US deaths in Afghanistan
Not one American soldier has been killed in Afghanistan in over a year
Basing this claim on the fact that three solders had died in non-combat related incidents, two of which were vehicle accidents. While true (Se Ref. 4), as CNN accurately points out, these were non-combat incidents. Trump did not say "casualties" or that not one soldier has "died", he specifically said "killed" which insinuates combat related deaths.
This same statement was reported by the Department of Defenses own Stars and Stripes newspaper.
Whereas CNN is correct in stating three solders died from unrelated non-combat accidents, they make a false claim in claiming Trump lied, or as they put it in this section, a falsehood.
Summary
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