New York Times Makes Several Fales Claims Regarding Trump CPAC Speech

- March 01, 2021
Image: Insider

The New York Times published an article (See Ref. 1) claiming former President Donald Trump's speech at the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) conference in Florida contained many false and misleading statements.  

The article titled "Trump Revives Familiar Falsehoods in CPAC Speech" made several accurate fact checks, however, a few of these were false claims. 


Historic Lows on Illegal Immigrants

The New York Times (NYT) makes the claim that "Apprehensions of unauthorized migrants are the best gauge of illegal border crossings", however, it can be argued that actual illegal crossings are the best gauge for illegal crossings. 

Apprehensions are the best gauge of apprehending those who illegally crossed the border, but it is not a gauge of actual crossings. Moreover, it is certainly not a gauge for prevented crossings which is what Trump referred to in his speech when stating:

We brought illegal crossings to historic lows

NYT's premise is inadequate and as such, this is a false claim. Notably, this does not mean Trump is not making a false claim and we do not have access to data that would indicate any accuracy or the contrary of his claim, it only means that NYT is making a false claim by stating it is a false claim because they fail to present evidence supporting their claim. 

Dr. Fauci Flip-flops

In Trump's speech he stated: 

First Fauci said you don’t need masks, no masks, no good. Then all of a sudden, now he wants double masks.

NYT states that this is misleading and exaggerated and premise this conclusion with various references which indicate Dr. Fauci did indeed take these positions. They appear to suggest that the lack of knowledge in regards to COVID-19 erases the fact that these comments were made by Fauci, however, regardless of how this is spun, Dr. Fauci did indeed makes several and continued contradictory statements which include the recent "double mask" comment.

We certainly agree that COVID-19 was a new virus and everyone involved lacked the experience with it to accurately make any statement whatsoever and Dr. Fauci did the best possible job anyone could do. However, that does not make Trump's statement false or even misleading. 

It is exactly what happened. Stating otherwise is a false claim.


Deportation Pause

NYT claims Trump's statement on the ICE deportation pause was false when he stated:

He has effectively ordered a shutdown of ICE, halting virtually all deportations. Everyone, murderers, everybody.

 

Citing a recent ICE press release regarding the temporary objective NYT states that:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it would “focus the agency’s civil immigration enforcement and removal resources on threats to national security, border security and public safety.” That would include anyone convicted of an aggravated felony, such as murder

However, they fail to mention that this only applies to those who entered the United States on or after November 1st, 2020 or those who are known to be convicted of an aggravated felony. Any further investigation of anyone requires prior approval under the pause.

NYT does accurately state that ICE does other things which correctly addresses the claim "He has effectively ordered a shutdown of ICE", however, the falsely premise the conclusion of "halting virtually all deportations. Everyone, murderers, everybody." being false and as such, make a false claim. 


Border Security

NYT claims that Trump lied when stating Biden "wasn't talking" about border security basing the claim on a brief statement during the 2nd debate and mostly by the fact that Trump was well aware of Biden's intentions due to ads that were run by his campaign.  

While both assertions are accurate, Trump's statement is more accurate in that Biden's campaigning did not include border security issues.

Notably, NYT only called this misleading, however, Trump's statement is more accurate than NYT and as such, this is a false claim. 


Biden and fracking

NYT claims Trump lied about Biden and fracking when he said Biden flip-flopped on banning fracking. 

Biden made several public statements both in support of fracking and banning fracking. CNN published an article (See Ref 2) on October 23rd, 2020 outlining Biden's flip-flopping on the issue complete with video and references. 

This is false claim by NYT.

NYT goes on to make 3 additional false claims identical to those made by CNN that we have covered in another article (See Ref. 2) bring the total to 8 false claims made by NYT.

NYT made an additional 7 fact checks which appear to be accurate.


Summary

The NYT fact check appears to be about half accurate while the other half is comprised of false claims. 

Claim: "Trump Revives Familiar Falsehoods in CPAC Speech"

Fact Check Verdict:  8 FALSE CLAIMS    7 ACCURATE FACT CHECKS 

Claimant:  The New York Times


Additional Claimants: Linda Qiu