Last week we looked at three statements that all missed the mark pretty widely on truthfulness: the White House press secretary’s statement about Hitler’s use of chemical weapons, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ claim about low voter turnout in the recent presidential election, and President Donald Trump’s assertion about requiring all pipelines to be made of American steel.
Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below. Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com.
Adolf Hitler “didn’t even sink to the level of using chemical weapons … He was not using the gas on his own people the same way that (Bashar al-)Assad is doing.”
— Sean Spicer on April 11 in comments to reporters
Sean Spicer turned heads discussing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s attacks on his own people. “You had someone who is despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons,” Spicer said. His explanation that Hitler didn’t use them on his “own people” overlooks that German Jews were citizens until they had their rights stripped away by Hitler’s totalitarian regime.
After the press briefing, Spicer said: "In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust. I was trying to draw a distinction of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centers. Any attack on innocent people is reprehensible and inexcusable."
Our ruling
Spicer said Hitler never used chemical weapons. The Nazi regime brought an industrial approach to mass murder of its citizens and others it sought to exterminate. The construction of gas chambers and the use of deadly gas was fundamental to that strategy. While the convention against chemical weapons did not exist in World War II, the modern definition would encompass the Nazi gas chambers.
We rate this claim Pants on Fire.
“When Trump won, we had the lowest voter turnout in 20 years.”
— Bernie Sanders on Sunday, April 16th, in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union”
Was voter turnout in the 2016 presidential election the lowest in decades? Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who ran in the Democratic primaries before losing the nomination to Hillary Clinton, said so on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, April 16.
He’s right about the midterm election of 2014, but he’s far off regarding turnout for the 2016 presidential election.
The United States Elections Project run by political scientist Michael McDonald of the University of Florida has compiled data on voter turnout going back to the 1700s.
Here’s the rundown: The final turnout figure for 2016 — 59.3 percent — amounted to a middling result for the past 20-year period, the time frame Sanders used. It was lower than in 2004 and 2008, but it exceeded the turnout rate for 1996, 2000, and 2012. Looking back even further, the 2016 turnout rate is actually even more impressive. You’d have to go back to 1968 to find a year other than 2004 and 2008 in which voter turnout was higher than it was in 2016.
Our ruling
Sanders said that “when Trump won, we had the lowest voter turnout in 20 years.” That’s not correct. In 2016, turnout was lower than it was for two of the elections in that span (2004 and 2008) but higher than it was for three others (1996, 2000 and 2012).
We rate his statement False.
“All pipelines that are coming into this country from now on has to be American steel.”
— Donald Trump on Tuesday, April 18th, 2017 in a speech in Milwaukee
While mentioning the Keystone pipeline, which still needs approvals before it can be built, Trump said “all pipelines that are coming into” the United States have to be made with American steel.
A memorandum on construction of American pipelines that Trump signed in January calls for U.S oil pipelines to use American steel in their construction. But it is not an order carrying strict requirements. The memo directs the commerce secretary to "develop a plan under which all new pipelines, as well as retrofitted, repaired, or expanded pipelines, inside the borders of the United States," use materials and equipment produced in the United States, "to the maximum extent possible and to the extent permitted by law."
Our rating
While mentioning the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, Trump said: “All pipelines that are coming into this country from now on has to be American steel.” Though his memorandum could put pressure on pipeline companies to use American steel, it does not contain any requirements that only American steel be used.
We rate Trump's statement False.
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