Last week PolitiFact considered a Georgia congressional candidate's characterization of his national-security experience, President Trump's description of Obama's economic stimulus and Trump's boast that he had received environmental awards. Our findings varied. Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below. Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com.
“I’ve got five years of experience as a national security staffer in the U.S. Congress.”
— Jon Ossoff on Feb. 20 in a campaign appearance
Georgia's special election to succeed Republican Tom Price in the U.S. House has drawn national attention. Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff said he had "served Georgia as a national security staffer in Congress for five years before leaving government for the private sector." Opponents noted, however, Ossoff had worked on Capitol Hill between 2007 and 2012 but only earned his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University in 2009. That would make him a pretty junior staffer to be touting his national security experience.
Ossoff did work as a congressional staffer for Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., five years, starting as a part-time legislative correspondent, working 25-30 hours a week for two years while while attending Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. He spent the summer of 2009 traveling, returned to work as a legislative assistant that August, ran Johnson’s re-election campaign from April to July 2010, then came back to Johnson’s Capitol office and received a top-secret security clearance in March 2012 for work related to the annual National Defense Authorization Act.
Our ruling
Ossoff said, “I’ve got five years of experience as a national security staffer in the U.S. Congress.” This description certainly applies to his final three years on Capitol Hill, but whether it applies to his first two years working for the lawmaker is less clear-cut. Ossoff at the time was an undergraduate student holding a part-time position that, in the Capitol Hill pecking order, was entry-level. That adds relevant context, and he left it out.
We rate the statement Half True.
“You know, there was a very large infrastructure bill that was approved during the Obama administration, a trillion dollars. Nobody ever saw anything being built. I mean, to this day, I haven’t heard of anything that’s been built. They used most of that money on social programs, and we want this to be on infrastructure.”
President Donald Trump at a town hall meeting Tuesday for CEOs.
President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, more commonly known as the stimulus. Supporters give it a measure of credit for making the Great Recession milder than it could have been. But critics, including President Trump, say it was a whole lot of nothing.
Our ruling
Trump said, "There was a very large infrastructure bill that was approved during the Obama administration, a trillion dollars. Nobody ever saw anything being built." His characterization is flawed.
The “shovel-ready” aspects of the stimulus tended to attract the most attention. But if you look at how the funds were allocated, only a fraction was ever intended to go to infrastructure. The biggest portion of the law consisted of tax cuts. As for the infrastructure part, it did produce results, even if they were somewhat more underwhelming than its backers had initially hoped.
We rate the statement Mostly False.
“I’ve won awards on environmental protection. I’m a big believer, believe it or not. But we want that kind of protection. We want clean air and we want clean water, but we shouldn’t have to get the approvals from 16 different agencies for almost the same thing.”
President Donald Trump on April 4.
The White House pointed to two awards that include Trump's name. One thanked him personally for donating over 400 acres of undeveloped land to the New York State Park System. The other recognized the environmental stewardship of a Trump golf course in New Jersey operated by a well known manager, and cited Trump's leadership in general terms.
Our ruling
Trump can firmly claim one personal award and one where his role and the accorded honor are more diffuse.
The personal recognition of Trump is thin for one of those two. We rate this claim Half True.
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