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How does PolitiFact Georgia’s Truth-O-Meter work?
Our goal is to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution fact-check statements by local, state and national political leaders, including lobbyists and interest groups. We then rate them on the AJC Truth-O-Meter.
To fact-check a claim, reporters first contact the speaker to verify the statement. Next, the research begins. Reporters consult a variety of sources, including industry and academic experts. This research can take hours or a few days or even longer, depending on the claim. Reporters then compile the research into story form and include a recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling.
The fact check then moves on to a panel of veteran editors who debate the statement and the reporter’s recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling. The panel votes on a final ruling; majority prevails.
Hillary Clinton came to Atlanta on Thursday to raise campaign cash, but left without speaking to reporters.
She has, however, spent some time on the PolitiFact Truth-O-Meter over the years.
So we thought it would be a good time to review a few of those fact-checks on key issues broached by the former Secretary of State and Democratic candidate for president.
Summaries of those fact-checks follow.
Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, April 21st, 2015 in a roundtable at a community college
“The United States invented the community college. Nobody else had ever done anything like it.”
Hillary Clinton met with groups of community college students in both of the early caucus and primary states — Iowa and New Hampshire. And during those roundtables, Clinton sang the praises of community colleges for giving a new generation of students the skills to succeed in a changing job market.
At a session with students and teachers at NHTI-Concord’s Community College on April 21, 2015, she said, “The United States invented the community college. Nobody else had ever done anything like it.”
This echoed comments she made in a visit a few days earlier to Kirkwood Community College in Monticello, Iowa. Clinton told her Iowa audience that “community colleges” are a “uniquely American invention … something nobody else in the world did.”
We wondered if Clinton was correct that the United States was a trailblazer in this regard.
Other types of institutions in Europe share characteristics of community colleges.
Still, the specific U.S. system is was an innovation.
On balance, we rated her claim Mostly True.
Hillary Clinton on Thursday, July 17th, 2014 in an interview on PBS’ “The Charlie Rose Show”
The number of jobs created and people lifted out of poverty during Bill Clinton’s presidency was “a hundred times” what it was under President Ronald Reagan.
In an interview on PBS, Hillary Clinton said the number of jobs created and people lifted out of poverty during Bill Clinton’s presidency was “a hundred times” what it was under President Ronald Reagan.
Clinton’s record on these issues does outpace Reagan’s.But the differences are not like night and day, as her phrasing claims. Both presidents saw improvements.
We rated Clinton’s claim False.
Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, June 10th, 2014 in her book, “Hard Choices”
The U.S. military footprint in Africa is nearly nonexistent.”
One of the chapters in Hillary Clinton’s new book “Hard Choices” offers a rebuke of Republicans for criticizing the state Department response to Benghazi.
“Critics have questioned why the world’s greatest military force could not get to Benghazi in time to defend our people,” Clinton said. “Part of the answer is that, despite having established United States Africa Command in 2008, there just wasn’t much U.S. military infrastructure in place in Africa. Unlike in Europe and Asia, the U.S. military footprint in Africa is nearly nonexistent.”
There is a military presence in Africa, but it’s limited to one base with little combat infrastructure, and it’s commanded from a location that is not even located on the continent. That’s by design; the command’s planners sought to create a preventive, collaborative force rather than one that was heavily armed. Experts we interviewed took little issue with the overall impression of her comment, particularly as it describes the United States’ challenges in responding to a crisis in north Africa.
We rated Clinton’s statement True.
Hillary Clinton on Monday, June 9th, 2014 in an interview on ABC
“We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt.”
In 2014 doing publicity for her book Hard Choices, Clinton said that she and Bill Clinton “came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt.”
It’s possible that the Clintons’ liabilities exceeded their assets when Bill’s term ended in 2001, but they were able to muster a cash down payment of $855,000 and secure a $1.995 million mortgage.
Additionally, in the months following their departure from the White House, Bill Clinton regularly took in speaking fees of at least $125,000, and Hillary Clinton received $2.84 million in book royalties.
We rated that claim Mostly False.
See more fact-checks on Clinton, other politicians and newsmakers at politifact.com.
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