Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and a Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate from Georgia.
They all took a recent ride on the AJC Truth-O-Meter, courtesy of PolitiFact and PolitiFact Georgia.
Want to see how they fared? Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below.
Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com/georgia/.
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Georgia Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Allen Buckley on Wednesday, July 13th, 2016 in a campaign statement:
“U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson has voted for $7 trillion of our national debt!”
Isakson did indeed vote to raise the debt ceiling, so Buckley has a valid point.
But the alternative would be risking a government shutdown. That said, Buckley also pointed at that Isakson voted for some of the very programs that bloated the debt in the first place.
We rated Buckley’s claim Mostly True.
Donald Trump on Sunday, August 7th, 2016 in a tweet:
Says the media distorted what happened with a baby at his rally
Many media outlets reported that Trump “threw out” or “ejected” a crying baby from a campaign event in Virginia, based on his commentary on the incident.
But this isn’t true. Trump’s comments came as the mother was already voluntarily exiting from the rally.
We rated Trump’s claim True.
Donald Trump on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2016 in a rally in Daytona Beach, Fla.:
Says he saw videotape “of the people taking the money off the plane” to pay ransom to Iran for hostages.
Trump and his campaign now acknowledge that they were referring to a different video — of the hostages themselves being freed.
That video did not include any transfer of money from a plane.
We rated Trump’s claim False.
Hillary Clinton on Friday, August 5th, 2016 in remarks at journalists’ convention:
Undocumented immigrants “pay $12 billion a year into Social Security.”
The Social Security Administration estimates about $12 billion was paid into the administration’s trust funds from earnings of unauthorized workers in 2010 (after deducting about $1 billion from possible benefits paid out). This number includes contributions on behalf of employees as well as their employers. Workers and employers pony up about the same amount into the system.
A calculation by another group excluded employer contributions and came up with a total of $7 billion paid into the system by undocumented immigrants.
Clinton’s statement is partially accurate, but leaves out important details.
We rated Clinton’s statement Half True.
Hillary Clinton on Sunday, July 31st, 2016 in an interview on “Fox News Sunday”:
Says, regarding the presence of classified information in her email, FBI Director James “Comey said my answers were truthful, and what I’ve said is consistent with what I have told the American people.”
A reasonable person would interpret Clinton’s statement to mean that Comey has endorsed her public remarks about her email. This is not the case.
Talking specifically about Clinton’s closed-door FBI interview, Comey said there is “no basis to conclude she lied to the FBI” about her email practices. But Comey has specifically declined to comment on whether Clinton’s public remarks have been accurate.
Further, while not explicitly rebuking Clinton’s public comments, Comey highlighted a major problem with them.
Clinton repeatedly said she did not have any classified information whatsoever in her email, marked or unmarked. After the FBI investigation, including the interview with Clinton, Comey said she unequivocally did.
We rated Clinton’s claim Pants on Fire.
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