The political conventions are done, and the sprint to the general election has begun.
PolitiFact has been fact-checking Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton since their campaigns began.
Want to see how they fared? We picked out a few of our recent favorites. Abbreviated versions are below.
Our latest fact checks can be found at www.myajc.com/s/news/politifact/.
Want to comment on our rulings or suggest one of your own? Just go to our Facebook page
(www.facebook.com/politifact.georgia). You can also follow us on Twitter
(http://twitter.com/politifactga).
Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, February 17th, 2016 in a speech posted on Medium:
“Gun violence is by far the leading cause of death for young African American men, outstripping the next nine causes of death combined.”
We found the relevant data on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. And we collected data on the 10 most common causes of death for African-American men and boys between the ages of 15 and 24, for 2014.
As long as you define “young” as being between the ages of 15 and 24, Clinton’s statement is accurate, according to CDC data.
We rated the statement True.
Donald Trump on Thursday, July 21st, 2016 in the 2016 Republican National Convention:
“Forty-three million Americans are on food stamps.”
The Republican policy platform approved at the RNC recommends breaking the SNAP program away from the USDA and the farm bill, under which funding for the program is usually negotiated in Congress.
As an independent entity, SNAP would be more vulnerable to budget cuts.
The number of SNAP participants has been falling in recent years amid the economic recovery, but Trump is reciting the most recent participation.
We rated Trump’s claim True.
Donald Trump on Thursday, July 21st, 2016 in a speech at the Republican convention:
Says Hillary Clinton “has called for a radical 550 percent increase in Syrian … refugees … despite the fact that there’s no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they are or where they come from.”
The 550 percent figure is correct.
To say that there’s no way to screen them to find out who they are or where they come from ignores the extensive screening they undergo.
We rated the claim Half True.
Hillary Clinton on Sunday, June 5th, 2016 in a campaign speech:
“It is a fact that the economy does better when we have a Democrat in the White House.”
This is similar to her March statement in Phoenix that “The economy always does better when there’s a Democrat in the White House.”
Democratic presidents do have more Gross Domestic Product growth than Republicans, according to quarterly GDP data dating back to 1947.
But Clinton’s comments require several caveats. The current growth in the economy under Obama is lower than the Republican average. Factors such as oil prices also reflect the higher GDP growth under Democratic presidents. On top of that, comparing one period of time to another or one president to another can be problematic.
We rated Clinton’s claim in Sacramento Half True.
Donald Trump on Sunday, July 17th, 2016 in an interview on 60 Minutes:
“Hillary Clinton invented ISIS with her stupid policies. She is responsible for ISIS.”
There were several factors that contributed to the growing power of ISIS, but it’s misleading to pin the responsibility solely on Clinton.
For starters, the roots of ISIS trace back to 2004, when Bush was president and before Clinton was Obama’s secretary of state.
She did vote to authorize force in Iraq in 2002 while a senator, but that was advocated by the Bush administration and the vast majority of senators. The intervention in Libya, which she supported, did give ISIS an opening, but Trump is overstating her role by saying she is responsible for ISIS.
This claim is inaccurate. We rated it False.
Hillary Clinton on Saturday, July 2nd, 2016 in an interview on MSNBC:
Says she “never received nor sent any material that was marked classified” on her private email server while secretary of state.
Clinton has made this claim over and over again. An independent FBI investigation has found that to be inaccurate.
It’s important to remember that only “a very small number” of her emails, two, were marked classified when they were first sent, and just 110 out of the 30,000 she turned over were classified but unmarked.
But over the course of a year, Clinton and her staff have painted a picture of an email setup where absolutely zero classified information slipped through the cracks.
We rated this statement False.
Support real journalism. Support local journalism. Subscribe to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today. See offers.
Your subscription to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution funds in-depth reporting and investigations that keep you informed. Thank you for supporting real journalism.