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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.
PolitiFact last week fact-checked a claim by the former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich that money the Clinton foundation took from foreign governments while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state “is clearly illegal …”
Clinton herself was back for a spin on the AJC Truth-O-Meter with a recent statement she made about the gap in pay between men and women in the U.S.
We also checked out a claim about the size of the Army, Navy and Air Force and a statement on the procedure for arresting a sitting Georgia sheriff.
Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below.
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Newt Gingrich on Sunday, April 26th, 2015 in comments on ABC’s “This Week”
The money the Clinton Foundation took from from foreign governments while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state “is clearly illegal. … The Constitution says you can’t take this stuff.”
At issue in conservative author Peter Schweizer’s forthcoming book Clinton Cash are donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Foundation during the four years she served as secretary of state.
Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich says the donations are “clearly illegal” under federal law.
Some libertarian-minded constitutional law experts say it very well could violate the constitution. Others were skeptical.
What’s clear is there is room for ambiguity, and the donations are anything but “clearly illegal.”
The reality is this a hazy part of U.S. constitutional law.
Gingrich’s statement is rated Mostly False.
Hillary Clinton on Thursday, April 23rd, 2015 in a speech at the Women in the World conference
“The United States is 65th out of 142 nations and other territories on equal pay.”
Hillary Clinton gave an address recently at the Women in the World Summit and touched on the gap in pay between men and women in the United States.
It’s “hard to believe that so many women are still paid less for men than the same work, with even wider gaps for women of color. If you doubt what I say, look to the World Economic Forum, hardly a hotbed of feminist thought,” Clinton, an announced candidate for president in 2016, said at the April 23, 2015, summit. “Their rankings show that the United States is 65th out of 142 nations and other territories on equal pay.”
She has cited a finding from one international survey of executives. But other data — including actual wage data from more than two dozen advanced countries — shows the United States second only to Germany in the lack of gender-based wage discrimination for men and women who hold the same job.
Clinton’s statement takes things out of context.
We rated it Half True.
David Perdue on Wednesday, April 27th, 2015 in his debut Senate floor speech
The United States is “about to have the smallest Army since before WWII, the smallest Navy since WWI and the smallest Air Force ever.”
David Perdue, Georgia’s newest U.S. senator and a former Fortune 500 CEO, talked about his fiscal priorities and concerns with the Obama administration’s foreign policy, before tying the two together with an oft-repeated claim.
The United States is “about to have the smallest Army since before WWII, the smallest Navy since WWI and the smallest Air Force ever,” Perdue said in his first speech on the Senate floor on April 27 . “This is simply unacceptable.”
Republican leaders have made similar claims as a talking point against President Barack Obama since Mitt Romney’s failed presidential bid in 2012.
Here’s what our research shows:
The Army: Under sequestration cuts – which lawmakers have so far kept from hitting the military – the number would drop to 420,000. But today, the Army has about 490,000 soldiers. That is a down from the 570,000 soldiers serving during the height of recent wars - but still not as small 460,000 soldiers serving at the turn of the century, after the end of the Cold War but before the 9/11 terror attacks. And it’s more than double the 269,000 Army soldiers in 1940, before a draft was enacted.
The Navy and Air Force: They are measured in terms of ships and aircraft available for deployment. Navy had 231 deployable ships, two years before the U.S. became part of World War II. Projected cuts have not hit the Navy, which has 273 deployable ships today.
The Air Force’s history dates back to 1947, when it became a separate military branch after being part of the Army during World War II. A 2012 fact check on the same claim from Mitt Romney found that the Air Force had about 6,000 aircraft as of 2009. That was the lowest number since 1950, the earliest year available.
We rated Perdue’s claim Half True.
Danny Porter on Monday, May 4th, 2015 in an interview with AM750 and 95.5 FM News/Talk WSB radio
“A sitting sheriff cannot be charged except by a warrant issued by a Superior Court judge.”
Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill called 911 Sunday to report that he had shot a female acquaintance in a model home near Lawrenceville.
The woman was rushed to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Hill was not talking to police. And the unusual circumstances had investigators and Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter figuring how to proceed.
Georgia law says “a sitting sheriff cannot be charged except by a warrant issued by a Superior Court judge,” Porter told AM750 and 95.5 FM News/Talk WSB, a news partner of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, during an interview Monday morning.
The Georgia Sheriffs’ Association pointed us to the law, which has been around since the 1800s and applies to far more people than just sheriffs.
It states: “Any warrant for the arrest of a peace officer, law enforcement officer, teacher, or school administrator for any offense alleged to have been committed while in the performance of his or her duties may be issued only by a judge of a superior court, a judge of a state court, or a judge of a probate court.”
Porter’s overarching point is that under Georgia law sheriffs are treated differently when they may have broken the laws they’re supposed to uphold. On that point, Porter is correct.
But on the specifics, he’s off base. Warrants can be issued against sheriffs by the state court and probate courts judges, not just superior court judges.
We rated Porter’s statement Half True.
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