TRUMP’S SPEECH: FACT-CHECKING
Despite promising “the truth, and nothing else” in his convention speech, the Republican presidential candidate presented the US with a series of previously debunked claims and some new ones on Thursday night
ON CRIME
TRUMP: “Homicides last year increased by 17% in America’s 50 largest cities. That’s the largest increase in 25 years”
FACTS: Trump’s claim about rising homicides appears to come from a Washington Post analysis published in January. While Trump rightly quotes part of the analysis, he omits that the statistical jump was so large because homicides are very low by historical standards
ON IMMIGRANTS
TRUMP: “The number of immigrants this year exceeds the total from 2015.They are being released into our communities with no regard for the impact on public safety”
FACTS: The pace of releasing immigrants is driven not by President Obama but by a court ruling. A federal judge ruled last year the government couldn't hold parents and children in jail for more than 20 days. An appeals court rolled that back this month, saying parents could be detained but children must be released
ON ISLAMIC STATE
TRUMP: "In 2009, pre-Hillary, IS was not even on the map."
FACTS: The group named IS (the Islamic State) did not formally exist under that name until 2013. However, it was formed out of al Qaeda in Iraq, which dates back to 2004. Around 2011, US troops began to withdraw from Iraq. In 2013, the group changed its name to the Islamic State
ON POLICE KILLINGS
TRUMP: “The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50% compared to this point last year”
FACTS: Not according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. It found the number of officers who died as of July 20 is up just slightly this year, at 67, compared with 62 through the same period last year
ON HILLARY CLINTON
TRUMP: “When a secretary of state illegally stores her emails on a private server, deletes 33,000 of them so the authorities can’t see her crime...lies about it in every different form and faces no consequence – I know that corruption has reached a level like never before”
FACTS: Clinton’s use of a private server to store her emails was not illegal under federal law. FBI director James Comey declined to refer the case for criminal prosecution to the justice department, instead accusing Clinton of extreme carelessness.