To tell the truth
Six examples of when the story didn’t add up
From Inauguration Day on, President Trump and his administration have made assertions that turned out to be untrue. Examples:
White House spokesman Sean Spicer: “That was the largest audience to witness an inauguration, period.”
Photographs shot from the top of the Washington Monument at similar times showed a significantly smaller crowd than at Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009.
Trump: Three million illegal ballots were cast and cost him the popular vote.
Studies have found no evidence of widespread voter fraud. One report found 56 cases of non-citizens voting from 2000 to 2011.
Trump tweet: “Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”
Former FBI director James Comey and former national intelligence director James Clapper say it didn’t happen.
Trump tweet: “This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.”
Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers testified to Congress that leadership in Russia did try to influence the election in Trump’s favor.
Trump: The United States was “sending an armada,” led by the Carl Vinson strike group, to counter the North Korean threat.
A Navy photograph posted online showed the Carl Vinson near Indonesia, where it was conducting exercises with the Royal Australian Navy.
Spicer: The decision to fire Comey “was all him,” referring to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. “No one from the White House. That was a DOJ decision.”
Two days later, Trump said, “I was going to fire — my decision. ... I was going to fire, regardless of (Rosenstein’s) recommendation.”