This week’s fact-checking video by CNN’s Jake Tapper concerns several claims by President Donald Trump to justify his national emergency declaration for a border wall.
Several Democrats have claimed that the president’s emergency declaration could “raid” or “take money away” from military pay and pensions to fund construction of the border wall. But the money is actually leftover funding due to lower-than-expected recruits and fewer early retirements.
With the Senate set to vote on whether to oppose his border emergency declaration, President Donald Trump has called on Republicans to close ranks on what he says is an “80 percent positive issue.” That’s spin.
In declaring a national emergency at the Southwest border, President Donald Trump strung together a long list of false, misleading and unsupported claims on illegal immigration, drug smuggling, human trafficking, trade deficits and other issues.
The president’s falsehoods on El Paso crime continued, and he misled the crowd on the trade deficit and South Korea’s contribution to U.S. military costs.
Despite claims made in a viral meme, Lou Dobbs of Fox Business Network has not reported that “Mexican drug cartels are paying Pelosi and Schumer millions to keep border open.”
A false claim circulating online states that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — in exchange for a border wall — “demands welfare” for immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. That story originated on a self-described satire site before spreading elsewhere online without any disclaimer.
President Donald Trump falsely claimed that El Paso went from “one of the most dangerous cities in the country to one of the safest cities in the country overnight” after “a wall was put up” along the Mexico border.