Here we go again: opposition researchers spinning sensational-sounding claims from flimsy facts. This time it’s a Democratic ad claiming GOP Rep. Joe Heck of Nevada voted “23 times” against banning terrorists from buying guns.
This week’s fact-checking video by CNN’s Jake Tapper reviews Sen. Marco Rubio’s claim about the U.S. government’s terrorist watch lists.
Several Republican presidential candidates cite Ted Kennedy as a reason why they oppose President Obama’s proposal to block the sale of guns to known or suspected terrorists on the no-fly list. But the TSA says it’s a “myth” that Kennedy was on the no-fly list.
Sen. Marco Rubio vastly overstated the number of Americans on government terrorist watch lists. He said there are “700,000 Americans on some watch list,” but the number is actually in the tens of thousands.
Real estate developer Donald Trump’s speech announcing he is running for the Republican nomination for president contained a number of false and misleading statements.
Sen. Lindsey Graham has joined the field of candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination. Graham, who has served in Congress for more than 20 years, made the announcement today in his home state of South Carolina.
In this edition of Extras, we look at morphing presidents, a piece of health care pie chart and an ad that checks itself.
Mighty Morphin’ Presidents
In Sunday’s New York Times, the American Civil Liberties Union took out a full page ad urging President Obama to try Sept. 11 defendants in criminal court, as opposed to military tribunals. The ad even included a stark graphic morphing Obama’s face with former President Bush’s:
But the ad cites a questionable statistic.
The latest anti-Obama rant to show up in e-mail inboxes accuses President Obama of an “unholy” and “anti-American” series of omissions, which it claims no other president has committed. But the fact is, Obama was just doing the same thing that Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush had done in similar circumstances.
It’s a brief e-mail that first showed up in our inbox Jan. 5:
Subject: Obama Trifecta
President Obama just completed the UNHOLY and ANTI-AMERICAN TRIFECTA:
1st president in 110 years to miss the annual Army-Navy Football Game.
Q: Did Muslim terrorists stage a "dry run" on AirTran flight 297?
A: The airline and an eyewitness say this e-mailed claim is "an urban legend" spread by persons who "live in a fantasy world."
Late last week Huffington Post broke the news that a massive robo-call campaign linking Obama and former Weather Underground activist Bill Ayers was targeting voters in numerous states, including Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Maine. Paid for by the McCain-Palin campaign and the Republican National Committee, the call tells listeners that “Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge’s home, and killed Americans.”
Is the caller really meaning to imply that Obama “worked closely”