In a national address, President Donald Trump called on Congress to provide $5.7 billion for a border wall to address what he called a “crisis” on the border. The president made some false and misleading claims, and provided some facts without context.
A story shared on Facebook tells of CNN’s so-called “ratings disaster” — but it only uses select ratings information.
U.S. Border Patrol encountered 6,259 immigrants with criminal convictions, many of them for illegal entry charges, in fiscal 2018, according to the most recent statistics. Yet, White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney misleadingly claimed authorities “had arrested 17,000 criminals at the southern border.”
The RNC attacks a “Pelosi plan” as “immoral” because it “would spend $54 billion taxpayer dollars on foreign countries” but not address “the border crisis.” Yet that’s the same amount that Republican-controlled appropriations committees approved in June for the State Department’s operations, which includes foreign aid.
Democrats say the Trump administration is asking for more money for a border wall even though it has spent only 6 percent of the funds that Congress has appropriated for border security over the past two years. That’s misleading. About 60 percent has been awarded to contracts.
Social media posts wrongly claim Democrats voted against the Social Security cost-of-living increase for 2019. Adjustments to Social Security benefits are not decided by lawmakers.
Q: Is it accurate that “18 children died while in custody of Border Patrol” during the Obama administration?
A: No. Prior to two children’s deaths in December, it had been more than a decade since a child died while in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
This week, readers sent us comments about our story on the whoppers of 2018, and on vaccine safety and additives.
On the day he met with congressional leaders to discuss the budget stalemate, President Donald Trump repeated several false and misleading claims about the Southwest border and the wall he wants to build.
The Trump administration has inaccurately attacked the National Climate Assessment for lacking transparency and factual basis, and for focusing on an “extreme” climate scenario.