Mike Pence in 2016 FactCheck


On War & Peace: FactCheck: Pence says pressure Assad; Trump focuses on ISIS

Q: What would you do about Syria and the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo? And I want to remind you what your running mate said. He said provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength and that if Russia continues to be involved in air strikes along with the Syrian government forces of Assad, the US should be prepared to use military force to strike the military targets of the Assad regime.

TRUMP: He and I haven't spoken, and I disagree.

Q: You disagree with your running mate?

TRUMP: I think you have to knock out ISIS. Right now, Syria is fighting ISIS We have people that want to fight both at the same time.

[OnTheIssues note: Russia & the Assad regime are bombing both ISIS & the Syrian rebels; the US is bombing ISIS but supports the Syrian rebels].

TRUMP: But Syria is no longer Syria. Syria is Russia and it's Iran, who [Hillary] made strong and Kerry and Obama made into a very powerful nation. I believe we have to worry about ISIS before we can get too much more involved.

Source: OnTheissues FactCheck on Second 2016 Presidential Debate Oct 9, 2016

On Jobs: Indiana's unemployment rate was cut in half since 2013

Pence asserted, "In the state of Indiana, we've cut unemployment in half; unemployment doubled when [Kaine] was governor." Are both true?

Fact Check: While the claim is factual, Kaine's gubernatorial tenure ended in 2010 (the year when the national unemployment rate peaked) and Pence's gubernatorial tenure began in 2013 (i.e., more than 2 years after the Great Recession officially ended and the national economy was expanding).

Source: FactCheck.org on 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate Oct 4, 2016

On War & Peace: Hillary Clinton left Americans in harm's way in Benghazi

Mike Pence said, "It was Hillary Clinton who left Americans in harm's way in Benghazi and after four Americans fell, said: 'What difference, at this point, does it make?' "

THE FACTS: At no point has Clinton said--or even implied--that it makes no difference whether Americans died in the Benghazi attacks. Clinton's well-known quote came at a January 2013 Senate hearing when she was pressed about the motive for the attack. Her point was that it was less important to understand the reason for the attack than in knowing what to do about it. Republicans have persistently criticized the Obama administration for initially and wrongly blaming the attack on an anti-US protest.

Whether Clinton as secretary of state acted properly in that crisis is a matter of enduring debate. But she was not, as Pence suggested, cold about the fact that Americans died.

Source: ABC News Fact-Check on 2016 Republican National Convention Jul 21, 2016

The above quotations are from Fact-checking on 2016 presidential, gubernatorial, and Senate campaigns.
Click here for other excerpts from Fact-checking on 2016 presidential, gubernatorial, and Senate campaigns.
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Page last updated: Dec 08, 2018