Barack Obama in 2020 FactCheck


On Government Reform: FactCheck: Senate GOP blocked over 100 open judgeships

Trump said, "President Obama [& Biden] left me 128 judges to fill. When you leave office, you don't leave any judges. Maybe he got complacent." Is that true that Trump could appoint so many judges because President Obama left the positions unfilled? We checked, and found that while it's true that Trump inherited 128 open judge positions, that was because the Senate blocked Obama's appointments.

Excerpts from The Hill e-zine, March 29, 2018: "Republicans took control of the Senate in 2014 during Obama's last two years in office and did not confirm many of his nominees. The Senate's top Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, teamed up to block Democratic efforts to push forward Obama's nominees, slowing down confirmations by the most in six decades. Most notably, McConnell refused to hold a confirmation hearing on Obama's nominee for Supreme Court justice, Merrick Garland. The vacancies left behind by the Obama administration were not by choice.

Source: The Hill e-zine Fact-Check on First 2020 Presidential Debate Sep 29, 2020

On Health Care: 2014: Africa travel ban to battle Ebola outbreak

When the global medical community was responding to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, Trump was one of the most prominent US figures wrongly disputing scientific consensus about the virus and sowing disinformation. On October 2, 2014, Trump tweeted that "Ebola is much easier to transmit than the CDC and government representatives are admitting. Spreading all over Africa-and fast. Stop flights."

In an October 6, 2014 appearance on Fox & Friends, a clip of Fauci was played, expressing his opposition to closing travel with West Africa. "Well, I think it's ridiculous," Trump said. "But as far as you know, giving supplies and providing medical supplies, I'm all for that. And even if doctors want to go there and help, I think I'm all for that too. But you know, they do have to suffer consequences."

Source: CNN K-File FactCheck on 2020 Trump Administration May 30, 2020

The above quotations are from Fact-checking on 2020 Presidential, Gubernatorial, and Senatorial campaigns.
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Page last updated: Dec 01, 2021