2024 FactCheck: on Principles & Values


Donald Trump: FactCheck: Incorrectly claims "insurrection was on Nov. 3"

TRUMP: "The insurrection took place on November 3, Election Day. January 6 was the Protest!"

THE FACTS: There was no insurrection on Election Day. There was a free and fair election won by Democrat Joe Biden. Despite Trump's repeated claims, no evidence of widespread corruption has ever been found. Every state has certified its results as fair and accurate, and numerous state and federal election officials--including Trump's own attorney general at the time--have said there was no evidence of systemic fraud or errors of a scale that could have possibly change the outcome. Judges have widely agreed, even some appointed by Trump. The government's then-top cybersecurity and election officials declared the election "the most secure in American history" with "no evidence that any voting system deleted or changed votes, or was in any way compromised." Biden won by the same Electoral College margin that Trump did 2016. But Biden won the popular vote, getting 7 million-plus more votes than Trump.

Source: Fact-Check in USNWR: Jan. 6th Insurrection (2024 candidates) Oct 21, 2021

Donald Trump: FactCheck: Never ordered National Guard to Capitol on Jan. 6

[CNN Town Hall transcript]: Q: Your acting Defense secretary [on January 6, 2021]-- he says you never gave a formal order to deploy the National Guard. But when it came to that day --

TRUMP: Excuse me, just the opposite.

Q: Well, Chris Miller was your acting Defense secretary. He says you never gave that order.

TRUMP: He did not say that.

Q: He has testified that.

TRUMP: He did not say that.

Forbes Fact Check: Miller was asked to be precise. "Just so we're clear," an investigator asked him, "you did not have 10,000 troops, quote, 'to be on the ready,' prior to January 6th."

"A nonmilitary person probably could have some sort of weird interpretation, but no," Miller responded. "The answer to your question is no. That was not part of my plan or the department of defense's plan."

Source: Business Insider FactCheck: CNN Town Hall (2024 candidates) Jul 26, 2022

Donald Trump: The Big Lie was the Election itself

Why is it that the Unselect Committee of totally partisan political hacks, whose judgment has long ago been made, not discussing the rigged Presidential Election of 2020? It's because they don't have the answers or justifications for what happened. They got away with something, and it is leading to our Country's destruction. They want all conversation concerning the Election "Canceled." Just look at the numbers, they speak for themselves. They are not justifiable, so the complicit media just calls it the Big Lie, when in actuality the Big Lie was the Election itself.

[OnTheIssues FactCheck: Trump is referring to the House committee investigating the insurrection of January 6. As for the 2020 election, neither Trump nor any of his partisans have produced any evidence that it was in any way "rigged": numerous courts have studied several states results and found no valid evidence that would alter the election results].

Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on Jan. 6 Riot (2024 candidates) Jan 6, 2022

Donald Trump: FactCheck: No advice-of-counsel defense on election denial

[Trump said about election denialism in a 9/17/23 Meet the Press interview]:

TRUMP: You know who I listen to? Myself. I saw what happened. I watched that election, and I thought the election was over at 10 o'clock in the evening.

Q: Were you calling the shots, though, Mr. President, ultimately?

TRUMP: As to whether or not I believed it was rigged? Oh, sure. It was my decision.

Fact-Check by ABA Journal (August 3, 2023):John Lauro, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, is pointing to an advice-of-counsel defense in the case accusing Trump of trying to subvert the 2020 election results. Trump thought that he could ask then-Vice President Mike Pence to halt the count of presidential electors based on a "very detailed memorandum from a constitutional expert," Lauro told Fox News. Trump "got advice from counsel--very, very wise and learned counsel--on a variety of constitutional and legal issues," Lauro told NPR. "So it's a very straightforward defense." 

Source: ABA Journal FactCheck of 2024 Presidential primary hopefuls Aug 3, 2023

Donald Trump: Says "No time for retribution"; FactCheck: fundraises on it

I'm not going to have time for retribution. We're going to make this country so successful again, I'm not going to have time for retribution and remember this, our ultimate retribution is success. I tell you this, we're going to have a success that's so great that I won't have, hopefully, I won't have time for retribution. There won't be retribution. There'll be success.

Fact Check by Mediaite , 1/11/24: Trump's claim to be squarely focused on policy is questionable, given the fact that he has repeatedly declared himself the "retribution" of his supporters and threatened to weaponize the government against his political foes. Just hours before Trump's town hall, his campaign sent out a fundraising email that literally began with the proclamation "I AM YOUR RETRIBUTION!"

Source: Mediaite FactCheck: Fox news Town Hall 2024 pre-Iowa caucus Jan 10, 2024

Donald Trump: Questions Kamala Harris' eligibility for vice-presidency

Trump spent years pushing lies about the birthplace and presidential eligibility of President Barack Obama, the first Black president. [This week], he started floating a new birther lie about Sen. Kamala Harris, who, if elected, would be the first Black and Asian American vice president.

Trump was told about claims on "social media" that Harris might be ineligible to serve as president and vice president. He was then asked if he can definitively say that she meets the requirements. Trump referred to a lawyer who raised the issue, Chapman University professor John Eastman, as "very highly qualified."

Trump concluded his comments by saying, "I just heard about it, I'll take a look." Nonetheless, his just-asking-questions posture--which he also employed with his Obama birtherism--doesn't change the fact that he gave credence to the conspiracy theory by praising the author of the article, saying he had heard Harris is not eligible, and raising the possibility that Harris was not born in the US.

Source: CNN FactCheck of 2024 pre-Iowa caucus Jul 19, 2022

Donald Trump: January 6 commemoration is political theater: a distraction

Biden, who is destroying our Nation with insane policies of open Borders, corrupt Elections, disastrous energy policies, unconstitutional mandates, and devastating school closures, used my name today to try to further divide America. This political theater is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed.

[OnTheIssues FactCheck: In fact, Biden did not use Trump's name at all in his speech "I Fear For Our Democracy", referring 16 times to the "former president."]

Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on Jan. 6 Riot (2024 candidates) Jan 6, 2022

Donald Trump: Questions whether Kamala Harris is Black or Indian

Former President Trump used his turn before the nation's largest professional association of Black journalists to question the racial identity of his rival for the White House, telling a shocked National Association of Black Journalists conference that Vice President Kamala Harris "happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black."

It took Trump all of 10 days running in a head-to-head against the first woman and first incumbent of Black and Indian-American heritage to openly question her background: "I don't know. Is she Indian or is she Black?" Trump said, raising questions that echoed the ex-President's persistent & discredited questions about former President Barack Obama's place of birth. "I respect either one, but she obviously doesn't because she was Indian all the way and then all of the sudden she made a turn and she went, she became a Black person."

Harris has always identified as a product of a multicultural family, being born of Jamaican and Indian immigrants.

Source: Time magazine FactCheck on 2024 Presidential hopefuls Jul 31, 2024

Kamala Harris: FactCheck: Yes, has always claimed Black identity

At the National Association of Black Journalists conference, Trump said, "I don't know. Is she Indian or is she Black? She was Indian all the way and then all of the sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person." [Is that true? FactCheck from Time magazine]:

Harris has always identified as a product of a multicultural family, being born of Jamaican and Indian immigrants. Her single mother, a Hindu adherent, embraced Black culture. Harris went on to study at Howard University, a historically Black university, where she joined Alpha Kappa Alpha Inc., one of the nation's preeminent historically Black Greek-letter organizations.

"Today's tirade is simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump's MAGA rallies this entire campaign," a Harris Campaign spokesman said. The White House press secretary [reacted], "What you just read out to me is repulsive. It's insulting. No one has any right to tell someone who they are, how they identify," she said.

Source: Time magazine FactCheck on 2024 Presidential hopefuls Jul 31, 2024

Donald Trump: FactCheck: Putin and Russian trolling support Trump

Ilya Gambashidze and his company were named among the architects of a disinformation campaign known as Doppelganger that has for the past 2 years been targeting Ukraine & US elections. The Doppelganger campaign uses AI-generated content on dozens of fake websites designed to impersonate mainstream media outlets.

[Newly unsealed] court documents contain a treasure trove of documents, outlining the Kremlin's tactics to influence the outcome of the 2024 US election.

The records also reveal the plan was discussed at the highest levels of the Russian government, appearing to show that President Vladimir Putin may have been updated.

The orchestrators of the campaign targeted existing divisions within US society, using racist stereotypes and far-right conspiracies to target supporters of former president Donald Trump.

The plan lists a variety of targeted audiences, including residents of swing states, American Jews, "US citizens of Hispanic descent," and the "community of American gamers."

Source: Wired.com FactCheck on Foreign Influences in 2024 Pres. race Sep 5, 2024

Vladimir Putin: FactCheck: Putin and Russian trolling support Trump

Ilya Gambashidze and his company were named among the architects of a disinformation campaign known as Doppelganger that has for the past 2 years been targeting Ukraine & US elections. The Doppelganger campaign uses AI-generated content on dozens of fake websites designed to impersonate mainstream media outlets.

[Newly unsealed] court documents contain a treasure trove of documents, outlining the Kremlin's tactics to influence the outcome of the 2024 US election.

The records also reveal the plan was discussed at the highest levels of the Russian government, appearing to show that President Vladimir Putin may have been updated.

The orchestrators of the campaign targeted existing divisions within US society, using racist stereotypes and far-right conspiracies to target supporters of former president Donald Trump.

The plan lists a variety of targeted audiences, including residents of swing states, American Jews, "US citizens of Hispanic descent," and the "community of American gamers."

Source: Wired.com FactCheck on Foreign Influences in 2024 Pres. race Sep 5, 2024

Donald Trump: News media lying about 2020 election & Hunter Biden laptop

The coup-attempting former president seemed upset by the final question of the debate--about his refusal to honor the results of the 2020 election that he had lost and the resulting attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

[Norah O'Donnell in the debate transcript]: After the 2020 election, President Trump's campaign and others filed 62 lawsuits contesting the results. Judges looked at the evidence and said there was no widespread fraud. The Governors of every state in the nation, Republicans and Democrats, certified the 2020 election results and sent a legal slate of electors to Congress for January 6th.

"CBS is LYING AGAIN about the 2020 Election. Where is my apology from Leslie Stahl? She claimed that the Hunter Biden LAPTOP FROM HELL was not real, and that my Campaign wasn't spied on. CBS IS FAKE NEWS!" he posted on Truth Social.

Trump attacked moderator Norah O'Donnell for even asking: "Norah just made a statement about the Election, not a question. She's having a bad night!"

Source: Huffington Post Fact-Check on 2024 Vice Presidential debate Oct 1, 2024

Donald Trump: Hunter Biden verdict a distraction from Biden Crime Family

Trump Campaign Statement on the Hunter Biden Trial Verdict and Biden Crime Family: "This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine. Crooked Joe Biden's reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit."

FactCheck (CNN June 11, 2024): A federal jury has convicted Hunter Biden on all three federal felony gun charges he faced, concluding that he violated laws meant to prevent drug addicts from owning firearms. The conviction marks the first time a president's immediate family member has been found guilty of a crime during their father's term in office, though his crimes predate Joe Biden's tenure as president. The jury returned guilty verdicts on all three charges, which stemmed from a revolver Hunter Biden bought in October 2018.

Source: CNN FactCheck on Pres. 2024 press release: "Verdict" Mar 30, 2024

  • The above quotations are from Fact-checking on 2024 presidential, gubernatorial, and Senate campaigns.
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2024 Presidential contenders on Principles & Values:
  Candidates for President & Vice-President:
V.P.Kamala Harris (D-CA)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.(I-CA)
Chase Oliver(L-GA)
Dr.Jill Stein(D-MA)
Former Pres.Donald Trump(R-FL)
Sen.J.D.Vance(R-OH)
Gov.Tim Walz(D-MN)
Dr.Cornel West(I-NJ)

2024 presidential primary contenders:
Pres.Joe_Biden(D-DE)
N.D.Gov.Doug Burgum(R)
N.J.Gov.Chris_Christie(R)
Fla.Gov.Ron_DeSantis(R)
S.C.Gov.Nikki_Haley(R)
Ark.Gov.Asa_Hutchinson(R)
Former V.P.Mike Pence(R-IN)
U.S.Rep.Dean_Phillips(D-MN)
Vivek_Ramaswamy(R-OH)
S.C.Sen.Tim_Scott(R)
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Page last updated: Oct 27, 2024