OnTheIssues Fact Checking: on Environment


Donald Trump: FactCheck: Yes, hybrid family vehicles are available in US

Trump complained in his book "Time to Get Tough": "Obama's total cluelessness was revealed at one speaking event. A man told Obama that he and his wife need a bigger vehicle because they have 8 kids. So what did Obama do? He told the guy, 'Buy a hybrid van.' Just one problem: they don't exist in America. The president cannot even speak intelligently without a teleprompter." (p. 18).

Is that true? We researched whether any hybrid vans are available in America. Technically, Trump is correct; but in the car showroom, Obama is correct.

Trump is technically correct if one differentiates "vans" from "SUVs". Hybrid SUVs ARE available in America: the Chevy Tahoe and the Toyota Highlander both seat families of 7. There are hybrid vans available outside the US: the Toyota Estima (seats 7) is a hybrid available in Japan and Hong Kong. We would interpret Obama's statement as meaning "encourage Toyota to import that van if the SUV won't suit you." We would not interpret Obama's comment as "clueless

Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on Time to Get Tough, by Donald Trump Sep 6, 2019

Donald Trump: FactCheck: Alabama WAS in hurricane risk, before Trump said

On 9/1/19, with Hurricane Dorian approaching, Trump tweeted, "In addition to FL--SC, NC, GA, and AL, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated." The National Weather Service (NWS) replied, "Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian." On 9/4, Trump presented an NWS hurricane route prediction from 8/30, highlighting Alabama with a black Sharpie marker (hence "SharpieGate)", and charged "fake news." Who's right?

We checked the NWS maps, and several from 8/30 indeed showed Alabama in the hurricane's predicted path. For example, from the NWS: "Aug. 30, 5 p.m., advisory #026: The track forecast cone just clips the southeast corner of Alabama." The hurricane turned north instead, so by 8/31 Alabama was no longer at risk.

By 9/1, Trump was citing outdated information, but Trump was correct in saying that Alabama had been at-risk in some models. When Trump went on TV with his Sharpie-enhanced map, he showed a prediction that was outdated by 9/1--but Trump did not falsify any NWS maps.

Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on Trump "SharpieGate" Twitter posting Sep 6, 2019

  • The above quotations are from Presidential Primary Fact Checking by OnTheIssues.org.
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2024 Presidential contenders on Environment:
  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)
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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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