Snopes.com: on Principles & Values


Donald Trump: FactCheck: 46M watched SOTU; 98M watched Super Bowl

CLAIM: "More people watched President Trump's 2019 State of the Union address on television than watched Super Bowl Super Bowl LIII."

FACT-CHECK: FALSE. The size of the crowds attending his public events has always been supremely important to President Donald Trump, so much so that he has been known to inflate attendance numbers on more than one occasion. The tendency for exaggeration seems to have rubbed off on some of Trump's supporters, who posted on social media after his 5 February 2019 State of the Union (SOTU) address that more people had watched the president's speech on TV than had watched the 2019 Super Bowl (which is typically the most-watched television broadcast in any given year).

2019's Patriots vs. Rams match-up drew a total viewing audience of 98.2 million watchers--more than twice the viewership of any State of the Union address (including Trump's previous outing) from the past decade. [Post-SOTU reports pegged viewership of SOTU 2019 at 46 million].

Source: Snopes.com Fact-Check on 2019 State of the Union address Feb 6, 2019

Kamala Harris: FactCheck: Constitutionally eligible to run for presidency

In January 2019, Jacob Wohl--a Twitter political troll--dipped his toes into the topic of constitutional law, asserting his view that 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris was constitutionally ineligible to hold the office of President of the United States: "Kamala Harris is NOT eligible to be President. Her father arrived from Jamaica in 1961--mother from India arrived in 1960. Neither parent was a legal resident for 5 years prior to Harris's birth, a requirement for naturalization. Kamala was raised in Canada."

The constitutional requirements for the office of U.S. president have nothing to do with the naturalization status of one's parents, but do include requirement of 14 years' residency in the US. Though Harris spent her high school years in Canada, she has been resident in the US since 1982. She was born in Oakland California, in 1964, and is a natural-born citizen, fulfilling all the requirements to be constitutionally eligible to run for president.

Source: Snopes.com Fact-Check on 2020 presidential hopefuls Jan 28, 2019

Barack Obama: FactCheck: Did not say “I will stand with the Muslims”

Claim: E-mail lists racist passages taken from Barack Obama’s books.

Origins: These cherry-picked statements are presented devoid of context, and some are reworded from the original.

“I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”

This statement is a rewording of a passage from page 261 of The Audacity of Hope. The original contains no specific mention of “Muslims”:

“In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a mor urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific reassurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

Source: AdWatch of 2008 campaign emails: analysis by snopes.com Aug 22, 2008

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2020 Presidential contenders on Principles & Values:
  Democrats running for President:
Sen.Michael Bennet (D-CO)
V.P.Joe Biden (D-DE)
Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I-NYC)
Gov.Steve Bullock (D-MT)
Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN)
Sen.Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Secy.Julian Castro (D-TX)
Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI)
Rep.John Delaney (D-MD)
Rep.Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI)
Sen.Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Gov.Deval Patrick (D-MA)
Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
CEO Tom Steyer (D-CA)
Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Marianne Williamson (D-CA)
CEO Andrew Yang (D-NY)

2020 Third Party Candidates:
Rep.Justin Amash (L-MI)
CEO Don Blankenship (C-WV)
Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI)
Howie Hawkins (G-NY)
Gov.Gary Johnson(L-NM)
Howard Schultz(I-WA)
Gov.Jesse Ventura (I-MN)
Republicans running for President:
Sen.Ted Cruz(R-TX)
Gov.Larry Hogan (R-MD)
Gov.John Kasich(R-OH)
V.P.Mike Pence(R-IN)
Gov.Mark Sanford (R-SC)
Pres.Donald Trump(R-NY)
Rep.Joe Walsh (R-IL)
Gov.Bill Weld(R-MA & L-NY)

2020 Withdrawn Democratic Candidates:
Sen.Stacey Abrams (D-GA)
Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC)
Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Sen.Mike Gravel (D-AK)
Sen.Kamala Harris (D-CA)
Gov.John Hickenlooper (D-CO)
Gov.Jay Inslee (D-WA)
Mayor Wayne Messam (D-FL)
Rep.Seth Moulton (D-MA)
Rep.Beto O`Rourke (D-TX)
Rep.Tim Ryan (D-CA)
Adm.Joe Sestak (D-PA)
Rep.Eric Swalwell (D-CA)
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