Politics
AP FACT CHECK: Fabrications of Trump and his critics
Published
8 years agoon
By
Willie DavidWASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump fabricated history when it came to assessing the 2016 election, his achievements on the opioid epidemic and a congressman’s voting record on taxes. Critics of his immigration policy got it wrong when they accused the Trump administration of taking 1,500 immigrant children from their parents and losing them.
The week in review:
TRUMP: “African-Americans vote for Democrats for the most part. You know, vast majority. They’ve been doing it for over 100 years.” — Nashville rally Tuesday.
THE FACTS: Not 100 years or anything close. Most African-Americans for much of U.S. history were disenfranchised, then prevented from voting until the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which outlawed racial discrimination in voting. Before then, those who could vote mostly backed Republicans until the 1932 election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose New Deal programs of economic relief helped spur a longer-term shift of black support from Republican to Democrat.
TRUMP: “Some of these states, I won by 44 points.” — Nashville rally.
THE FACTS: Not some. One. He won Wyoming with 70 percent of the vote in 2016, exceeding Hillary Clinton’s 22 percent by nearly 48 points, according to Associated Press election data. His next biggest win came in West Virginia, where he won by 42 points.
Nationwide, Trump lost the popular vote. He garnered 46 percent to Clinton’s 48 percent, but ultimately won the election based on an Electoral College system in which the votes of smaller rural states that generally backed Trump are weighted more heavily than big, Democratic-leaning states such as New York and California.
Under the U.S. system of electing presidents, Electoral College votes are set equal to the number of U.S. representatives in each state plus its two senators.
TRUMP: “A.P. has just reported that the Russian Hoax Investigation has now cost our government over $17 million, and going up fast. No Collusion, except by the Democrats!” — tweet Friday.
THE FACTS: The AP did not report the cost is going up fast. It cited a Justice Department finding that the investigation over 10 months has cost $16.7 million, which Trump rounded up to $17 million. Of the costs assigned to the investigation, $9 million would have been spent even absent the investigation, the department said.
TRUMP: “Not that it matters but I never fired James Comey because of Russia! The Corrupt Mainstream Media loves to keep pushing that narrative, but they know it is not true!” — tweet Thursday.
THE FACTS: Trump himself fed that “narrative.” The president has said at least twice that Comey’s firing in May 2017 was related to the FBI’s investigation into whether Trump’s campaign associates coordinated with Russia in an effort to sway the 2016 election. And his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told Fox News in May that Trump fired Comey because the FBI director wouldn’t publicly state that Trump “wasn’t a target” of the Russia investigation. Trump’s public rationale for firing Comey has shifted on multiple occasions.
TRUMP, referring to Robert Iger, CEO of ABC’s parent Walt Disney Co.: “Iger, where is my call of apology? You and ABC have offended millions of people, and they demand a response. How is Brian Ross doing? He tanked the market with an ABC lie, yet no apology. Double Standard!” — tweet Thursday.
THE FACTS: “No apology” is wrong. Trump should know that because he expressed satisfaction in December with ABC’s statement that said, “We deeply regret and apologize for the serious error” by Ross, an investigative reporter.
Ross had reported that Trump, as a candidate, directed aide Michael Flynn to make contact with Russian officials during the campaign, a potentially explosive development. Ross changed his report hours later, saying his source stated that Trump’s outreach actually came after Trump won the election, when presidents-elect might be expected to get to know foreign officials. ABC issued the apology, suspended Ross for four weeks without pay and said he would no longer report on Trump.
At the time, that pleased Trump, who tweeted: “Congratulations to @ABC News for suspending Brian Ross for his horrendously inaccurate and dishonest report on the Russia, Russia, Russia Witch Hunt. More Networks and ‘papers’ should do the same with their Fake News!”
Trump’s revived wrath at ABC and Iger comes after the network canceled Roseanne Barr’s show because of her racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, who was an aide to President Barack Obama. Iger tweeted that the cancellation was “the right thing” to do.
TRUMP: “There is no one better to represent the people of N.Y. and Staten Island (a place I know very well) than @RepDanDonovan, who is strong on Borders & Crime, loves our Military & our Vets, voted for Tax Cuts and is helping me to Make America Great Again. Dan has my full endorsement!” — tweet Wednesday.
HE FACTS: He’s incorrect about the tax cuts he signed into law in December. Donovan voted against them, one of the few Republicans to do so. He told AP on Thursday that Trump knew that. “The president was well aware,” he said. “We’ve had discussions about my tax vote, the president and I.” Donovan opposed the tax bill because he said it would mean a tax increase for his constituents. “With the state and local tax deduction nearly eliminated, this tax bill doesn’t equal relief for far too many New Yorkers,” he said at the time.
TRUMP, sharing this tweet from broadcaster Rush Limbaugh: “If the FBI was so concerned, and if they weren’t targeting Trump, they should have told Trump. If they were really concerned about the Russians infiltrating a campaign (hoax), then why not try to stop it? Why not tell Trump? Because they were pushing this scam.” — Thursday.
THE FACTS: The FBI did tell the Trump campaign about threats posed by foreign intelligence services. What level of detail it disclosed has not been established. It is now well known that Trump aides had multiple contacts with Russian interests during the campaign and the FBI was investigating those contacts for any evidence of collusion between the campaign and Russia. It is therefore unlikely that the FBI would share specifics that might compromise its criminal investigation.
In August 2016, an FBI counterintelligence agent gave candidate Trump what is known within the bureau as a defensive briefing about the threats from foreign intelligence services. Such briefings are fairly standard and are intended to help campaigns guard against infiltration or hacking by foreign governments, such as Russia and China. Similar briefings were given to Clinton and the two vice presidential picks prior to the election, according to an October 2017 letter from Greg Brower, then the FBI’s head of congressional affairs.
TRUMP: “We got $6 billion for opioid and getting rid of that scourge that’s taking over our country. And the numbers are way down. We’re getting the word out — bad. Bad stuff. You go to the hospital, you have a broken arm, you come out, you’re a drug addict with this crap. It’s way down. We’re doing a good job with it. But we got $6 billion to help us with opioid.” — Nashville rally.
THE FACTS: That’s misleading. One leading indicator of the opioid epidemic is down — painkiller prescriptions. Other indicators are up, such as the number of overdoses and deaths. And none of that has to do with the $6 billion enacted by Congress. The numbers are from 2017; the money is for this year and next.
Prescriptions for opioid painkillers filled in the U.S. fell almost 9 percent last year, the largest drop in 25 years. The total dosage of opioid prescriptions filled in 2017 declined by 12 percent because more prescriptions were for a shorter duration, fewer new patients started on them and high-dose prescriptions dropped. The numbers are from health data firm IQVIA’s Institute for Human Data Science.
But overdose deaths involving opioids rose to about 46,000 for the 12-month period ended October 2017, up about 15 percent from October 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The numbers are preliminary because of continuing cause-of-death investigations later in the reporting period. They could go higher.
As well, the CDC says emergency department visits for overdoses of opioids rose 30 percent in the U.S. from July 2016 to September 2017. Overdoses shot up 70 percent in the Midwest in that time while increasing by 54 percent in large cities in 16 states.
TRUMP: “Democrats mistakenly tweet 2014 pictures from Obama’s term showing children from the Border in steel cages. They thought it was recent pictures in order to make us look bad, but backfires.” — tweet Tuesday.
THE FACTS: He is correct about widespread misrepresentation of the photos on Twitter.
The photos, taken by AP, were from 2014, during the Obama administration, but were presented by liberal activists as if they showed the effects of Trump’s immigration policy now. The photos were taken at a center run by the Customs and Border Protection Agency in Nogales, Arizona. One photo shows two unidentified female detainees sleeping in a holding cell. It’s not clear that many prominent Democrats spread the photos, from a 2016 Arizona Republic story, though some did.
Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa, former Los Angeles mayor now running for governor, tweeted that he was: “Speechless. This is not who we are as a nation.” Jon Favreau, ex-speechwriter for Obama, tweeted: “This is happening right now.” They and others deleted their tweets when they realized the mistake.
JIM CARREY, actor: “1500 innocent children ripped from their mothers’ arms at our border. Lost in Trump’s ‘system’. — tweet May 27.
THE FACTS: This didn’t happen. Many Trump critics, Carrey among them, misrepresented the fate of nearly 1,500 minors who came to the border — without their parents — and were transferred by U.S. authorities to sponsors in the country.
The Health and Human Services Department followed up with such children by calling their households to check on them late last year, getting information on the whereabouts of most, officials said. But they could not account for 1,475 of them, in part because many sponsors didn’t respond to the calls.
On that basis, Trump critics are calling the children “lost.” But in that round of calls, the Trump administration actually had a slightly better rate of confirming such children’s circumstances than the Obama administration did in 2016, according to an inspector general’s report — 86 percent versus 85 percent.
The episode with the unaccompanied children and the 2014 photos distracted from what is actually happening. Under a Trump policy to enforce criminal charges against people crossing the border illegally with few or no previous offenses, separation of parents from children is bound to become more common, and that trend may have started.
A Customs and Border Protection official told lawmakers that 658 children had been separated from their parents at the border from May 6 to May 19, after border agents began referring every illegal entry to criminal prosecutors. This is in addition to hundreds more who were estimated to have been removed from their parents at the border since October.
You may like
Florida
Florida Sen. Shevrin Jones Will Not Seek Re-Election, Fuels Speculation About Congressional Run
Published
4 days agoon
May 31, 2026MIAMI, Fla. (FNN) — Democratic State Sen. Shevrin Jones announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election to Florida Senate District 34, ending a 13-year tenure in the Florida Legislature and fueling speculation about a possible run for Congress.
Jones, who has represented Senate District 34 since 2020, shared the decision in a video posted on social media.
“After a lot of prayer, reflection, and honest conversations with the people closest to me, I’ve decided that I will not seek re-election to the Florida Senate,” Jones said.
13 Years in the Florida Legislature
Jones was first elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2012, where he served until his election to the Florida Senate in 2020. During his legislative career, he emerged as one of South Florida’s most prominent Democratic lawmakers, advocating on issues including education, healthcare, economic opportunity, and civil rights.
His decision not to seek another term marks the end of more than a decade of service in Tallahassee.
Speculation Grows About Congressional Bid
Jones’ announcement comes as political observers speculate that he may be preparing a campaign for Florida’s 24th Congressional District.
The seat is expected to become open following Congresswoman Frederica Wilson’s decision not to seek re-election in 2026. Wilson has represented the district since 2011 and remains one of South Florida’s most influential Democratic leaders.
Although Jones did not formally announce plans for another office, he acknowledged public interest regarding his political future.
“I know there’s been a lot of conversation about what’s next for me,” Jones said. “And there will be time to talk about that at a later date.”
Open Congressional Seat Draws Attention
Wilson’s departure is expected to trigger a competitive race to succeed her in Congress, with several current and former elected officials reportedly considering bids for the seat.
Jones’ decision to leave the Florida Senate immediately places him among the names being discussed as a potential contender for the congressional district, which includes portions of Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Florida
Former Air Force Colonel and Physician Rudolph Moise Seeks Florida Congressional Seat Vacated by Frederica Wilson
Published
4 days agoon
May 30, 2026MIAMI, Fla. (FNN) — South Florida Congresswoman Frederica Wilson has announced she will not seek reelection to Florida’s 24th Congressional District, creating an open-seat race that is expected to draw significant attention ahead of the 2026 election cycle.
Even before Wilson’s retirement announcement became public, Dr. Rudolph “Rudy” Moise had already shifted his political focus. Moise withdrew from the crowded race for Florida’s 20th Congressional District to pursue a campaign for the seat currently held by Wilson.
Moise Brings Military, Medical, Legal, and Business Experience
Moise is a longtime physician, attorney, businessman, and retired U.S. Air Force colonel. Over the years, he has built a public profile through his medical practice, community involvement, and repeated campaigns for federal office in South Florida.
His decision to enter the race immediately positions him among the most recognizable candidates seeking to succeed Wilson in Congress.
No Stranger to Running Against Wilson
Moise is no stranger to challenging Wilson at the ballot box.
He previously mounted two congressional campaigns against the longtime Democratic incumbent but was unsuccessful in his efforts to unseat her. Despite those defeats, Moise maintained a visible presence in South Florida politics and continued advocating on issues related to healthcare, economic development, public safety, and government accountability.
With Wilson now stepping aside, Moise will have his first opportunity to compete for the seat without facing the incumbent congresswoman.
Political observers note that Moise’s prior campaigns have given him valuable name recognition and an established network of supporters throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Redistricting Could Reshape the Political Landscape
Florida’s congressional map underwent significant changes following redistricting approved by Governor Ron DeSantis. The revised boundaries altered several congressional districts across the state, including portions of South Florida.
The new district configuration could create different political dynamics than those Moise faced during his previous campaigns against Wilson.
As candidates begin to organize for the 2026 election cycle, the open-seat contest is expected to attract a competitive field of Democratic and Republican contenders seeking to represent one of South Florida’s most prominent congressional districts.
With Wilson’s departure ending an era in South Florida politics, voters will soon decide who will succeed the veteran congresswoman and represent Florida’s 24th Congressional District in Washington.
Central Florida News
Puerto Rican Business Owner Tatiana Fernandez running for Orange County Commission District 8
Published
4 days agoon
May 30, 2026ORLANDO, Fla. (FNN) — The Orange County Board of County Commissioners recently approved a new District 8 seat to address the county’s continued population growth and expanding communities.
Tatiana Fernandez officially entered the race for the newly created Orange County Commission District 8 seat after announcing her candidacy on social media and filing the necessary paperwork with the Orange County Supervisor of Elections.
Fernandez Highlights Business, Advocacy, and Community Leadership Experience
Fernandez, a Puerto Rican-born business owner, autism advocate, and community leader, said her campaign is focused on strengthening families, supporting small businesses, and expanding opportunities throughout Orange County.
“Latinos are shaping the future of America,” Fernandez stated in her campaign announcement. “Together, we can build stronger communities, greater opportunities, and a brighter future for our children.”
Fernandez currently serves on the Orange County Commission on Aging Board, where she advocates for programs and services benefiting seniors throughout the county.
Her professional and community background includes:
• Business owner since 2015 with extensive experience in entrepreneurship and business development.
• Owner of Pantera Technical Services, a Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida.
• On-the-job training provider for Florida Vocational Rehabilitation students since 2019.
• Autism advocate serving families in Seminole County since 2007.
• Fully bilingual in English and Spanish.
• Born and raised in Puerto Rico.
• Resident of Florida since 2004 after living in Boston from 1994 to 2000.
• Academic studies in banking, pre-law, finance, government relations, and healthcare administration.
• Volunteer with the Lake Mary High School Robotics Program from 2017 to 2020.
• Registered volunteer for former Florida State Representative Daisy Morales in both Orlando and Tallahassee offices.
• Candidate for Florida’s 7th Congressional District during the 2022 and 2024 election cycles.
Campaign Focused on Families, Seniors, and Small Businesses
Fernandez said Orange County residents deserve leadership that listens to the community and understands the challenges facing working families, senior citizens, and small-business owners.
“Our community deserves leadership that listens, works hard, and truly understands the needs of families, seniors, and small businesses,” Fernandez said. “I look forward to continuing to serve Orange County with integrity, compassion, and dedication.”
She is encouraging supporters to volunteer, share campaign information, and contribute to her effort to represent the newly established district.
Crowded Field Emerges for New District 8 Seat
Fernandez joins a growing field of candidates seeking election to the new Orange County Commission District 8 seat. Other announced candidates include Vic Torres, Jeannette Quinones-Hernandez, Isaiah Louis Anderson, Julio Rocha, and George Haas.
Candidate qualifying is scheduled for June 8-12, 2026. The primary election will be held on August 18, 2026, with voters selecting the first commissioner to represent the newly created district.
The District 8 seat is expected to be one of Orange County’s most closely watched races as candidates compete to represent a rapidly growing and increasingly diverse constituency.
Trending
Sports4 days agoGM Brands Dominate Detroit as Cadillac and Corvette Capture IMSA Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic Wins
Central Florida News4 days agoPuerto Rican Business Owner Tatiana Fernandez running for Orange County Commission District 8
Florida4 days agoFormer Air Force Colonel and Physician Rudolph Moise Seeks Florida Congressional Seat Vacated by Frederica Wilson
Entertainment2 days agoUSF Credit Union Named Presenting Sponsor of ‘Rainbow To Your Door’ With $5,000 Challenge Match Grant
Florida4 days agoFlorida Sen. Shevrin Jones Will Not Seek Re-Election, Fuels Speculation About Congressional Run