Trump’s Falsehoods on Police Shootings, Biden,
Coronavirus and China
By Linda Qiu
·
July 14, 2020
WHAT
WAS SAID
Catherine Herridge, CBS News reporter: “Why
are African-Americans still dying at the hands of law enforcement in this
country?”
Mr. Trump: “So are white people. So are white
people. What a terrible question to ask. So are white people. More white
people, by the way. More white people.”
— in an interview on CBS
— in an interview on CBS
This is misleading. Although more white Americans have been
killed by police than Black Americans, Black Americans are killed at a far
higher rate than white Americans. Since 2015, The Washington Post has logged 2,499
white Americans killed by police for a rate of 13 per million, compared with
1,301 Black Americans for a rate of 31 per one million.
A 2018 report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
found “consistent patterns of racial disparities in police use of force” and
urged the Trump administration’s Justice Department to monitor and train local
police departments.
The commission, an independent federal
panel, cited data from The Post and The Guardian showing
much higher death rates for Black, Latino and Native American people in
officer-involved killings. Researchers have also found that
Black Americans are also more likely than white Americans to be unarmed when
killed.
“The best available evidence reflects
high rates of use of force nationally, and increased likelihood of police use
of force against people of color, people with disabilities, L.G.B.T. people,
people with mental health concerns, people with low incomes and those at the
intersections of these groups,” the commission wrote in a letter addressed to
Mr. Trump.
WHAT
WAS SAID
“Biden personally led the effort to give China
permanent most-favored-nation status, which is a tremendous advantage for a
country to have. Few countries have it. But the United States doesn’t have it,
never did, probably never even asked for it because they didn’t know what they
were doing.”
— in a news conference at the White House
— in a news conference at the White House
False. “Most
favored nation” refers to a principle of fair trade that members of the World
Trade Organization confer on each other.
The United States has enjoyed “most favored nation” status from all members of
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade since 1947, and all 164 countries in
the W.T.O., except Cuba.
Countries may carve out their own
exceptions to this rule, but there are just a few examples. The United States
has declined to grant this status, also known as normal trade relations, to
just two countries: Cuba and North Korea. Cuba reciprocates American
sanctions, while North Korea is not a W.T.O. member.
Furthermore, Joseph R. Biden Jr., the
former vice president and Mr. Trump’s presumptive 2020 Democratic opponent, was
“never the leader” in making the most-favored-nation status permanent for
China, said Gary Hufbauer of the Peterson Institute for International
Economics. Rather, it was an initiative of former President Bill Clinton and
established by former President George W. Bush.
“Permanent M.F.N. status was not a
‘tremendous advantage’ for China,” Mr. Hufbauer said. “For decades, under both
Republican and Democratic presidents, the U.S. regularly granted M.F.N. status
to China. Permanent M.F.N. did not lower any U.S. tariffs on imports from
China. It just eliminated the need for an extension every two years.”
WHAT
WAS SAID
“If you look at the job he did on swine flu —
I looked at a poll, they have polls on everything nowadays and he — they got
very bad marks on the job they did on the swine flu. H1N1. He calls it N1H1.
H1N1. Got very poor marks from Gallup on the job they did on swine flu. And
they stopped very early on, testing.”
False. Mr. Trump was referring to the performance
of Mr. Biden and the Obama administration in dealing with the potential for an
earlier pandemic. Diagnostic tests for
the swine flu were approved and shipped out less than two weeks after
the H1N1 virus was identified in April 2009 and a day before the first death in
the United States. From May to September 2009, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention shipped more than 1,000 kits, each one able to test 1,000
specimens.
Gallup polls showed that 67 percent of
Americans were very or somewhat confident in the government’s ability to handle
the H1N1 outbreak. This February, 77 percent of
Americans told Gallup the same about the government’s ability to handle the
coronavirus outbreak — but that percentage has slid as the pandemic has
continued and the death toll has increased.
In March, 61 percent said
the same. By April, just 50 percent approved
of Mr. Trump’s response.
Overall,
about 56.7 percent of Americans now disapprove of Mr. Trump’s response,
according to polls aggregated by FiveThirtyEight.
WHAT WAS SAID
“We have just about the lowest mortality
rate.”
This lacks evidence. It is difficult
to ascertain accurate death rates for the coronavirus
and compare them across countries because of differences in population, testing
rates and health care systems. But based on existing data, Mr. Trump’s claim is
not accurate. Out of the 20 countries most affected by the pandemic, the United
States has the sixth-highest case fatality rate at 4 percent and the second
highest rate of deaths per 100,000 people at 41.45, according to Johns Hopkins University.
WHAT
WAS SAID
“Think of this: If we didn’t do testing —
instead of testing over 40 million people, if we did half the testing, we’d
have half the cases. If we did another — you cut that in half, you’d have yet
again half of that.”
False. The suggestion that the number of
positive cases is directly proportional to the number of tests conducted is
false. Ramped-up testing does not account for the recent surge in cases. The
spread of the disease does.
In early June, the United States was
conducting about 450,000 to 500,000 tests daily and the number of daily positive cases
hovered around 20,000, for a positive rate of around 4 percent.
This month, daily testing varied from
about 600,000 to 800,000. By Mr. Trump’s logic, that would roughly correlate to
daily positive cases of between 24,000 and 32,000. But in reality, the number
has hovered around 60,000 cases in recent days as the positive testing rate
doubled to about 8 percent.
WHAT
WAS SAID
“These are the actual key elements of the
Biden-Sanders unity platform.”
This is exaggerated. Mr. Trump was
referring to recommendations put
forth by six policy task forces assembled by both allies of Mr. Biden
and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, his rival in the Democratic primary. Some
of his claims — such as saying Mr. Biden wants to reach carbon-neutrality,
increase the refugee admissions cap, create a pathway for citizenship for
undocumented immigrants and abolish the death penalty — were accurate. But many
others were dramatized.
The
recommendations include a 100-day moratorium on deportations of people already
in the United States — not stopping “all deportations” indefinitely, as Mr.
Trump said.
Rather than “abolish immigration
detention” altogether, the task force recommended ending the use of for-profit
detention facilities and seeking alternatives for unauthorized immigrants who
“do not present a threat to public safety.”
The task forces did not call to
“abolish immigration enforcement,” as Mr. Trump said, but asked for more oversight
of enforcement agencies and reforms in practices.
They also did not support granting
“work permits for illegal immigrants,” but rather asked for changes to the
temporary work visa program and stronger labor protections for temporary
workers.
The task forces did not call to
“abolish our police departments,” though they did recommend creating guidelines
on use of force, ending racial profiling and banning chokeholds.
Rather than “abolish prisons” and “all
charter schools,” the recommendations call for an end to using for-profit
private prisons, banning for-profit charter schools, if they receive federal
funding, and subjecting all charter schools to more scrutiny.
WHAT
WAS SAID
“We want strong closed borders with people
able to come in through merit through a legal process. They don’t want to have
any borders at all. They’re going to rip down the wall. It was hard to get that
built. And now it’s almost completed, it will be completed by a little after
the end of the year.”
This is exaggerated. The Biden-Sanders unity task forces
recommended halting the use of Pentagon funds to build Mr. Trump’s border wall,
but did not say to tear down existing portions. The president’s claim that the
wall is “almost completed” is also inaccurate.
First, it is unclear exactly what Mr.
Trump’s current vision of a finished wall would look like. Despite promising a
wall stretching for 1,000 miles — along a nearly 2,000 mile border
where barriers already had existed for 654 miles — during the 2016 campaign,
Mr. Trump has conceded that his wall may not be that long.
The Trump administration has received
enough funding, including transfers from the Department of Defense, to build
738 miles. It has completed 235 miles and is on track to complete about 450
miles by the end of the year, according to Customs and Border Protection.
OTHER
FALSE CLAIMS
Mr. Trump also repeated a number of
other claims that The New York Times has previously fact-checked:
·
He falsely claimed that before the coronavirus
epidemic, China was having its “worst year, as you know, in 67 years.” (China’s
economy grew at its slowest rate in 29 years last
year.)
·
He
claimed “even experts didn’t want to” place restrictions on travel from China.
(His health secretary said the restrictions were put in place in
consultation with health officials).
·
He falsely claimed that the European Union “was
formed in order to take advantage of the United States.” (It was created with
the support of the United States to diminish the risk of wars and promote
economic cooperation.)
·
He
claimed that he “rebuilt” a “totally depleted” military. (The military has
received some new equipment, but continues to use aging supplies.)
·
He
claimed that Mr. Biden’s son Hunter “walked out with $1.5 billion” from China.
(This refers to a company associated with the younger
Mr. Biden, but there’s no evidence he was personally paid.)
·
He
claimed, despite little evidence, that mail-in ballots would lead to
“tremendous fraud.” (Voter fraud is extremely rare.)