Fact-checking President-elect Trump's first news conference since the election
President-elect Trump finally held a news conference, but as is typical, he often made claims that have been repeatedly debunked or discredited. Here's a guide to 15 of his more notable statements, in the order in which he made them.
- "It's very familiar territory, news conferences, because we used to give them on a almost daily basis."
Trump is exaggerating. During the primaries, he was a near-constant presence on television because he frequently called into interview shows. But he generally only held news conferences after primary contests were held. He last held a news conference on July 27.
- "You saw yesterday Fiat Chrysler; big, big factory going to be built in this country as opposed to another country. Ford just announced that they stopped plans for a billion dollar plant in Mexico and they're going to be moving into Michigan and expanding, very substantially, an existing plant."
Trump claims credit for these announcements, but that's wrong.
Sergio Marchionne, the Fiat Chrysler chief executive, said the plan had been in the works for more than a year and had nothing to do with Trump; he credited instead talks with the United Auto Workers.
With regards to Ford, analysts say Ford's decision to expand in Michigan rather than in Mexico has more to do with the company's long-term goal - particularly, its plans to invest in electric vehicles - than the administration. It's easier for companies to find highly skilled workers to build new products, such as electric cars, in the United States than in Mexico.
- "When we lost 22 million names and everything else that was hacked recently, they didn't make a big deal out of that. That was something that was extraordinary. That was probably China."
Actually, the Chinese hack of 22 million accounts at the Office of Personnel Management was front page news.
The Russian hacking of the presidential election and the OPM hack are not directly comparable. The Russian campaign, as described by U.S. intelligence, involved more than just hacking, with the aim of disrupting and possibly influencing the political process. The Chinese hack had a more isolated goal - espionage. China appears to have wanted the material in order to engage in possible blackmail.
Obama administration officials say the China case is different because it was purely a case of spying - something the United States does as well. U.S. officials also say that China responded to U.S. pressure after the hack was discovered, and there are signs its espionage activities have been reduced. China may have been receptive to U.S. pressure at the time because President Xi Jinping was about to visit the United States, and he did not want the hack to mar the visit.
- "The Democratic National Committee was totally open to be hacked. They did a very poor job….And they tried to hack the Republican National Committee and they were unable to break through."
This is an example of attacking one of the victims, the Democratic National Committee. But FBI Director James Comey says there is evidence that older Republican National Committee domains were also targeted but none of the information that may have been obtained was leaked. Comey said that the Russians "got far deeper and wider into the [DNC] than the RNC," adding that "similar techniques were used in both cases."
But Trump's remarks also ignore the broader implications of the unclassified intelligence report released on Jan. 5 - how the Russian government used Internet trolls and RT (Russia's state-owned international news channel) to amplify negative reports on Clinton and U.S. democracy.
The Internet trolls started to advocate for Trump as early as December 2015, well before the WikiLeaks revelations began to be released on the eve of the Democratic National Convention.
Meanwhile, "RT's coverage of Secretary Clinton throughout the presidential campaign was consistently negative and focused on her leaked e-mails and accused her of corruption, poor physical and mental health, and ties to Islamic extremism," the report said. (It does not mention that these attack lines mirrored attacks made by the Trump campaign.)
- "Look at the things that were hacked, look at what was learned from that hacking.That Hillary Clinton got the questions to the debate and didn't report it? That's a horrible thing."
Trump overstates the disclosure about Clinton getting a debate question. During the Democratic primaries, a debate was held in Flint, Mich. to focus on the water crisis. Donna Brazile, then an analyst with CNN, sent an email to the Clinton campaign saying that a woman with a rash from lead poisoning was going to ask what Clinton as president could do the help the people of Flint.
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