News Reporter: Fact Checker: Fact-checking Clinton and Trump on military sexual assaults, veterans issues and yes, Trump's views on Iraq War

The truth behind the rhetoric

Fact-checking Clinton and Trump on military sexual assaults, veterans issues and yes, Trump’s views on Iraq War

The commander-in-chief forum this week on national security and the military gave us a semi-preview of what’s to come during the presidential debates this fall. (The first of three presidential debates is on Sept. 26.)

Out of 18 claims we fact-checked, one warranted a separate, Three-Pinocchio fact-check about Trump’s argument that the root cause of sexual assault in the military as having men and women serve together. Moderator Matt Lauer then asked misleading follow-up questions: Should it have been expected in a co-ed military, and is the solution to take women out of the military altogether?

The facts: Men comprise 52 percent of sexual assault victims in the military in 2014. One-third of them were penetrated, and most of them were male-on-male assaults. Sexual assault and rape are acts of violence and power, not sexual desire or gratification. Male-female sexual assaults are only one part of a complex problem.

Below are some of the other claims we checked in our round-up. Click here for the full list.

"It was a mistake to have a personal [email] account."

–Clinton

The key issue was that Clinton had a private server and she never used her designated State Department email account, which would have kept records of emails subject to requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

"I happened to hear Hillary Clinton say that I was not against the war in Iraq. I was totally against the war in Iraq. You can look at Esquire magazine from '04. You can look at before that."

–Trump

It is perplexing to The Fact Checker when interviewers like Matt Lauer don't rebut Trump on this point, which is one of the simplest facts to debunk. Lauer has little excuse for letting this pass unchallenged.

The truth is that Trump did not oppose the Iraq War since before the August 2004 Esquire story (which was 17 months after the invasion). We have a Four Pinocchio fact-check on this issue, a timeline of all of Trump's comments prior to the invasion in March 2003, and even a video documenting how this is a bogus claim.

We’ve found no evidence of his early opposition. Trump expressed lukewarm support the first time he was asked about it on Sept. 11, 2002, and was not clearly against it until he was quoted in the August 2004 Esquire cover story titled "Donald Trump: How I'd Run the Country (Better)." In any case, by the middle of 2004, many Americans had turned against the war, making Trump's position not particularly unique. In light of Trump's repeated false claims, Esquire added an editor's note to its August 2004 story, which reads in part: “The Iraq War began in March 2003, more than a year before this story ran, thus nullifying Trump's timeline.”

"I will not let the VA be privatized. And I do think there is an agenda out there, supported by my opponent, to do just that. I think that would be very disastrous for our military veterans."

–Clinton

This is very misleading.

In previous iterations, Clinton referred to proposals by a conservative veterans advocacy group to overhaul the Department of Veterans Affairs. The proposal includes options for veterans to receive medical care in the private market. But the term "privatization" usually refers to the wholesale transfer of government services to the private industry — which is not in this proposal.

Trump correctly said during the forum that he doesn’t support such privatization of the VA. He has said "veterans should be guaranteed the right to choose their doctor and clinics, whether at a VA facility or at a private medical center,” especially if they live far away from a VA facility or can’t get an appointment within a certain time. This is the same provision in the 2014 Veterans Choice Act, a bipartisan bill signed into law by President Obama, in response to the VA scandal.

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"I think it's very sad, when he [Obama] lands in Saudi Arabia, and he lands in Cuba, and there aren't high officials to even greet him. This is the first time in the history — the storied history of Air Force One."

–Trump

Trump once again repeats a Four-Pinocchio claim. We found many examples, involving many presidents including Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, when the president landed in a foreign country and was not greeted by the head of government or head of state.

"There is no evidence my system was hacked."

–Clinton

Although the FBI could find no evidence that Clinton's emails were hacked, the FBI report makes clear that there were numerous attempts on her private server and that it lacked the types of safeguards that would have been expected for such sensitive communications. Moreover, an aide to Bill Clinton using the Clinton private server was hacked. The report also noted that "hostile foreign actors" were able to break into the email systems of close personal aides of Hillary Clinton, obtaining emails.

"I think when he [Russian President Vladimir Putin] calls me brilliant, I'll take the compliment, okay?"

–Trump

As we have noted before, Putin did not called Trump "brilliant" or a "genius."

Here's a variety of the correct translations of what Putin actually said:

"He's a very colorful person. Talented, without any doubt."

"He's a very lively man, talented without doubt."

"He is a very flamboyant man, very talented, no doubt about that."

This has been frequently noted, but Trump refuses to change his false characterization of Putin's statement.

Happy #FactCheckFriday!

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Scroll down for this week’s Pinocchio round-up.

–Michelle Ye Hee Lee