News Reporter: Fact Checker: #Protip to Trump: If you're going to claim Nixon/Watergate, you should start by getting some facts.

Friday 10 March 2017

Fact Checker: #Protip to Trump: If you're going to claim Nixon/Watergate, you should start by getting some facts.

Democracy Dies in Darkness

The truth behind the rhetoric

#Protip to Trump: If you’re going to claim Nixon/Watergate, you should start by getting some facts.

This past week, Trump made an explosive allegation on Twitter that former president Barack Obama wiretapped him. And this accusation was based on … what?

At The Fact Checker, we place the burden of proof on the speaker. So we immediately asked the White House for proof, but received no answer. Then, White House staff referred to "reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations" — suggesting the president’s tweets were based on media reports, not information the president might have received from inside the government.

The White House cited five news reports to justify its request for a congressional investigation into the supposed wiretapping ordered by Obama, only two actually were relevant. It’s questionable how accurate the two reports are. But even if they were accepted as accurate, none of the reports actually said that Obama requested the order or that it resulted in the tapping of Trump's phone lines.

This is a relatively predictable exercise by Trump and the White House: Trump makes an incendiary claim, seemingly with little to no basis in fact. His staff scramble to support it. The evidence they provide is mostly bunk. Then, we’re back to square one with an unsubstantiated claim.

As always, we are eager to check out any new evidence the White House can provide that may substantiate the president’s claims. Until then, he earns Four Pinocchios.

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Sen. Chuck Schumer repeats a zombie claim about Planned Parenthood and mammograms

A “zombie” claim is one that keeps coming back to life, no matter how many times we debunk it. One such zombie claim caught our attention this week.

As Congress debates a GOP replacement for the Affordable Care Act, many Democratic lawmakers are coming to the defense of Planned Parenthood, whose federal funds would be cut under the House Republicans' plan. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) posted on Twitter that the GOP proposal would hurt “millions of women who turn there for mammograms, maternity care, cancer screenings & more.”

But — as we’ve noted in 2012 and in 2015 — Planned Parenthood doesn’t actually administer mammograms. Mammograms require radiology equipment inspected under federal law, so most small clinics (like Planned Parenthood) make referrals to specialized facilities.

Why does this matter? Mammograms have come to symbolize whether Planned Parenthood truly is a health-care organization, as supporters say, or mainly an abortion provider that masquerades as a reproductive health organization, as opponents say. Supporters of Planned Parenthood point to mammograms to illustrate the organization's role in cancer screening and prevention for women.

Only 7 percent of Planned Parenthood’s clients are women over 40, who would get regular mammogram referrals. Of about 360,000 breast exams in 2014, about 11,000 (3 percent) resulted in a mammogram referral. That’s less than 1 percent of the total number of Planned Parenthood patients in 2014. Schumer earned Three Pinocchios.

(giphy.com)

Speaking of #protips, here’s another one: Leave fact-checking to the pros.

Lawmakers frequently cite Pinocchio ratings in a floor speech or a hearing. But something odd happened recently: A lawmaker cited a Four-Pinocchio rating for a fact we never checked. (Photo below.)

Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), speaking on the House floor on Feb. 3, attacked Republicans for seeking to roll back regulations requiring oil and gas drillers to control methane releases into the atmosphere. This was never our fact check. So how did our Pinocchios end up on a congressional chart?

We asked Lowenthal’s staff, who quickly apologized. Turns out, minority staff on the House Committee on Natural Resources created the chart and used our Pinocchios to make a point. His staff told us the poster would be destroyed, adding that he did not think "Alan would have been comfortable using it if he had known."

We appreciate the outright apology, and didn’t award Pinocchios to Lowenthal. Members of Congress always are free to cite our fact checks if they do so accurately. But remember: Only The Washington Post awards the Pinocchios.

(Courtesy of @FloorCharts)

We’re always looking for suggestions. If you hear something fact-checkable, fill out this form, e-mail us or tweet us: @myhlee, @GlennKesslerWP or using #FactCheckThis. Read about our rating scale here, and sign up here for our weekly Fact Checker newsletter.

Scroll down for this week’s Pinocchio roundup.

— Michelle Ye Hee Lee

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