For police brutality, Trump blames Obama — again President Trump loves to blame his predecessor, Barack Obama, for many things. But a recent statement while signing an executive order on police brutality really took the cake. "President Obama and Vice President Biden never even tried to fix this during their eight-year period," Trump said. "The reason they didn't try is because they had no idea how to do it." This was a needlessly false statement. Obama faced his own uproar over police brutality in 2014, after the shooting death of an unarmed black man, Michael Brown, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. Obama took a number of steps in response, such limiting the distribution of military-style gear to local police departments and pursuing consent decrees, approved by courts, in which police departments agreed to a road map of changes and reforms. Trump should have known about these actions because his administration rolled many of them back. He earned Four Pinocchios — and then immediately repeated the false claim on the Sean Hannity Show. For the full fact check, click here. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. Chinese officials dismissed accusations of anti-black discrimination in China. The video evidence shows otherwise. In the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, the African population — one of the largest in Asia — and black residents said they became the targets of a crackdown from local officials over unfounded fears that Africans were a high-risk population for the spread of covid-19. In early April, videos from the port city appeared to show black residents evicted from their homes, led through the streets by officers and denied entry to shops. A sign posted at a local McDonald's said "black people" were no longer allowed to enter. A business owner wrote in a LinkedIn post that local authorities told him "to refuse dine-in service to foreigners, especially black people." But by the end of the month, Chinese officials dismissed reports of anti-black discrimination. Witnesses and videos tell a different story. The Fact Checker video team was able to identify what appears to be a chaotic effort from local officials in Guangzhou to target Africans and the larger black community over coronavirus fears. Experts said these events were caused by a combination of factors, including China's shift in focus to imported coronavirus cases, xenophobic social media stories about black men not abiding by quarantine regulations, and a history of tensions between officials and part of the African population in Guangzhou. For the full story, click here.
How many facts could The Fact Checker check? This book has the answer. "Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth," published by Scribner this month, tells the story of a president who has racked up more than 19,000 false or misleading claims — and what it's like to fact check him. The book is already a national best-seller, according to Publishers Weekly, and earned a starred review from Kirkus. Susan B. Glasser of the New Yorker called it "a great public service of a book" and the Bergen Record said it was "an authoritative and pull-no-punches guide through Trump's alternative universe." The book methodically debunks a host of statements and tweets the president has made on the economy, immigration, foreign policy, his impeachment, the Russia probe, the coronavirus pandemic and more. The book is as comprehensive as it is reader-friendly, divided into chapters by subject. It's available in print, e-book and audiobook. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP, @rizzoTK, @mmkelly22 and @SarahCahlan) or Facebook. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. | 
Email 
No comments:
Post a Comment