News Reporter: Fact Checker: New (almost) president, old facts. Fact-checking President-Elect Trump's first news conference

The truth behind the rhetoric

New (almost) president, old facts. Fact-checking President-Elect Trump’s first news conference

President-Elect Donald Trump finally held a news conference this week. But, as is typical, Trump often made repeatedly debunked or discredited claims. We fact-checked 14 of his more notable statements, as well as claims by his attorney about his finances. (We don’t issue Pinocchio ratings for live fact-checks.)

Here are five of Trump’s claims that we fact-checked. For the full list, check out our round-up.

"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."

Trump attacked one of the hacking victims, the Democratic National Committee. But FBI Director James B. Comey said there’s 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 emails 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.)

"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 to engage in possible blackmail.

Obama administration officials said the China case is different because it was purely a case of spying — something the United States does as well. U.S. officials also said 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.

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"I have no deals that could happen in Russia, because we've stayed away. And I have no loans with Russia."

Trump is being misleading when he says he has stayed away from Russia. Trump repeatedly sought deals in Russia. In 1987, he went to Moscow to find a site for a luxury hotel; no deal emerged. In 1996, he sought to build a condominium complex in Russia; that also did not succeed. In 2005, Trump signed a one-year deal with a New York development company to explore a Trump Tower in Moscow, but the effort fizzled.

In a 2008 speech, Donald Trump Jr. made it clear that the Trumps want to do business in Russia, but were finding it difficult. "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets," Trump's son said at a real estate conference in 2008, according to an account posted on the website of eTurboNews, a trade publication. "We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."

Alan Garten, general counsel of the Trump Organization, told The Washington Post in May: "I have no doubt, as a company, I know we've looked at deals in Russia. And many of the former Russian Republics."

"I have a no-conflict situation because I'm president."

This is basically correct. The law doesn't say the president can't have a conflict of interest. But Congress, under Title 18 Section 208 of the U.S. code, did exempt the president and vice president from conflict-of-interest laws on the theory that the presidency has so much power that any possible executive action might pose a potential conflict. (For more on the issues raised by Trump's lawyer at the news conference, see this fact check.)

"This administration created ISIS by leaving at the wrong time. The void was created, ISIS was formed."

Trump greatly simplifies a complex situation.

The Islamic State terrorist group arose in response to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, but it began to fade after the Bush administration surge in 2008. The civil war in Syria breathed new life into what had become a moribund organization. The conflict in Syria created a perfect vacuum in terms of governance, and so the civil war became an opportunity for the restoration of the organization.

The Islamic State then saw opportunity to rebound in Iraq. One factor was the withdrawal of U.S. troops ordered by President Obama. But there was also rampant mismanagement by the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which greatly degraded Iraq's military and exacerbated tensions between Sunnis and Shiites.

(giphy.com)

Two Pinocchios to a common Democratic talking point about Mitch McConnell

Democrats love to bring up long-ago remarks by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), like Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) did this week. Booker said, “When he [McConnell] came into a position when America was in a financial free-fall, there was crisis all over this country, he announced to America that the number one priority he had was keeping President Obama from getting a second term."

But as Democrats often do, Booker got the timing and context wrong. Booker suggested McConnell made this statement near the start of Obama’s term (“when America was in a financial free-fall”), but it actually was made in an interview that appeared in the National Journal on Oct. 23, 2010 — nearly two years after Obama was elected president. The interview took place on the eve of the midterm elections.

And McConnell’s claim was also less remarkable than it's often depicted. If you review the full context, McConnell was actually saying that if Republicans wanted to achieve their goals, such as repeal of the health-care law, they can't just win the midterms, they need to ensure that Obama does not win reelection. We awarded Two Pinocchios to Booker.

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Scroll down for this week’s Pinocchio roundup.

— Michelle Ye Hee Lee