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2016 Presidential Debate (October 19)

Fact-checking the second debate between Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump

Editors
USA TODAY

A running compilation of fact-checking during the second presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

The real number of Syrian refugees: Trump inflated the number of Syrian refugees coming to the United States when he said “hundreds of thousands.” An analysis by the Washington Post found that over the past 12 months 12,500 Syrian refugees have been admitted.

One more time, crime had decreased: Trump, as he did in the first debate, claimed that crime has increased while President Obama has been in office. He's wrong. Crime has been decreasing steadily for decades.

If you knew Putin, like I knew Putin: Trump said he does not know Russian President Vladimir Putin or about the internal workings of Russia. But earlier in the campaign, he had a different answer, saying he had learned about Russia while hosting pageants there and had spoken with Putin. PolitiFact has looked into this one.

Did Clinton fail at creating jobs in New York? Trump said that when Clinton was running for Senate in New York in 2000, she said she “was going to bring back jobs upstate New York. And she failed.” Trump is right. The Washington Post found earlier this year that “nearly eight years after Clinton’s Senate exit, there is little evidence that her economic development programs had a substantial impact on upstate employment.” In fact, “upstate job growth stagnated overall during her tenure, with manufacturing jobs plunging nearly 25 percent, according to jobs data.”

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

As senator, Clinton promised 200,000 jobs in Upstate New York. Her efforts fell flat.

Let's roll the tape on the U.S. invasion of Iraq: Trump and Clinton sparred on whether the Republican nominee supported the war in Iraq. Although Trump would later denounce the war, his earliest recorded comments say otherwise.

The Pinocchio scale: The Washington Post must have known Trump wouldn't budge on claims he was always against the war. They had this nifty gif ready to go.

Revisiting the vast right-wing conspiracy: Trump brought up the history of allegations of sexual misconduct by Bill Clinton and said Hillary Clinton shared some of the blame. “Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and attacked them viciously,” he said. The Washington Post breaks down this claim. Apparently the primary allegation is that Hillary Clinton’s 1998 charge of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” against her husband was meant to discredit Monica Lewinsky. The Post notes that she uttered that line before Lewinsky or Bill Clinton had admitted they had had an affair.

An exaggeration on arms reduction: Clinton overstated the impact of the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) pact, which she brokered as Secretary of State. The Washington Post found that Russia was already meeting the treaty’s limits, for the most part, when the treaty’s implementation began.

Job growth after Obamacare: Trump's attack on the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare to most of us) is wrong in regards to its effect on the economy, specifically jobs. Politico's Dan Diamond pointed out on Twitter that the nation's job growth was steady.

Off by just a hundred billion: Trump's oft-repeated claim that the United States will pay $150 billion to Iran was debunked by the Washington Post. They explain how it's closer to $50 billion once Iran fulfills its financial obligations.

Bleached emails? Donald Trump hit Hillary Clinton for deleting emails and said she “acid-washed” her server – or “bleached” the drive” which Trump said was a “very expensive” process. According to the folks at Wired – a magazine focused on all things tech – the software Clinton used to scrub her serve is free.

A closer look at health insurance premiums: Trump quoted insurance rate hikes of up to 71 percent, but an analysis by PolitiFact found that he was cherry-picking his stats.

Let's go to the Truth-O-Meter: PolitiFact's running tally of false statements by the candidates give Clinton the edge. More then 50 percent of Clinton's statements have been rated true or mostly true compared to less than 20 percent of Trump's.

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