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Trump Presser Fact Check: Trump Fails On Electoral College, Uranium, And Autism

By Christine Beswick
Published on: 04:01 PST, Feb 18, 2017

Donald Trump is still talking about his infamous Trump presser from this week, and tweeted last night that Rush Limbaugh said it was the “most effective” press conference ever. Trump has also tweeted a thank you to supporters, thanking them for all of the “very nice” comments on the Trump presser. It is unclear what Donald Trump considers to be an effective press conference, but most consider an effective press conference to be one that is fact-based and aligned with what the American people want.

The Washington Post reports that Donald Trump’s claims on key topics in the press conference were “worthy of four Pinocchios.” He discussed both the electoral college and Hillary Clinton in the Trump presser, despite the fact that the election is over and America is concerned about what is happening now. He was also incorrect when he made those statements, and was incorrect on other key topics, such as autism, in meetings this week, and the recent court rulings on his travel ban.

Further, the majority of the general public found the Trump presser in its entirety to be a disaster, and not just because it was riddled with inaccuracies. Trump was combative, derisive, defensive, and openly mocked and insulted the press.

When he was asked about the travel ban by BBC News, he insulted the reporter before the journalist even had the chance to ask a question. “Where are you from?” Trump asked, the reporter said, “Uh BBC.” Trump responded derisively, “There’s another beauty.”

The BBC reporter was not phased, responding, “That’s a good line. We are impartial, free, and fair.” To which Trump replied with sarcasm, “Yeah. Sure.”

One stream of the Trump presser dealt with the electoral college votes Donald Trump received during the 2016 election. It is unclear why Trump is still talking about this. The Washington Post reports that he said the following.

“We got 306 electoral college votes because people came out and voted like they’ve never seen before, so that’s the way it goes. I guess it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan.”

As the Inquisitr reported, these statements are incorrect on multiple levels. Trump did not receive 306 electoral college votes, because two of his electors became faithless electors and voted against him. He only received 304.

Additionally, Trump’s electoral college results were among the lowest in history. He was called out by Emmy winner and NBC News reporter Peter Alexander on that, who fact checked Trump live at his own presser. Donald Trump ranks ranks 46 out of 58 against previous candidates, notes Huffington Post.

The Washington Post notes that Donald Trump did receive more “raw votes” than any other Republican candidate historically, but lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by almost 3 million votes. Additionally, 8 million voters did not vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.

On the note of Hillary Clinton, it is clear that she is still very much in Donald Trump’s head, even though, the election is over and he is no longer competing with her. When reporters were trying to get to the bottom of the real bombshell news this week, Russia and General Flynn’s resignation, Donald Trump deflected to Hillary Clinton and the topic of uranium.

“We had Hillary Clinton give Russia 20 percent of the uranium in our country. You know what uranium is right? It’s this thing called nuclear weapons, and other things, like lots of things are done with uranium, including some bad things. Nobody talks about that. I didn’t do anything for Russia. I’ve done nothing for Russia. Hillary Clinton gave them 20 percent of our uranium. Now if I do that, oohhhh I’m a bad guy. If we could get along with Russia, that’s a positive thing.”

There are multiple inaccuracies with this statement. First, America is not comfortable with any connection to Russia, and this is why General Flynn was forced to resign this week. RT, a Russian-based news outlet reports on a You Gov poll that says 55 percent of Americans consider Russia to be an enemy or “unfriendly” to the United States. It is not a positive thing for America to “get along with Russia” considering the majority of Americans consider Russia to be unfriendly to their state.

Trump suggesting that he has “done nothing for Russia” is also inaccurate. His son has repeatedly discussed setting up business in Russia, and so has Donald Trump himself. He also marketed his Trump vodka brand to the Russian market as seen in this ad.

And when asked about the Russian controversy striking America right now at the Trump presser, Trump wondered why more people weren’t talking about Hillary Clinton and how she was given debate questions during the campaign by WikiLeaks. It comes off as deflection. He also blamed her for selling uranium to Russia.

[Image by Patrick Semansky/AP Images]

Donald Trump is no longer competing with Hillary Clinton, unless he is doing so in his own head, which it appears that he is. The Washington Post reports that the uranium claims are inaccurate and “worthy of four Pinocchios.”

The Hillary Clinton and uranium claim has been explored in the book Clinton Cash by author Peter Schweizer, and an entire chapter is given to the subject. What is true is that there are connections between the Clinton Foundation and its investors on a uranium deal that needed approval from the State Department.

Trump suggested at the Trump presser that the State Department, of which Hillary Clinton was Secretary, had the sole stamp of approval here. But it did not. There are in fact nine government agencies that “vet and sign off” on any American transaction with a foreign government. There is no evidence that Hillary Clinton personally had anything to do with any transaction involving uranium.

The problem that America is facing right now has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton and uranium. It has everything to do with Trump’s alleged or suspected ties to Russia. But he does not want to talk about that.

All Trump would say about General Flynn was that it was very sad what had happened. And, he attacked the media for that. He also blamed the Democrats, and said all of the Flynn Russia talk was about Democrats trying to cover up for a “terrible loss under Hillary Clinton.”

Again, Hillary Clinton has nothing to do with the General Flynn resignation, which occurred because Flynn lied about talking to Russia. But at the Trump presser, Trump once again deflected.

“Papers are being leaked, things are being leaked. It’s a criminal act, a criminal act.”

Another president has said this once too, almost to these exact words, when scandal and corruption by the president were being reported on by the media.

The Washington Post notes that other inaccuracies in the Trump presser were related to the travel ban, and reported crime rates. Trump either conflated the numbers in crime rates or cherry picked appeals or turnover rates from the Supreme Court when discussing his travel ban. He also misled on facts in sanctuary cities, and the rates of crimes committed by “illegals” in sanctuary cities.

And, although Donald Trump did not discuss the subject of autism at the presser itself, he did talk about it last week at a meeting with educators, reports the Washington Post. Like the crime rates, he said autism was seeing a “tremendous amount of increase.” Since 2012, Trump has also consistently tied the autism rate to vaccines, a theory that is controversial and not backed up by scientific fact.

Although the autism rate in North America is high, 1-in-68 children according to the Center for Disease Control’s most recent 2016 report, as relayed by the Washington Post, it is not increasing at the rate Donald Trump suggests. And to arbitrarily and 100 percent attribute autism to vaccines, as Trump does, is inaccurate. Autism is a spectrum disorder, and there are simply too many unknowns along that spectrum to attribute this condition to one known and single cause.

This is a scientific fact. The Washington Post gave Trump three Pinocchio’s on that claim.

There was little accomplished at the Trump presser and other meetings this week, other than to gain a bird’s eye view on where Trump stands on many issues. It is clear that where is stands is not aligned with the needs of many Americans. It is clear he still takes issue with Hillary Clinton, despite the fact that not only is the election over, but she is not even in politics at this time.

And, through his own words at the Trump presser, it is clear he still stands by Russia, and thinks it would be “a positive thing” to get along. This goes against what the majority of Americans believe. And with so many undisputable inaccuracies, it is very unclear on how or where the Trump presser was considered “most effective” by the Trump Administration.

[Feature Image by Evan Vucci/AP Images]

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