Keller @ Large: Fact-Checking Donald Trump
BOSTON (CBS) - As this presidential race turns the corner toward actual voting, we're going to get you closer to what's going on by fact-checking some of the statements these candidates are making.
We start with comments made by Republican Donald Trump during Thursday night's stop in Portsmouth, NH, where he repeated a litany of alleged facts about the San Bernardino jihadists he's been using to justify his call for strict limits on Muslim travel to the US.
CLAIM: "So many people knew that those two in California were up to no good," said Trump. "They saw bombs sitting on the floor."
TRUTH: So far, no one in law enforcement has even alleged prior knowledge by anyone of the massacre or the arsenal in the killers' apartment.
CLAIM: "They had another person that said 'oh, I didn't want to report them because I didn't want to go racial profiling.' Oh, ok, [he] sees pipe bombs sitting all over the place, didn't want to racially profile."
TRUTH: Here Trump is mixing up the killers with a relative's home where neighbors said they saw lots of deliveries. And one neighbor told the media he spoke with another neighbor who was reluctant to report his suspicions. But no one has actually claimed to have seen anything incriminating, like "pipe bombs sitting all over the place."
CLAIM: "One of the first things I do in terms of an executive order if I win will be to sign a strong, strong statement that will go out to the country and the world that anybody killing a policeman or cop - death penalty....Anybody killing a police officer, death penalty, it's gonna happen, OK?"
TRUTH: Capital punishment for the murder of a federal law enforcement officers is already federal law. So is the right of the states to set their own policies. For a president to force it on states as Trump appeared to claim he will would require legislation requiring Congressional approval, or an unprecedented order to his Attorney General to seize jurisdiction which would almost certainly be challenged before the Supreme Court.
Trump's remarks in Portsmouth also included some undeniable truths, that many voters are fed up with political correctness and justifiably fearful of terror. And there's another apparent (if, perhaps, temporary) truth worth noting - his penchant for elisions and half-truths hasn't so far impeded his sustained run at the top of the polls in the GOP race.
We'll be fact-checking statements by other candidates of both parties as the campaign continues.
