Round two: presidential debate Clinton vs. Trump

St. LOUIS – Journalists do their best to live-up to the extremely high standard of reporting expected of them by the general public — part of that standard includes fact checking. It’s a good thing there is a slew of fact checkers involved in this year’s presidential election and debates because, like the first debate held last month, both Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump were slinging around false facts about their opponent all across the board.
To name a few:

— Trump falsely said he never tweeted “check out a sex tape” in the wee hours of the morning a few days after the first presidential debate. He did.

— Clinton exaggerated when she said the U.S. was now “energy independent.” The country imported 11 per cent of total energy consumed in 2015.

— Trump distorted the facts about a rape case that Clinton was involved in as a legal aid lawyer in 1975, wrongly accusing Clinton of “laughing at” the victim.

— Trump wrongly claimed that Clinton’s 2008 campaign manager said on TV that the campaign had started the false rumor that Obama was not born in the U.S.

— Trump said that he opposed the war in Iraq from the start. In a 2002 interview with Howard Stern he said, “Yeah, I guess so”.

It seems like Trump was a little more generous with handing out the untrue facts, but you can decide for yourself by watching some highlights from the debate posted online.
At one point in the debate after Clinton said it’s a good thing Trump is not in charge of the U.S. police force, Trump said that yes, she is lucky because if he were in charge, he would put her in jail.

When asked for a response from Trump in regards to the recently released video from 2005 where Trump has an incredibly lewd conversation about women with Billy Bush who worked for Access Hollywood at the time — Trump says that he is embarrassed about what has come to light but that it was ‘locker room’ talk and shouldn’t be taken as anything other than just that.

It’s safe to say that this year’s presidential debate has been one of the most over-the-top presidential debates in history. It’s not finished yet, the third debate will be happening next Wednesday, October 19.

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