On Thursday, President Donald Trump held his first rally since the conclusion of the Mueller probe. In his speech, the President's mocked refugees and also doubled down on the false claim that he's been fully exonerated.
"The Special Counsel completed its report and found no collusion and no obstruction," the President declared. In fact, the report failed to reach a conclusion on the obstruction issue, but Attorney General William Barr explicitly noted that the findings did not exonerate the President.
Politifact fact-checked President Trump's speech for other misleading statements and outright lies.
1. Trump's characterization of the Russia probe
"The Russia witch hunt was a plan by those who lost the election to try and illegally regain power by framing innocent Americans, many of them, they suffered, with an elaborate hoax," the President said.
In fact, Special Counsel Robert Mueller found that Russia had interfered in the US election. His team also indicted dozens of individuals in that effort.
And as Politifact notes, the initial investigation was sparked by Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos in June of 2016, long before Hillary Clinton lost the election.
2. The economy
Donald Trump also boasted about economic growth during his Presidency.
"We've created since my election 5.5 million new jobs. Nobody would have believed that was possible, including 600,000, brand new — remember, this couldn't happen, you'd need a magic wand — brand new manufacturing jobs," he said.
Politifact notes that Trump both exaggerates the growth in manufacturing jobs, and takes more credit for the growth than is accurate. "In addition, economists always say that presidents are just one factor in the health of an economy," they write.
3. Health care
In the rush to overturn Obamacare, President Donald Trump has claimed that patients with pre-existing conditions will be protected, a claim he reiterated last night.
"We will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions. Always," he said. But it's not clear what policy mechanism would prevent insurance companies from dumping patients with pre-existing conditions if the ACA is fully repealed. In 2018, Congress passed the Ensuring Coverage for Patients with Pre-Existing Conditions bill. The legislation contains a loophole for an insurance company to deny coverage if "it will not have the capacity to deliver services adequately."
4. Drug prices
"In 2018, drug prices saw their first decline in 46 years," President Trump claimed. An analysis by Politifact found that claim to be widely misleading.
"In 2018, while drug prices didn’t go up as much as in the past, they continued to rise," Politifact noted.
5. Abortion
"The Democrat(ic) Party has also been aggressively pushing extreme late-term abortion, allowing children to be ripped from their mother's womb, right up until the moment of birth."
Late term abortions occur when they're medically necessary to protect the life of the mother. They are usually last resorts in cases of life and death.
