CNN fact-checker 'begged and pleaded' for info on key Trump claim — didn't get 'a smidgen'
CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale had his hands full Thursday after President Donald Trump held a lengthy cabinet meeting to discuss everything from the trade deficit with China to his repeated claims about immigrants coming from "mental institutions and insane asylums."
Dale intimated that there was so much information to verify that he would "stick mostly to the big news of the day" during his appearance with Boris Sanchez and Brianna Keilar.
"President Trump keeps saying that the U.S. has $1 trillion trade deficit with China — that's about quadruple the actual figure, which was $263 billion last year," Dale began. "If you only count trade and goods, and don't count trade and services, it's about $295 billion. So, still, nowhere close."
Dale added that Trump repeated his claim that the U.S. "took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China" thanks to his first-term tariffs.
"As many of our colleagues keep pointing out — because we have to — all that revenue was paid by U.S. importers, and we know from study after study and just from talking to people in this country, most of those costs were passed on to U.S. consumers," Dale said.
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Dale continued, saying Trump "repeated a bit of alternative history" saying that "the European Union was formed for the purpose of taking advantage of the United States. I spoke this week to an expert on European integration. He said, not only is that wrong, it is completely detached from the actual history."
Dale said Trump kept "kind of flirting" with the debunked conspiracy theory around childhood vaccines and autism, with Trump claiming, "something artificial had to have caused the increase in diagnoses over recent decades," adding that "maybe it's a shot."
"That is debunked," Dale said. "It is not a shot. Experts tend to attribute this increase in diagnoses to increase awareness, increased screening."
And finally, Dale discussed Trump's fixation on "mental institutions and insane asylums."
Dale said that Trump repeated his claim that "other countries around the world were emptying jails and mental institutions under President Biden to somehow send criminals and people with mental health issues to the United States as migrants. I have begged and pleaded with Trump's team for any evidence, any corroboration of those claims. they haven't provided any smidgen of it whatsoever."