AP FACT CHECK: Veracity is a casualty in week of infighting
This past week wasn't a high point for veracity in Washington. President Donald Trump tormented his own attorney general for days, the White House was rocked by the new communications chief's distinctly unusual way of communicating and the chief of staff was out.
Some wildly off-base assertions flew in these matters.
But truth was stretched in other ways, too.
Perhaps lost in the cover-your-ears din of infighting, Trump made a series of claims about improved services for veterans that are at odds with his government's statistics and the experience of many patients exposed to Department of Veterans Affairs health care.
A look at some statements over the past week:
TRUMP: "Problem is that the acting head of the FBI & the person in charge of the Hillary investigation, Andrew McCabe, got $700,000 from H for wife!" — tweet Tuesday.
THE FACTS: That's wrong. McCabe's wife, Jill McCabe, did not get $700,000 in donations from Hillary Clinton ("H" in the tweet) for a Virginia state Senate race in 2015. Jill McCabe got the money from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's political action committee and the Virginia Democratic Party. Those donations happened before the FBI says McCabe was promoted to deputy director of the FBI and took a supervisory role in the Clinton email investigation. He became acting director in May after Trump fired James Comey.
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TRUMP: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!" — tweet Tuesday.
THE FACTS: Trump is entitled to be dissatisfied with his attorney general but there's a backstory. If Sessions has been quiet about Clinton, it's because the election is over and he promised during his confirmation hearings in January to step aside from any investigation of her. As a Trump campaign loyalist last year, he was a critic of the Democratic nominee and said in January that his objectivity could be in question if he was involved in any Justice Department action concerning her email practices as secretary of state.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/factcheck/ap-fact-check-veracity-is-a-casualty-in-week-of-infighting/ar-AAp1hyE?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=edgsp