Donald Trump may appeal to the most conservative wing of the Republican party, but of all the Republican candidates for president, Trump is the most liberal with the truth, according to a new analysis by one fact-checking group.
PolitiFact.com, a service of the Tampa Bay Times and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, has evaluated 18 of Trump's claims since he announced his candidacy on June 16. Of those, rated three of Trump's claims "pants on fire," its least truthful rating. It gave Trump nine "false" ratings and two "mostly false" ratings. Overall, Trump was less-than-truthful about 78 percent of the time Politifact checked. Trump received four "half-true" ratings and zero "mostly true" or "true" ratings. To be fair, Politifact does not evaluate everything that comes out of every candidate's mouth. Its investigations skew toward statements which on their face seem implausible or unlikely. But even so, Trump easily outpaces his compatriots in terms of fib-telling and truth-stretching.
The only other candidate to receive a "pants on fire" rating was Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Walker earned the mark trying to equate his union-busting credentials to foreign policy experience. In a January 21, 2015 interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Walker said the "Soviet Union started treating [Reagan] more seriously" after he fired most of the nation's striking air-traffic controllers in 1981. Walker said documents released after the end of the Cold War showed Reagan's union-busting showed the Soviet Union he was "serious." But no such documents exist, according to multiple experts, Politifact says.
Politifact has rated 37 of Walker's public statements since March, 2013, when Walker spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference. In addition to his single "pants on fire" rating, Walker also earned six "falses," nine "mostly falses," nine "half-trues," six "mostly trues" and six "trues." Overall, Walker only massaged the truth about 43 percent of the time.
Of those candidates who opened their mouth frequently, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was the most truthful. Only about 29 percent of his public statements were deemed to be "pants on fire," "false" or "mostly false." And Bush had seven "true" statements, more than any other Republican candidate.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Taylor is a general assignment reporter for Newsweek where he writes about U.S. politics, crime and courts, religion, marijuana law, ... Read more
