Fact check of the second presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

ByChuck Goudie and Barbara Markoff and Christine Tressel WLS logo
Monday, October 10, 2016
Fact Checking
The candidates made many claims in the town hall forum Sunday night. The ABC 7 I-Team checked which ones were true and which were false.

ST. LOUIS (WLS) -- The two candidates made a lot of claims in Sunday night's town hall forum. The ABC 7 I-Team Truth Squad checked which ones were true and which ones didn't quite hit the mark.

Washington University's motto is "Strength through truth." The venue of Sunday's debate is named after George Washington, the country's first president, whose most famous folklore quote is, "I cannot tell a lie." But the first falsehood Sunday night took place even before the debate started.

Trump had invited the traveling press pool to a photo op of the candidate prepping for the debate, but it turned out to be a press conference with Bill Clinton sex accusers. Trump acted as moderator and posted it on Facebook Live.

The photo op was a four-minute recitation of 30-year-old allegations. No questions were taken.

That was false. It wasn't a debate prep photo op.

Then to the debate itself, early on Trump accused Hillary Clinton of promising 200,000 jobs for upstate New York when she ran for the U.S. Senate.

"It's just words, folks. It's just words. Those words I've been hearing them for many years. I heard them when they were running for the Senate in New York where Hillary was going to bring back jobs to upstate New York and she failed," Trump said.

That is mostly true, only half the jobs Clinton promised actually happened.

Trump hammered Clinton on her use of a personal computer server while secretary of state.

"After a yearlong investigation, there is no evidence that anyone hacked the server I was using," Clinton said.

That is true. There is no evidence that Clinton's personal server was hacked, although investigators said it was vulnerable.

Trump continues to claim he's actually been endorsed by a government agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

That is barely true. The labor union representing ICE border guards endorsed him. The government agency has not.

Trump called Clinton a liar at least a dozen times, charges fairly easy to Truth Squad, and once called her "the devil" which would be more difficult. And the moderators on a few occasions challenged both candidates with their own Truth Squad follow-up questions.

Below you will see the fact check for the second debate from Washington University in St. Louis.

Below you will find the Fact check of the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at Hofstra University