AP FACT CHECK: Misfires in Trump's AP interview

[mahatmakanejeeves]

If this keeps up, DU is going to have to start a new forum called "AP FACT CHECK."

AP FACT CHECK: Misfires in Trump's AP interview

Calvin Woodward and Jim Drinkard, Associated Press

Updated 6:05 am, Monday, April 24, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an Associated Press interview, President Donald Trump claimed more progress than he's achieved on his 100-day plan and showed he was not completely familiar with what he had promised in that "contract" with voters.

A look at some of his assertions in the interview conducted Friday and other statements he made over the past week:

TRUMP, on his 100-day plan: "I'm mostly there on most items." — AP interview

THE FACTS: He's not. Many have yet to be taken up.

{Snip, because there's not enough bandwidth for all this.}

....

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Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Alicia A. Caldwell, Josh Boak and Robert Burns contributed to this report.

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Find all AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd

EDITOR'S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. The whole interview was a misfire.

It was a 55-gallon drum of word salad. How can you even fact-check something that hopelessly incoherent?

[JenniferJuniper]

2. The full transcript is one of the scariest things

I have ever read. No hyperbole.

https://apnews.com/c810d7de280a47e88848b0ac74690c83

[LenaBaby61]

3. "The full transcript is one of the scariest things ...

I have ever read. No hyperbole."

Someone posted a link to his interview yesterday, and I had to read it twice to try to get some type of context out of it. I kept thinking, "This man was installed as president of our country for God's sake, and he has the nuclear codes." I always thought there was something very much wrong with him when he began campaigning in earnest for the presidency in 2015, but it's OBVIOUS now that whatever's wrong with him mentally/or with his brain is worsening, and that's that's frightening.

We've lived through Reagan who was suffering from Alzheimer's early on in his presidency, and now this with tRumputin.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. I've been reading it between episodes of "work," and I agree.

It is truly disturbing. It's like a transcript of an interview that occurred in a psychiatrist's office.

[spiderpig]

6. Or a medieval asylum.

Truly frightening.

I like scary/suspense/horror movies...but in a theater. Not real life.

Where are we headed? I'm covering my eyes.

[Orrex]

5. Years ago I knew a schizophrenic man

He believed that the FBI was sending hypnotic globes through his bedroom window at night to control his dreams, and he routinely discussed this phenomenon in extensive, rambling detail.

In retrospect, he was more coherent than Trump.

[randome]

7. But you got better, right?

Sorry. Couldn't resist.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]

[Orrex]

9. LOL. Yeah, I asked for that

I don't know what happened to the guy. He was a very frequent customer at the Hardee's where I worked in the early 90s. It was a 24-hour location, and he'd usually come in for breakfast, hang out six or seven hours, and then return for dinner & hang out for another six or seven hours. He was harmless and kept to himself for the most part.

Last time I saw him, he sprinted across our parking lot with his hands in his back pockets, and he disappeared around a corner.


Still more coherent than Trump.

[NastyRiffraff]

8. 100 days is an "artificial barrier"

So I'm holding a big rally to mark it. That's Trump. Making sense is optional.

[Orrex]

10. And his idiot supporters will worship him for it.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

11. Just one example:

TRUMP: I think (I) can to an extent. But there's a, there's a basic hard-line core that you can't break though, OK, that you can't break through. There's a hard-line group you can't break through, you can't. It's sad. You can't. Look, I met with Congressman Cummings and I really liked him, a lot. Elijah Cummings (of Maryland). I really liked him a lot. And during the conversation because we have a very strong mutual feeling on drug prices. He came to see me, at my invitation, because I saw him talking about, he came to see me about drug prices because drug prices are ridiculous. And I am going to get them way, way, way down and he liked that. He said you will be the greatest president. He said you will be, in front of five, six people, he said you will be the greatest president in the history of this country.

AP: He disputed that slightly.

TRUMP: That's what he said. I mean, what can I tell you?

AP: Yeah.

TRUMP: There's six people sitting here. What did he, what, what do you mean by slightly?

AP: He said, he said that he felt like you could be a great president if and then —

TRUMP: Well he said, you'll be the greatest president in the history of, but you know what, I'll take that also, but that you could be. But he said, will be the greatest president but I would also accept the other. In other words, if you do your job, but I accept that. Then I watched him interviewed and it was like he never even was here. It's incredible. I watched him interviewed a week later and it's like he was never in my office. And you can even say that.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. Who was the 'somebody' who issued a 100-day plan for President Trump?

Fact Checker Analysis

Who was the ‘somebody’ who issued a 100-day plan for President Trump?

By Glenn Kessler April 24 at 12:16 PM

AP: “You did put out, though, as a candidate, you put out a 100-day plan. Do you feel like you should be held accountable to that plan?”
TRUMP: “Somebody, yeah, somebody put out the concept of a hundred-day plan. But yeah. Well, I’m mostly there on most items.”
— exchange during interview between Julie Pace of the Associated Press and President Trump, in an interview on April 21

The Fact Checker will have a full fact-check of various claims made by President Trump in his interview with the Associated Press. But we were especially puzzled by his claim that “somebody” put out the concept of a 100-day plan and that he’s “mostly there on most items.”

The Facts

Who was that “somebody” who put out the plan?

It was somebody named Donald Trump.
....

The Pinocchio Test

We relied on Trump’s “Contract with the American Voter” because, given that it had his signature, we figured there would be little chance he would try to distance himself from this set of promises. Apparently we were wrong.



Four Pinocchios
....

Glenn Kessler has reported on domestic and foreign policy for more than three decades. He would like your help in keeping an eye on public figures. Send him statements to fact check by emailing him, tweeting at him, or sending him a message on Facebook. Follow @GlennKesslerWP

[GeorgeGist]

13. When somebody acusses themselves of lying ...

shouldn't that be a double-score?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

14. Trumps over-the-top, boastful AP interview, annotated

Trump’s over-the-top, boastful AP interview, annotated

By Aaron Blake April 24

President Trump sat down with the Associated Press's Julie Pace on Friday, and what emerged was a conversation in which Trump bragged and boasted repeatedly — sometimes unprompted and using revisionist history — about what he's accomplished in his first 100 days as president. He did this all while dismissing the idea that the 100-day threshold even matters, despite hailing that same standard dozens of times late in his 2016 campaign.

{VIDEO: By the numbers: Trump’s first 100 days}

Some of the claims are truly remarkable, including that he may have given the greatest speech in the history of the House chamber and that a Democrat told him he'd be among the greatest presidents ever. He also just flat-out said he shouldn't be bound by his 100-day promises.

Below is the transcript, which was released Sunday night, along with my annotations. To see an annotation, click on the yellow, highlighted text.
....

Aaron Blake is senior political reporter for The Fix. Follow @aaronblake

[Orsino]

15. He's like Chauncey Gardner without the gardening skills...

...but with rabies.