Donald Trump consistently spread falsehoods, lies and misinformation throughout his town hall hosted by CNN on Wednesday night in front of a crowd of mostly Republican voters in New Hampshire. The former president made false and misleading claims about the 2020 election, the January 6 insurrection, immigration, his border wall, abortion, his sexual abuse trial, the investigation into his handling of classified documents and other subjects.
The host, Kaitlan Collins, attempted to interject and fact-check his claims in real time, though many falsehoods went unchecked as Trump followed his long history of touting baseless conspiracy theories amid his mounting legal troubles.
Here are the Guardian’s fact-checks of some of Trump’s statements.
Claim: Trump started off the night falsely claiming that “millions” of votes were stolen in the 2020 race, and that the election was rigged.
Factcheck: There’s no evidence of widespread fraud, and election officials across the US, including Republican leaders, have repeatedly reaffirmed this over the last two years.
The Trump campaign’s own efforts to show that thousands of ballots cast under the names of deceased people in Georgia came up empty, with findings that contradicted the former president’s claims, a recent report revealed. There is no evidence in any state of fraud or irregularities that affected any election outcomes.
Claim: Trump asserted without evidence that other countries are sending migrants from “mental institutions” into the US.
Factcheck: The former president has repeatedly made this claim, but there is no evidence to support it. Trump’s campaign has been unable to produce evidence of this, CNN recently reported. Anti-immigration groups have also said they are unaware of what Trump may be referencing with these remarks. CNN did a “broad search” for any evidence of this story and came up empty.
Trump also said the US was suffering from “open borders” in his initial remarks on immigration. On the contrary, Joe Biden has maintained many of the policies of the Trump administration, angering immigrant rights groups. The Biden administration also recently announced it was sending 1,500 active-duty troops to the US-Mexico border.
Claim: Trump misleadingly suggested that the judge in the sexual abuse and defamation trial brought by writer E Jean Carroll had prevented him from producing evidence.
Factcheck: Trump has repeatedly made false claims that he was “not allowed to speak or defend” himself. But Trump did not call any witnesses, nor did he make an appearance during the two-week trial, except when excerpts of a video deposition from last year were played in the courtroom.
The judge, Lewis A Kaplan, whom the former president has repeatedly attacked, told Trump’s legal team that he could file a request to testify, but he chose not to. The jury found that the former president sexually abused Carroll, meaning he subjected her to sexual contact with the use of force and without her consent, and ordered him to pay $5m in damages.
Claim: Donald Trump falsely claimed that pro-choice Democrats want to “kill the baby” after they are born, an assertion that went unchecked in the CNN town hall. The former president also suggested abortion rights groups want doctors to be able to “execute” babies.
Factcheck: This false and inflammatory claim was a common refrain of the former president during the last election and has no basis in fact.
Claim: Donald Trump, who as president faced widespread outrage for separating families at the US southern border, defended the policy, saying it had a deterrent effect: “People don’t come.”
Factcheck: There is no clear evidence suggesting that harsh policies such as family separation deter asylum seekers from coming to the US. A 2017 pilot program of family separation was followed by an increase of families entering the US at the border. A 2018 analysis found that the policy was not having the intended effect.
Immigrant rights groups note that policies like detaining children or separating them from their families do not discourage people from coming, and can instead lead to more dangerous journeys.
Claim: Questioned about the continuing criminal investigation into election interference in Georgia, Donald Trump misrepresented a phone call with the state’s top election official, falsely claiming, “I didn’t ask him to find anything.”
Factcheck: A recording of the phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, revealed that Trump had said: “I just want to find 11,780 votes.” The former president said in the town hall that he called to “question” the election. But the recording suggested that he clearly pressured the official to overturn the election results in his favor.
