NPR and Politico both issued dubious fact-checks on President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night State of the Union address.
Trump’s address had a theme of “choosing greatness,” and began with a call for unity. He went on to share the successes of his administration. He also implored Congress to act on immigration, prescription drug pricing, trade and infrastructure among other issues.
At one point while discussing illegal immigration, Trump said, “One in three women is sexually assaulted on the long journey north.”
SOTU fact check: Trump said “one in three women is sexually assaulted on the long journey north.” That’s partly true.
Full story: https://t.co/tgPJtI2Ojx
Transcript + annotations + analysis: https://t.co/vm3oMapatc pic.twitter.com/cewA0uneVn— POLITICO (@politico) February 6, 2019
Politico immigration reporter Ted Hesson fact-checked that claim and rated it “partially true.”
Here’s Hesson’s explanation for the rating: “A 2017 report by Doctors Without Borders found 31 percent of female migrants and 17 percent of male migrants said they had been sexually abused while traveling through Mexico.”
So, Politico ruled Trump claiming 33.3 percent of women who make the trek from Central America to the U.S. get sexual assaulted on the way is only “partially true,” because the percentage he shared was off by 2.3 percent. (RELATED: Watch Buzz Aldrin Stand And Salute Trump In The Middle Of A Huge Standing Ovation)
In one of the more enthusiastic moments of Trump’s SOTU address, he said, “And exactly one century after Congress passed the constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, we also have more women serving in Congress than at any time before.”
FACT CHECK: President Trump praised the record number of women in Congress, but that’s almost entirely because of Democrats, not Trump’s party. https://t.co/cbixnX8mnk pic.twitter.com/GBppTBkZTI
— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) February 6, 2019
Democrats proceeded to stand up and clap. Cheers of “USA! USA!” also erupted.
“That’s great. Very great. And congratulations. That’s great,” Trump continued.
NPR fact-checked Trump’s claim about having “more women serving in Congress than at any time before.”
“There are more women in Congress than ever before, but that is almost entirely because of Democrats, not Trump’s party. The number of Republican women in the House has, in fact, fallen from 23 in the last Congress to 13 in this one,” their fact-check read. “Altogether, there are 127 women in Congress, up from 110 in 2018. But even with that large jump, women remain hugely underrepresented on Capitol Hill — less than 1 in 4 members of Congress is a woman. (Meanwhile, women are the majority of voters.)”
So, NPR “fact-checked” the president’s statement about the number of women in Congress by saying that it’s a result of the opposition party, not that the statement he made was false.