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We Fact-Checked Saturday’s Speech

posted onFebruary 20, 2017

Article snippet: Photo President Trump kicked off his re-election campaign in Melbourne, Fla., on Saturday. Credit Al Drago/The New York Times Much seemed familiar on Saturday as President Trump held his first campaign rally as president — the hats, the chants, and even some of the misstatements and exaggerations made by Mr. Trump.Mr. Trump compared himself to Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, presidents who “fought with the media and called them out.”“We are here today to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” he said. But he then offered several misleading claims.Mr. Trump warned that refugees coming into the United States are not screened.“We’ve allowed thousands and thousands of people into our country. There was no way to vet those people. There was no documentation, there was no nothing.”Refugees are vetted, and it takes two years.Mr. Trump repeatedly made this inaccurate claim during the 2016 campaign, and it is still inaccurate. The country’s vetting system for refugees, which begins at the United Nations, is extensive.Applicants undergo several rounds of background and biometric checks — fingerprints and retina scans, for example — by multiple federal immigration and intelligence agencies. The system is not foolproof, and intelligence officials have raised concerns about gaps in data collection on people coming from conflict zones like Syria. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Trump... Link to the full article to read more

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