Post #1: The Candidates and their Attempts to Persuade Us
Pick a speech by either the Democratic candidate, Hilary Clinton, and the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, and answer the following questions:
- Who was s/he speaking to?
- What did they articulate as their vision for their presidency?
- Did you find their speech to be persuasive? Why or why not?
- Pick at least two facts that they used in their speech and fact check them. What rating would you give their speech on a Truth-O-Meter? (1 being a total lie and 5 being totally honest.)
Please include the link to the speech you picked and to articles you find to fact check the speech. When you cite the resources you used you can use hyperlinks or you can put a (1) after the point and then make a numbered list of sources at the end of your post.
Your post is due by 8 am on Friday, September 16th. Please post your response by clicking on the little pencil beneath my post so your response can be on the same thread as your classmates. I look forward to what you write/think!
Labels: campaign, president, presidential campaign
posted by Ms. Aby @ 2:17 PM
58 Comments:
She is talking to small business owners and voters. She wants to be a small business president and to not be like Trump. She saying that Trump has been racist towards a specific people for decades and now he asks what do you have to lose for supporting him. Which helps her case in being persuasive. Its persuasive enough to get attention from people across the US. There is a case against Trump for racial bias. Turns out Trump did say racist comment about a federal judge. I would give her a three.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-governments-racial-bias-case-against-donald-trumps-company-and-how-he-fought-it/2016/01/23/fb90163e-bfbe-11e5-bcda-62a36b394160_story.html
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/article/2016/jun/08/donald-trumps-racial-comments-about-judge-trump-un/
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_soeyHVrawY
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During this speech, Clinton was speaking to every voter in America, but specifically those who have been affected by gun related violence. Hillary Clinton supports universal background checks when buying a gun. She wants to close the loopholes (gun show loophole, Charleston loophole) that allow people to purchase a firearm without a background check. Clinton is also opposed to automatic and assault weapons being available for regular citizens to obtain. As president, she says that she will implement these policies to keep weapons off the streets and make our country a safer place. I found this speech to be persuasive. She is extremely passionate about the topic, and backs this up with evidence of need for change. This makes you feel like she truly cares, and will do her best to carry out her gun control plan. The first fact I chose from this speech is that 33,000 people die per year as a result of gun related violence. This is true, but 20,000 of these deaths are suicide. While these deaths still matter, it is debatable as to whether or not they are considered relevant to talk about gun control. (1) The second fact is that since the Brady Bill was passed, implementing background checks, more than 2.4 million people have been stopped from buying a gun, over 1 million of them being felons. This is mostly true. The Brady Campaign website says that 2.1 million people have been stopped from buying a gun since the bill was created, but it had been a year and a half between that study and the time of Clinton’s speech, so it is safe to say the number had gone up at least a little. The website also confirms that over 1 million of the people stopped from buying a gun were felons. (2) I would give this speech a 4 on the “truth-o-meter”. A couple of numbers were confused/inflated, but overall, her facts were solid.
(1) https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-by-the-numbers/
(2) http://www.bradycampaign.org/inthenews/brady-campaign-releases-a-report-analyzing-20-years-of-effective-background-checks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX72xheC630 (speech)
In this speech, Hillary Clinton was addressing workers and laborers and speaking about Labor Unions, equal pay for women, and other similar issues. Clinton says that as president she will stand up for workers and get the economy to be beneficial to everyone and not just the upper-class. I found her speech to be very persuasive. She firmly stated what her goals were and how she proposed to achieve them, even going as far as to show the book she co-wrote with Tim Kaine about their ideas and plans. Clinton also backed up her ideas on Unions with a fact that checks out. She said that “When more workers are in unions, wages are higher, and not just for union members, but for all workers.” The AFL-CIO recently released a report that confirms this statement (1). She was still honest as she spoke to the audience on why her opponent, Donald Trump, was not fit to be president. Clinton told the listeners that Trump had said “our military is a disaster”, and it is true that he made this remark. However, she did not give the context for the quote, which is that Trump may have been referring to the lack of resources, and pulled out of context the meaning of his words do change (2). Regardless, Clinton did not directly lie about, but left it open for interpretation. Based upon this it can be determined that this speech of Hillary Clinton’s should be given a 4 on the truth-o-meter.
Video:https://www.c-span.org/video/?414755-1/hillary-clinton-tim-kaine-hold-labor-day-rally
1:http://www.aflcio.org/Learn-About-Unions/What-Unions-Do/The-Union-Difference/Wages-Higher-with-Union-Rights
2:http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/29/hillary-clinton/hillary-clinton-says-donald-trump-has-called-us-mi/
Hillary Clinton’s Remarks on Manufacturing and Jobs in Youngstown, Ohio(Part 1)
On July 30, 2016, Hillary Clinton and her running mate Tim Kaine addressed a rally in Youngstown, Ohio concerning manufacturing and jobs. Youngstown is a steelmaking town about 60 miles away from Pittsburgh. It thrived during the “glory days” of the Pennsylvania steel industry, but since the decline of the market, has lost more than half of it’s population. It still runs steel mills today, as well as various car assemblies, both of which provide the majority of Youngstown’s employment opportunities. Youngstown is far past it’s prime; it had a population of 170,000 in 1930 and yet only has a population of 65,000 now(1). In fact, a study in 2013 by the U.S. census named Youngstown “America’s fastest shrinking city.”(1) Not to mention, 98% of Ohio businesses are small businesses(2). Hillary could not have picked a better spot to give a speech on manufacturing and jobs.
Hillary focused on a variety of issues throughout her speech, and in her own inimitable style, told them exactly what they wanted to hear. “I don’t believe that a four year college education should be the only path for people having a good middle class job, and a future that gives them and their kids better opportunities”. Currently, less than 10% of the minorities and less than 15% of the whites in youngstown have a bachelor’s degree or higher(3). She focused on investing in infrastructure and renewable energy, emphasizing the millions of american jobs she would create in the process. She mentioned the extensive tax cuts she would grant to the middle class and small businesses. Overall, Hillary painted a picture of an America where anyone willing to work hard can support their family in relative comfort.
I thought Hillary’s speech was very persuasive, provided the issue was whether or not to vote for her. I didn’t think the sections where she discussed her economic growth plan were very impressive, just because she didn’t state any facts. However, the back half of her speech was devoted towards attacking Donald Trump, which appeared to be the more effective strategy. These are people who work hard in the factories to just barely scrape by, and resent the big businesses and the corporate giants. Hillary claims Trump rips off small businesses, hires them for work, doesn’t pay them, and then dares them to sue if they don’t like it. She mentions his slogan, then accuses him of outsourcing his business’ labor overseas: “he talks about putting America first, right? Well, then why does he make Trump suits in Mexico instead of Brooklyn, Ohio? Why does he make furniture in Turkey instead of Cleveland? Why does he make barware in Slovenia instead of Jackson, Ohio?” Judging by the audience’s reaction to this section of the speech, many of them would vote for Hillary just to avoid voting for Trump, and for Hillary, a vote is a vote.
(Continued from part 1) My first fact I checked was Hillary’s claim of Trump outsourcing his labor. It seemed to be one of the most effective arguments in her speech, but she never offered up any numbers, so I wanted to check it out for myself. Surprisingly, she’s absolutely right. When Donald Trump first started a line of suits in 2004, he signed with Phillips Van Heusen, a manufacturer with factories in 85 different countries(4). Donald Trump’s Ivanka Trump line of clothing imports 628 of it’s 838 products, 354 of which are made specifically in China(5). Coming from a man who has said “Skilled craftsmen and tradespeople and factory workers have seen the jobs they love shipped thousands and thousands of miles away,” and who has allegedly sworn off Oreos after Nabisco moved part of it’s productio to Mexico, these activities are seen as highly hypocritical(6). My second fact that I checked was Hillary’s claim that her economic plan would create 10 million jobs, while trump’s plan would lose 3.5 million. She mentioned a study conducted by Mark Zandi, John McCain’s economist, so I looked at that. While the study did technically predict those numbers, Zandi himself admitted that it was a complicated and estimated process, and that economists have often been wrong. In addition, Zandi’s predictions already anticipate 7.2 million jobs being created just as a result of the current economy, without even considering Hillary’s plans(7). Also, the study says that about half of the jobs would be going to immigrants. This isn’t inherently a good or bad thing, but it’s certainly not the all-american, good old-fashioned working class that Clinton depicted in her speech to the Ohioans. Not to mention the study predicts little to no increase in wages. Finally, although most economists prefer Clinton’s plan over Trump’s, this study is the only one predicting such consistently positive results. Overall, I would rate Clinton’s speech a 3, for oversimplifying what is clearly a complicated and approximated economic study.
Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVe51FZKDt8
http://www.hamptoninstitution.org/youngstown.html#.V9apA00rLnA
https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/oh12.pdf
http://www.towncharts.com/Ohio/Education/Youngstown-city-OH-Education-data.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-decries-outsourced-labor-yet-he-didnt-seek-made-in-america-in-2004-deal/2016/03/13/4d65a43c-e63a-11e5-b0fd-073d5930a7b7_story.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-decries-outsourcing-family-brand-manufactured-abroad/story?id=37502012
http://time.com/4386332/donald-trump-trade-speech/
http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/17/news/economy/hillary-clinton-10-million-jobs/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiNXxQYspqE
In this video Hillary is addressing the UFCW (The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union) A union improving the quality of life for food and commercial workers, improving wages, benefits and safety in the workplace. Hillary was very persuasive, backing up her argument that the UFCW is important to her, with facts.
In her speech, Hillary states that the UFCW processes, prepares and serves the food American families eat, which is true, as on the UFCW website they state: "More than 70% of the beef American families eat is produced by our members at UFCW-represented packing plants."
Hillary later says that the president of the organization, Anthony Perrone, as well as knowing Hillary for "a long time" started off working in a store in Pine Bluff Arkansas, meaning to highlight his small-town beginnings. This statement is also true, according to bloomberg.com, as well as www.ufcw.org where it states: "He joined the Retail Clerks – which later became the UFCW – in 1971 while working as a part-time clerk at Weingarten’s food store in Pine Bluff, Arkansas."
Hillary's last claim, that she was fighting for the same causes as the UFCW from "Raising the minimum wage, to comprehensive immigration reform, to at last, getting equal pay for women." is also true. On Hillary's website, hillaryclinton.com, she states all of the above as issues she has a stance on, and all of her stances on the website line up with what she says in the speech.
Truth-O-Meter: 5
Sources:
www.ufcw.org
bloomberg.com
hillaryclinton.com
Charlie said...
Hillary was speaking to local government members in Santa Barbara, California. She is describing her vision for American early child education, which is important in closing the achievement gap. She also described he necessity of paid family leave, which will also help young children be prepared for kindergarten by letting them spend time with their family. I certainly found the speech persuasive, mostly because the opinions she put forth on early child education were similar to my own.
Fact 1) California has paid family leave. This is TRUE. The Paid Family Leave law was created in 2002 as part of the State Disability Insurance, or SDI program. The SDI covers about 17.9 MILLION California workers. Weekly benefits gained from the paid family leave can be as little as fifty dollars, or as much as $1,129. You can recieve these benefits for up two six weeks each twelve month period. There is a short waiting period, and you must file some paperwork, such as a request form and a proof of relationship document, but the payments can be very useful to families with a newborn child.
Fact 2) Grandparents and siblings can also use paid family leave in California. This is TRUE as well. It is not necessarily for parents only. It can be used to take care of very sick family members as well, and, as long as you are employed or currently ACTIVELY searching for a job, you can receive the benefits. Specifically, a serious health condition under this law is "an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition of a patient that involves any period of incapacity (e.g., inability to work or perform other regular daily activities) or inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility and any subsequent treatment in connection with such inpatient care; or continuing treatment by a physician/practitioner." It does not include other, less serious illnesses like the flu, common cold, cosmetic treatments, such as face lifts, or non-migraine headaches, as long as complications do not occur from these issues.
I would give her a 5 for truthfulness in this speech.
1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KuInRlSnak
2) http://www.edd.ca.gov/disability/paid_family_leave.htm
3) http://www.edd.ca.gov/disability/Am_I_Eligible_for_PFL_Benefits.htm
Donald Trump was speaking to potential voters in Charleston, North Carolina. Donald's Trump's vision for america is to unite all type of people. No one gets discriminated. Along with that each person gets a voice. He looking to create a new future for America with a honest government, great economy and a just society. He wants to give the government to the people He will help those in the inner city.
Donald Trump’s speech was persuasive. One of the first things he said in his speech was that he was going to unite america. Throughout his speech he gave examples of how he was going to do that. He said he will not sleep until all children of different races are treated equally. When he said “I have no patience for injustice, no tolerance for government incompetence, and that is what it is, gross incompetence, and no sympathy for leaders who fail their citizens.” When he said this it sounded a little reused but I found it a riveting.
In Mr. Trump’s speech he said that 72% of voters believe that our country is on the wrong track. In Rasmussen's Report, it says in the recent poll that 63% said that the country was going in the wrong direction. There was a point when 72% of voters believed that and that was in July 10-14. That is where he might have gotten it. The other fact is when he said that 4 in 10 african americans live in poverty. That is 40%, on the website blackdemographics.com it says that 46% of african american familes live in poverty. For a man who prides himself on never going to tell a lie I rate him a 4.5 out of 5 on the truth-O-Meter.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/right_direction_wrong_track_sep12 - 72% of voters
http://blackdemographics.com/households/poverty/ - 4 in 10 live in poverty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-dZlm7m4Rw - Speech
On September 12 2016, the day after the anniversary of 9/11, Donald Trump addressed the National Guard Association in Baltimore, Maryland (1). Throughout his speech Trump both criticizes his presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton, and articulates his view for America under the Trump administration, particularly focusing on his plans for the military. In his address Trump promises to provide security to “hard working Americans,” denouncing Hillary Clinton’s elitist stances. If elected Trump promises that he will reform foreign and military policy in such a way to focus on defeating ISIS. Trump also plans to end the defense sequester and increase the military budget to strengthen the the military and advance its technology and equipment. Overall, Trump makes it very clear throughout his speech that the United States under his leadership will have a large and strong military with an increased budget and huge amounts of resources.
On face value, Trump’s argument is very persuasive. Through his entire address, Trump uses loaded language that evokes an emotional response from his listeners. Just citing one example, near the end of his speech, Trump states that under his presidency the United States will be “one people, under one God, saluting one American flag.” Thus Trump uses strong language to produce a sense of agreement and unity from his audience. Trump also uses Hillary Clinton’s own words against her when he shows his disgust for her claims that his supporters are “deplorable, irredeemable, and un American.” Indeed, Clinton does say these things during a recent New York fundraiser (2). By using this quote against Clinton, Trump puts Clinton down inversely raising his campaign up in the eyes of his supporters.
Where Trump falls short in his address is in his use of facts, or lack thereof. Some of Trump’s facts do not have a firm base. For example, in the middle of his speech Trump claims that he is polling well among African American voters. However, recent polling information has shown that Trump holds only five percent of African American support (3). This incorrect fact definitely calls the reliability of Trump’s statements into question. Also, throughout the entire speech Trump uses very few facts and figures to back up his arguments. Trump makes numerous claims throughout his speech yet he gives them little to no backing. For example, Trump states that the defense sequester is “a disaster” yet gives absolutely no facts to back up this claim. Overall Trump’s address scores a total of 3 on the Truth-O-Meter because, while some of his his claims regarding Clinton hold water, he provides little to no facts to back up his other claims and some of the facts he does utilize are incorrect.
(1)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ETB9orkBdw
(2)https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/10/hillary-clinton-trump-supporters--bigoted-deplorables
(3)https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poll-clinton-leads-trump-among-hispanics-but-not-by-as-much-as-you-might-think/2016/09/12/19c8b5f0-77bd-11e6-8149-b8d05321db62_story.html
On August 15th, 2016, Donald Trump addressed a crowd of his supporters in Youngstown, Ohio, discussing his plans for foreign policy if he was elected president. Trump envisions a very secure America, shown by the strong, aggressive language used as he spoke about how the US would do best if it was isolated from non-westernized immigrants. He plans on completely halting all immigration from the Middle East until the area is deemed safe by the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. He also plans on creating the “Commission of Radical Islam” to teach the general public how to recognize warning signs of radicalization within the Islamic community. Trump’s use of aggressive language combined with his intense nationalism make his speeches very persuasive. The way he speaks encourages the listener to experience intense patriotism and persuades them to agree with his statements, as his whole platform is based around “Making America Great Again.” In order to make himself seem more trustworthy and intelligent, Trump would attack any rival he mentioned. This can be seen through the blame placed onto President Obama and Hillary Clinton for choosing to withdraw from the war in Iraq. “But I have been just as clear in saying what a catastrophic mistake Hillary Clinton and President Obama made with the reckless way in which they pulled out.” Trump was completely wrong though, as President George W Bush actually signed off on the Iraq Withdrawal when he signed off on the Strategic Framework Agreement and Security Agreement (1). He also frequently mentions how warning signs for terrorist attacks were ignored, and how his Commission of Radical Islam would have identified possible terrorists before they had a chance to attack. For example, he claims that the female San Bernardino shooter was publicly posting her support for Jihad online. In reality, the FBI reports state that every show of support was hidden within private direct messages and emails, and that she posted nothing involving the attack publicly (2). I would give Trump a 2 on the Truth-O-Meter, as he does make some true statements, but for the most part he has altered some facts or completely made up others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prXVUh47Obs
1 - http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/12/20081214-2.html
2 - http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-ln-fbi-san-bernardino-social-media-20151216-story.html
(part 1) Three days ago, on September 12th, Trump gave a speech at a rally in Asheville, North Carolina as a rebuttal to a comment stated by Clinton. Trump begins his speech at the rally by addressing the crowd, his supporters, and encouraging them to go out and vote in order to repair the dissatisfaction he feels that Americans are experiencing. He follows with a criticism of Clinton and states that her campaign is “hate filled, with no policy and no solutions.” With that, Trump segues into a backlash of a statement Clinton made earlier this month. Last week, Clinton spoke at a fundraiser and called the defenders of Trump “[a] basket of deplorables” and “irredeemable.” Trump refutes these statements by bringing up a diverse group of his supporters who use their personal statements to negate their being called deplorables. Trump continues with a list of his visions for a new America, including repeals of “needless and job killing” regulations and restrictions, nullifications of Obamacare, immigration and economic reforms, as well as promises to protect the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. Trump articulates that with his reforms and repeals, hardworking and patriotic Americans will be prosperous, protected, and put first.
The emotional responses elicited from the crowd throughout this speech shows that Trump is very persuasive. Although he does gives a layout of what he imagines for America, much of his persuasion comes from inciting the anger in his supporters by explaining what is wrong with the current status of the United States. Trump vaguely explains his plans for reforming bills and regulations, but focuses more on denouncing current legislation and Clinton’s plans. Trump's rhetoric works because much of his support is built up on the fact that many Americans are unhappy. Trump phrases his plans without using economic and political jargon, so that the everyday, non-politician American knows enough to know that they are dissatisfied, but not enough to know what exactly Trump plans on doing to fix the current condition of America.
Furthermore, in his speech, Trump criticizes the “rigged system,” and Clinton’s Wall Street agenda, saying that she “has crushed the middle class,” and “[speaks] with hatred in her heart for working class Americans.” However, this is all untrue. Much of Clinton’s economic standpoints cater towards the middle class, whom she believes is what our economy is dependent upon. On her website, Clinton lists eight ideas to implement to alleviate the hardships that the middle class experiences. For example, Clinton plans on tax cuts for the middle class and advocates her support for unions, which are critical for the middle class and therefore the economy (1).
(part 2) Additionally, Trump furthers his criticism of the “system” by stating that the “people who rigged the system wants to keep the system exactly the way they are. [...] They want massive regulation to keep small businesses from being able to compete from businesses all over the world.” In this instance, Trump is pinpointing Clinton as the “people” who rig the system, as she is his opponent in this election. Nonetheless, Trump yet again affirms an untrue statement. Once more, on her website, Clinton lists the vision for small businesses and leveling out the playing field for their prosperity through reforms including tax relief, more markets for small businesses, and an investment of $25 billion in support of entrepreneurship and small business growth. Clinton blatantly states multiple times that small businesses are the engine of job growth for hard working citizens all across America, yet Trump still proceeds to slander her and proclaim that she wants to keep small businesses from thriving (2,3).
Thus, Trump’s claims in this speech would score a 2 out of 5 on the Truth-O-Meter. He articulates his visions for future of America by briefly explaining his plans for when he is in office, but more heavily criticizes what past presidents and Clinton did and would do wrong. Regardless of whether his reforms would benefit America or not, Trump barely uses observed and concrete fact to back up his standpoints. Likewise, when he criticizes Clinton, much of what he says she is trying to do to harm the Americans is utterly untrue. Trump claims one thing in his speech, but on Clinton’s website, she says exactly the opposite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D43AX8cDL4Y
(1) https://www.hillaryclinton.com/post/middle-class-needs-raise-heres-how-hillary-clinton-plans-do-it/
(2) https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/small-business/
(3) https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/h/2016-02-12-hillary-clintons-breaking-every-barrier-agenda-revitalizing-the-economy-in-communities-left-behind/
Donald Trump is infamously known for his brash comments and public criticism of every other possible candidate during the 2016 election. After winning the Nevada caucus, Trump delivered a speech that screamed arrogance and complete confidence in his campaign. At this time, a large sum of people would laugh off his antics and not pay attention, but now, just months before the election, people are no longer laughing. Donald Trump has a very clear vision of what his America pertains. This includes a white America with no immigrants or women in power. This includes complete protection of the second amendment and hateful comments from the man who see himself fit for office. What I find interesting about the anomaly which is Donald Trump, is his disregard for a well thought out plan for the future. His ideas are barely held together by loose threads and he seems so dead set in his answers. To him, his America is the America that will prosper. He has complete disregard for the society we have built on the back of immigrants.
Donald Trump is scary because he is powerful. He is intelligent enough to use his vernacular and vocabulary to bend the truth. He is intelligent enough to play on the uneducated minds of those who agree with him. Trump is a smart man who knows how to use the insecurities of his followers, particularly white men. White men make up the majority of Trump's followers. They are men who have lower incomes (the majority of his followers actually have incomes under fifty thousand dollars) and feel voiceless due to the uproar of diversity and culture. Because of these insecurities they are desperate to find a scapegoat, and Trump gives them one. He gives them reasons to hate on people of color, women, those part of the LGBTQ+ community. And instead of fact checking him, his advocates follow along and agree without arguing these sentiments.
The first fact I decided to check was Trumps claim that he is self funding. This is wrong. His definition of self funding isn't what it really cuts out to be. His self funding campaign also includes fundraisers that ask for fifty thousand dollars per couple. He has been raising money from small donors since the beginning of his campaign. To date, his campaign has raised a total of $91.2 million dollars. Only $50 million of this is from Trump himself. The other $41.2 million is a combination of small donors and maxed out donors. I would give this a three on the truth scale.
His claim that he is doing amazingly well with African Americans and Hispanic voters is just flat out wrong as well. Only five percent of African American voters are even considering Trump. eighty one percent of Hispanics see Trump as unfavorable. Those numbers don't seem too promising to me. I give this claim a one on the truth scale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMkDv8O_yoA
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-funding_us_579f8fb7e4b08a8e8b5ed586
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poll-clinton-leads-trump-among-hispanics-but-not-by-as-much-as-you-might-think/2016/09/12/19c8b5f0-77bd-11e6-8149-b8d05321db62_story.html
On June 22nd, 2016 Donald Trump had a speech in front of his supporters. Now known as his Anti-Hillary speech, he discusses some of his plans for the presidency. Later in the speech he talks about shortcomings of the Hillary campaign, her personality, and her time as secretary of state. He discussed his plans to keep businesses in the United States by taxing those who left and gave away jobs to those overseas. Trump states that he will clean up the corruption that had run rampant in politics, and will stop the “special interest monopoly” (1) in politics. Moving on to his opponent he says she has spent her time in politics stealing money from the people and putting it into special interest groups and herself. He then goes on to say that Hillary made $230 million dollars since 2001 by doing speeches to banks and lobbyists. I decided to check this fact and found that the number was correct but not the money came from more than just speeches. Both Hillary and Bill wrote books during that time and Bill partially went into business. All in all Hillary’s speeches only added up to eight percent of the total $230 million (2). Trump goes on to say she does not have the judgement to be president and begins on her time as secretary of state. He discusses the problems with Israel and the refugee crisis. He also talks about the mistakes that were made during Hillary’s time in the cabinet, even going so far to say that Hillary “opened the door for ISIS"(1). That is another fact that I tried to check, this was not as easy to check because of the variety of issues that come with a rising of a group like ISIS. However, the group IS, which will become ISIS, was created in 2007(3), while some people in those countries wanted a revolution (4). I would give this speech a 4 on the Truth-O-Meter, mostly because he only enlarged the facts given, and in most of the speech he did not give many facts to be refuted.
(1)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-s6UmYMsSs
(2)http://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2015/10/13/how-the-clintons-made-more-than-230-million-after-leaving-the-white-house/#1cb54761791e
(3)http://time.com/4030714/isis-timeline-islamic-state/
(4)http://intpolicydigest.org/2014/10/20/the-rise-of-isis-who-s-to-blame/
(Part 1) I decided to watch a speech by Hillary Clinton in Brooklyn, New York (1). The speech took place on June 6th, 2016 at 10:30 PM ET. She is addressing the public on the day she was voted as the democratic presidential candidate. She explains that it is a momentous day because it is the first time a woman will be a major presidential nominee. While she is directly talking to the people of Brooklyn, she really has an audience nationwide, as it is a significant day in terms of the 2016 presidential election.
While talking about the significance of being the first woman presidential nominee, she refers back to the Seneca Falls Convention in New York City. She states that in 1848 the women wrote a document, the Declaration of Sentiments, which was the first document of its kind. However, upon checking these statements that are not entirely true. According to History.com, the “declaration was modeled closely on the Declaration of Independence, and its preamble featured the proclamation” (2). While what Hillary meant by her statement is unclear, it is obvious that the Declaration of Sentiments is not the first declaration of its kind in human history, as it unquestionably similar to the Declaration of Independence.
Later on in the speech, Hillary explains that she has everyone’s backs. She says that if she becomes president she will continue to have everyone’s backs as well. She then goes on to explain that “we” want a bunch of things, such as an economy with less inequality, a government that listens to the people and not the powerful brokers, and a society that is fair to all. This method of using the word “we” increases Hillary’s persuasive tone, as it makes people feel included and therefore more inclined to support her. The recurring theme through all of these statements is that we are more powerful together. She also hints at the idea of abolishing people with money ruling the government. This also increases her likability and persuasion, as a very small percentage of people in the United States fall under that rich class who would disagree with her. While these aspects of her speech are quite convincing, I don’t agree with her harsh language towards Donald Trump. She says that she wants a country where everyone is treated with respect, and that everyone lifts each other other up rather than tearing them down. However, Hillary is doing this to Trump as she is saying this. I think that treating everyone with respect should be at the core of America like Hillary says, but I think that idea should apply to both Trump and Hillary during the presidential election. Despite the fact that it is a competition between the two, I do think both of them should focus on the positives of their own campaigns rather than tearing down the other’s. Because of this aspect of her speech, I don’t find it quite as persuasive than if those negative comments were left out.
(Part 2)
Hillary wraps up her speech explaining that her inspiration through her life has been her mother. She states that she was born on June 4th 1919, which was on the same day as when the 19th Amendment was passed. This fact is true according to OurDocuments.com (3). This little addition to her speech helps end the speech light, and gives it a warm-hearted feel. It makes Hillary seem personable as well, and helps lead into her final statements.
Overall, I would rate her speech a 4/5 in terms of truthfulness. This is because while almost all of her statements were backed up by credible sources, the way she worded several ideas made me question what she was saying. Regardless, I do think that she clearly got her message across in a way that was easy to understand and follow. Hillary was able to acknowledge her nomination for the democratic party while looking towards her future plans. She did this in a way that I believe most people, regardless of political affiliation, would be able to respectfully acknowledge as a historic day in history.
Speech: http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/06/08/hillary-clinton-brooklyn-victory-entire-speech-sot.cnn
Seneca Falls Convention: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/seneca-falls-convention-begins
19th Amendment: https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=63
On August 11, 2016, Hillary Clinton gave a speech in Warren, Michigan about economic policy(1). However, before Clinton started talking about her economic policy plans she talked about the Futuramic tool and engineering company. Clinton said that the Futuramic company, was founded in 1955 as an automotive company(4). Then, she said that when the 21st century came around the major automotive companies got back into business, and Futurmaic was kicked out of the industry(4). As a result, Futuramic was faced with a choice :to give up or keep going, and they decided to keep going, which led to them from building cars in the auto industry to moving into the military defense industry(4). Clinton used this example to show her support for the determination and hard work of small business employees and owners in America. However, this speech is also addressed to regular, hardworking Americans.
In Clinton's speech: her vision for her(possible) presidency, was one where the wealthiest 400 taxpayers in America pay the same amount of taxes as their secretaries(2). Furthermore, I fact checked this and the wealthiest taxpayers do indeed pay less taxes than their secretaries(2). Next, another one of Clinton's economic policy and presidential goals is to fight against companies that make trade treaties so they can outsource their work to another country for a cheaper cost.Clinton said this hurts the American economy, because American dollars are being pored into other countries economies. Finally, Clinton also promised to pass a Child Care tax credit that would make it easier for low-income families to pay for child care; and still hold their jobs.
The 2nd fact that I checked was whether helped passed a healthcare initiative that helped 8 million children, and this is true because Clinton did help pass the State Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997(3).Next, this speech did not persuade me, because Clinton focused more on talking about Trump, than talking about her economic policies in greater detail. By doing that she turned a potentially good speech into a mudslinging contest against Trump. Finally, I would give this speech a 4 on the truth meter, because Clinton was not the one directly responsible for passing the state child health insurance act(3).
1. Speech link: https://www.c-span.org/video/?413874-1/hillary-clinton-lays-economic-vision
2.http://www.americansfortaxfairness.org/tax-fairness-briefing-booklet/fact-sheet-taxing-wealthy-americans/
3.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Children%27s_Health_Insurance_Program
4. http://futuramic.com/about-us/
Hillary Clinton is speaking at a rally in Hampton, Illinois to a group of her supporters. Based on the prevailing content of her speech, she seems to be speaking mostly to minimum wage earners and lower class workers in general. She focuses a lot on workers, wages, and unions; all of whom she aims to help as president. The speech was somewhat persuasive, but some of the facts she stated were muddled or somewhat untrue. For example, she stated that Donald Trump doesn't believe in raising the national minimum wage (1). However, Trump has stated that while he prefers to leave minimum wage decisions to the states, he supports raising the national minimum wage to $10 (2). However, she also makes some completely true statements, such as saying that unions raise the incomes of union members (1). This is true; according to the Economic Policy Institute, unions raise members' wages by 20% (3). In addition, she states that Trump believes he alone can fix [the system] (1), which Trump claimed verbatim at the Republican National Convention (4). Overall, I would rate the speech at a 4 in terms of truth, as there are completely factual statements but also some unclear, vague, or half-true statements.
1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2u0NbHaq9A
2: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/28/donald-trump/donald-trump-gets-full-flop-stance-minimum-wage/
3: http://www.epi.org/publication/briefingpapers_bp143/
4: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/trump-rnc-speech-alone-fix-it/492557/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN6KBbug9gA
On June 7th Hilary Clinton addresses her supporters after her victory in the primaries, and being appointed the Democratic party’s presidential nominee. She is thanking them for the support they have given her to get her to this monumental moment in the presidential race. She starts off her speech by talking about how her being nominated is a historical event for our nation. She talks about the “real glass ceiling” and how they will be shattering it because of her nomination. Clinton addresses the fact that she’s breaking barriers for women, and continuing on in the efforts that began in the Seneca falls convention in 1848 (1) where the declaration of sentiments was created. It was the first time in history Women became activist in gaining equal rights to men, she continues by saying her nomination is another step in the right direction to the efforts that began in 1848. In order to gain more support and the continuing support of her followers, Clinton promises her followers viewing her speech that they are better together and together they will build a strong future for our nation. Clinton wants to create a nation where there are no limits for its people, and she considers her nomination to be something that will contribute to that society. She wants to create a government that listens to it’s people and a society that is tolerant, inclusive, and fair. In order to make her promises seem legitimate, and better than what Trump is offering she bashes a lot of the promises he has made. She states that Donald Trump who promises to make America great again, is just trying to go back in time and recreate a time when only a portion of the country was happy, and a lot of minorities did not have a voice. She says that he not only wants to build a wall between the United States and Mexico he’s going to build a wall in between Americans figuratively. Clinton ends her speech by creating an emotional moment when she talks about her late mother and how proud she would be of her if she were still alive to see Clinton’s nomination. She says that her mother once told her to never back down to bullies, and it has become the best advice she has received, hinting at the idea that Trump is a bully. Clinton also shares that her mother was born on the day that the senate was passing the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote, June 4th, 1919(2). Overall I thought that Clinton delivered her speech in a powerful way and really made it a way for her to share all of her goals now that she is a major party candidate for the election. She made her causes known, now that she knows her main competition has become Donald Trump, and no longer Sanders. I found her speech persuasive because she was sharing ideas about our future as a nation that a majority of people would see as a good thing, which helped her in being influential in her speech. I would give the speech a 4 for the facts, because she was making promises that would not necessarily be possible, but the rest of her facts were real and true, and not used just to gain support.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/seneca-falls-convention-begins
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-passes-the-19th-amendment
The speech I chose was given by Hillary Clinton to the citizens of San Diego, California on the topic of national security. She stated that some of her main duties as president would be to find ways to protect the homeland from ISIS threats, and to make sure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons. After a brief introduction and outline of her speech, she immediately began criticizing Donald Trump’s views on immigration and national security. She talked about Trump’s plans to build a wall in order to oust illegal immigrants as well as increase the level of security in our country. To further separate herself and her ideas from Trump, she claimed that Trump called global climate change “a hoax created by the Chinese” (1). This fact turned out to be true, even though he later stated that he meant it as “a joke”. In addition, she stressed her dedication to the American people by once again stating that Trump called America a third world country, which she strongly disagreed with (2). Once again, this fact was true, although Trump mainly meant that America is heading towards becoming a third world country, and needs infrastructure improvements. After sufficiently separating herself from Trump, she continued with her ideas for national security. Although she does not stress increasing the size and power of our military, she does believe that maintaining a military strong enough to defend ourselves from current threats is essential. She also brought up the fact that she has experience dealing with threatening countries, namely North Korea. She says that as secretary of state, she worked with Japan and South Korea to develop a missile defense system comprised of American technology and stationed on Japanese ships that is ready to defend against a North Korean missile strike. Despite this seemingly militant act, she stresses that diplomacy is the only true way to resolve conflict without creating a messy affair. However, she was not afraid to state her opposition to the situation in Iran and their efforts to develop nuclear systems. She said that she is not afraid to use military force to prevent them from developing nuclear systems, in part to protect Israel, who she strongly supports. To end her speech, she once again uses Trump’s words against him to demonstrate how she believes that she is much more qualified to lead the country on issues of national security, since she was Secretary of State. She also tries to paint a patriotic picture of herself by saying that Trump doesn’t believe in America. She even claims that Trump bought newspaper ads in 1987 saying that America needed a backbone in its Foreign Defense Policy (3). Again, this fact was true. She leaves her speech saying that she is hopeful for America’s future and remains patriotic.
I find her speech somewhat persuasive. Although all of her facts were true, they were mostly attacking Donald Trump. She did lay out a coherent plan for her vision for national security, but I believe that she spent too much of her time attacking what Trump has said in his speeches rather than speak more about why her plan is the best option for the United States. As far as truthfulness goes, I give it a 4, because although there was not one fact that I checked that was necessarily untrue, she did change her wording of each fact to make Trump seem as unfavorable as possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y04TVy0FxHg
1) http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/21/science/donald-trump-global-warming-energy-policy-kevin-cramer.html
2) http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/donald-trump-us-becoming-third-world-country-1543231
3) http://harvardpolitics.com/united-states/demystifying-donald-trump-past-present/
On August 11, 2016 Hillary Clinton addresses a middle class audience, giving a speech on economic policy. If elected as the next president of the United States, Clinton states that she will create new jobs and economic opportunities for all Americans. This will be done by hiring unemployed Americans to build new roads, bridges, tunnels, railways, ports, and airports to improve infrastructure. Clinton also plans to create jobs by expanding renewable energy. In addition to creating new jobs, Clinton plans to provide affordable housing and repaired schools in order for citizens to receive the education needed to enter the workforce. These measures are expected to create 10 million new jobs. Aside from creating new jobs, Hillary Clinton mentions that she will improve the lives of Americans by cutting taxes for the middle class and for small business owners. Overall, Hillary Clinton’s speech on economic policy is fairly persuasive. The use of personal anecdotes about her family’s middle class background assures middle class families, entrepreneurs, and small business owners that she understands their struggles and has their back. Hillary Clinton’s policies seem appealing both the average American and those with professions in business. This is especially important considering that the audience is comprised of many workers from large companies within the automobile industry. Although Hillary Clinton offers a very convincing economic policy plan, the reality of creating it and the results still pose questions and facts that need to be double checked. Clinton mentions multiple times during her speech that she will lower taxes for the middle class; however, this may not occur once Clinton is elected into office. The estimated cost of all of her proposals total 1.8 trillion dollars over the course of a decade (1). In addition to raising the taxes for those earning more than 250,000 dollars a year, Hillary will have to find other ways to bring in even more revenue, especially considering the increasing national debt (1). The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget claims that, “Ultimately, a mixture of spending cuts, tax increases, and entitlement reform is likely to be necessary in order to grow the economy and fix the debt for future generations” (1). Another fact questioned by Americans is the creation of 10 million new jobs. Even though Moody Analytics and CNNMoney conclude that this fact is true, the facts behind the statement are misleading. CNNMoney claims that under current economic conditions, without the help of Clinton, 7.2 million new jobs will be created over the next decade (2). It also is mentioned by CNNMoney that a good portion of these new jobs will be given to immigrants, rather than unemployed Americans (2). For these reasons, I rate Hillary Clinton a 3.5 on a truth-o-meter scale. Hillary Clinton offers an solid, appealing economic plan, but does not include enough details on the results of her policies and the reality of carrying out her proposals.
Sources:
http://www.crfb.org/papers/adding-secretary-clintons-campaign-proposals-so-far (1)
http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/17/news/economy/hillary-clinton-10-million-jobs/ (2)
Speech:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?413874-1/hillary-clinton-lays-economic-vision
On September 13th, 2016 Donald Trump addresses a group of supporters at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, discussing his plans on how he is going to “make America great again” (1) Trump seems to contradict himself, he brings to attention the fact that in Chicago there is a fatal shooting every 2 hours, this is true as of 2015 (2), but later follows up by claiming that if elected he will “save your 2nd amendment” by appointing Justices to the Supreme Court. If he wants safer communities and to lower the rate of gun violence, gun reform must happen. By claiming he will protect the 2nd amendment and reiterating that he has the endorsement of the National Rifle Association (NRA), it would seem that his beliefs on gun reform would follow those of the NRA, no gun reform. With no gun reform laws there would be no way that a President Trump can make our streets safer or really do anything to address the issue of gun violence in America. With the NRA lobbyists in a Trump White House no one can be certain that our streets will be made safer. If elected President, Trump makes promises to rebuild inner cities and bring jobs back to America. He states that one in every five American households do not have a single person working, which was true in 2014 (3). His plans for creating more jobs however were never emphasized, he lacks a plan for unemployed Americans, which frankly is large amount of voters that he is leaving out by not elaborating on his plans. Trump similarly lacks a refined plan on extinguishing our national debt. He claims that investing more money into rebuilding our “depleted” army and holding our allies accountable for “paying their share” will somehow get rid of our monumental debt. The majority of his speech is spent ridiculing Obama or Clinton administration's or attacking his counterpart’s, Hillary Clinton, email scandal instead of informing his supporters on what voting for Trump would really mean for America. When Trump seems to catch the attention of most of his supporters it seems to be when he is deriding his competitors campaigns, they do not seem near as enthusiastic while he is explaining his plans for our country. I would say Trump could be persuasive in the getting people to rallying against someone they have hated for years, but I would not say he is persuasive in getting people to back up his platform. He lacks a elaborate plans and by the looks of it his plan seems to only protect one group of American. On the Truth-O-Meter I would rate Trump a 3, he twists true facts into obscure statements that seem to be only partially true.
(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnB2t1g908Y
(2) http://dailycaller.com/2015/10/06/chicago-shootings-reach-2349-this-year-someone-shot-every-2-8-hours/
(3) http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/1-5-families-us-no-one-works
In this speech, Trump was directly speaking to the public of Iowa, but in reality he was speaking to all of the American public.His envision of the presidency is that he wants to be the president and speaker for all of America and the just the Republicans. I found his speech not very persuasive, mostly because I have heard him give similar speeches, in his talking about Hilary's Emails, or him talking about personal insults rather than combating his opponents on policy. The first fact I checked was when Trump said "1/5 of American households don't have a single working family member". This fact is actually pretty close, According to the Bureau of Labor(1), "the share of families with an employed member was 80.3 percent". In this case, Trump is only off by .3%, however, it is somewhat misleading because these numbers are actually up by .2% in the last year. The second fact I checked was "4/10 African American children are in poverty. According to Pew Research, 38.3% of African American children are in poverty. So this fact is not completely correct, but for the most part is. All in All, I believe his truthfulness on this speech was around a 3 because he can be misleading and round up on his facts, but his facts are very close.
Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnB2t1g908Y
Source 1:http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/famee.pdf
Source 2:http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/14/black-child-poverty-rate-holds-steady-even-as-other-groups-see-declines/
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I watched a speech by Hillary Clinton given in Miami, Florida on March 1, 2016. In this speech Clinton was addressing her supporters after winning several state primaries on Super Tuesday. She is emphasizing how America will prosper when all Americans are prosperous and the power is not just given to the wealthy and those at the top(referring to Trump). In her vision, she says she wants more love and kindness in America, and to make more opportunities and empowerment in America. She wants America to live up it’s potential and strength that it could be, believes that America can work together to break down the barriers holding back the country. Hillary stats that she against companies that cheat employees, exploit consumers, and pollute environment. In her speech, Clinton talks about a auto company, Johnson Controls and Auto Parts, that was bailed out in 2008 by taxpayer money and is now “turning its back to America” and leaving to go overseas to avoid taxes. According to The Wall Street Journal(1), this is true and the company will now be an Irish company, making the tax rate lower. Clinton also mentions she wants to add more good jobs that will pay enough to support families that are struggling, which is why, according to Clinton, we need to invest in manufacturing, small businesses, and clean energy projects. She wants to break down barriers for women and be able to guarantee equal pay for equal work, and also break down barriers and defend the rights of all types of people. At the end of her speech, to emphasize her point of a community coming together after tough times, she tells a story about Flint, Michigan. She claims that children got poisoned from “toxic water” after the governor changed the water supply in effort to save money. In an article by NBC News(2), they confirm that the story is true, but says the water gave them 50% higher risk for elevated blood lead levels, not necessarily made all the children sick. I think that Hillary’s speech is very persuasive and gives the audience an idea of a very perfect and happy society. Although her vision is persuasive and her facts seem to check out, I would give it an overall 2 or 3 on the truth meter since many of her ideas of everyone getting along and the perfection she dreams of seem far fetched.
(1)http://www.wsj.com/articles/johnson-controls-auto-parts-business-expects-higher-profit-after-spinoff-1473931802
(2)http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/flint-water-crisis/cdc-confirms-lead-levels-shot-flint-kids-after-water-switch-n598496
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyvaflqusdQ
On August 31st, Donald Trump faced a passionate crowd of his supporters in Phoenix, Arizona, and gave one of the most important policy speeches of his political life. Clocked at one hour and thirteen minutes, Donald Trump took the time to lay out an in-depth plan to solve one of the most crucial issues facing our nation: immigration reform. Having been the candidate that raised the issue of immigration to the top of the political agenda for the 2016 election, it was time for Mr. Trump to explain his stances on the issue. During the primary season, Trump took a hardline stance on immigration, with proposals to deport many - if not all - illegal immigrants, and build a wall on the Mexican border. In recent months, however, Trump has appeared to waver on the issue, even stating that he would consider “softening” his stance. Clearly, Trump needed to use this speech to clarify what his true thoughts on the issue are. He used his speech to go through a ten-point plan that would restore “law and order” not only on the border, but also throughout the entire United States. Indeed, most of his speech was centered on the idea that America needs to focus on national security issues. Of course, Donald Trump’s slogan is “Make America Great Again” - and to him it seems that America must have been great during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Why? Because Richard Nixon ran on the same agenda of restoring “law and order” in America. Indeed, Mr. Trump often repeated this slogan throughout the speech, while adding that America will be far better off under his administration. His “America First” message was the most persuasive part of his speech. He employed most of his arguments in a way that defended American citizens, while arguing against those who are degrading the livelihoods of Americans (in this case, illegal immigrants). However, the platform he presented will likely only appease his supporters, and attract few independents. This is due to the fact that most Americans oppose deportation of illegal immigrants; a Gallup poll states that 66% of Americans either oppose or strongly oppose deporting illegal immigrants. (1)
(continued from post 1)
As far as the truthfulness of the facts used to support his argument, Mr. Trump fared as well as could be expected of him. Unfortunately for Trump, his folksy and off-the-cuff rhetoric that makes him so appealing to many Americans appears to make it more difficult for him to clearly articulate policy positions. Mr. Trump used a teleprompter for most of the speech - and when Trump read from a script he sounded not only intelligent on the issue, but also confident in the facts he used to support his claims. However, when Trump would deviate from a script, he found himself in trouble with the truth. On multiple occasions did Trump make claims that were half true at best. For instance, Donald Trump stated that the government has no idea how many illegal immigrants are in our country, based on the fact that “we’ve heard 11 million (illegal immigrants) for years.” However, the Pew Research Center reveals that, as of 2014, there are 11.3 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Now, Mr. Trump is not incorrect in that we have heard the “11 million illegals” number for quite a few years; however, he has misinterpreted the reason. In fact, the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. peaked in 2007 at 12.2 million. In the past ten years, the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. has been on a steady decline. This is important to note for a couple of reasons. To begin, Mr. Trump always makes a claim that our politicians have no idea what they are doing. However, the fact that there are clear numbers to disprove his claim (at least in regards to immigration) shows that our government is more informed on the issue than he may think. Secondly, Mr. Trump makes the assumption that people are pouring across our border, almost alluding to the idea that illegal immigrants are coming in record numbers. However, the Pew Research Center statistics show otherwise, as we are nine years removed from our peak. (2) Later in the speech, Mr. Trump stated that “Clinton supports sanctuary cities, catch-and-release on the border, visa overstays, the release of dangerous criminals from detention, and ‘unconstitutional executive amnesty.’” This statement is half true. Although Clinton does support amnesty by way of executive order, on her website she states she “will focus resources on detaining and deporting those individuals who pose a violent threat to public safety.” (3) Mr. Trump tried to label Hillary as soft on immigration, but his claims are only partially supported. Towards the end of his speech, Mr. Trump made another interesting claim. He stated that, as a nation, we owe almost $20 trillion in debt, a number that is double than what our debt was at the start of Obama’s presidency. Overall, this is true. In 2009, the national debt stood at $10.6 trillion, and today it stands at $19.5 trillion. (4)
Donald Trump addressed citizens of Manchester, New Hampshire on June 13, 2016. He addresses matters of national security, immigration policy, and terrorism. His speech occurs in wake of the Orlando shooting which had occurred the night before, so the topics he speak of are relevant to this and address the loss and outrage its occurrence has caused. The injustice that had occurred fuels Trump’s points. One of his main points is that immigration into the US needs to stop in order to end radical Islamic attacks. The killer, who Trump refuses to name, was the son of parents from Afghanistan who had then moved to America. In order to prove the radicalism of the family of the Orlando killer, Trump brings up the fact that the killer’s father was running for president of Afghanistan and was a supporter of the Afghan Taliban. According to CBS News, this is true, and father, Seddique Mateen does support the Taliban and hold anti-American views (1). Trump goes on to disparage the existence of immigrants in America, repeating that their admission into the US is unsafe for Americans.
Trump articulates ideas to carry out during his presidency in order to restore America’s safety. His promises include changing the incompetent immigration administration, suspending immigration from places that remain a threat to America and its allies, and developing a new immigration policy that puts America’s interests first. He also wants to give intelligent community, law enforcement, and the military the tools they need to stop terrorist attacks. Trump is an avid supporter of the right to bear arms, so he believes in providing any tools necessary to enforce safety. However, Trump bashes Clinton’s approach to the Second Amendment right saying, “Her plan is to disarm law abiding Americans, abolishing the Second Amendment, and leaving only the bad guys and terrorists with guns.” Gun control has been a topic discussed without rest and the 2 candidates have opposing views, but Clinton does not go as far as to say the things previously stated. She believes in reasonable restrictions on the right to own guns, but does not want to strip the right. She has called to focus the sellers and manufacturers of guns and their liability in shootings (2).
Trump’s stance on gun policy contradicts the policy he holds toward immigration. When it comes to immigration, he throws around the word “radical” to show what we should be afraid of, and he says screening is needed to find those associated with radical groups. He also states the FBI director has admitted that we can not effectively check the backgrounds of people we are letting into America. This was stated by FBI director James Comey in 2015 (3). With this being true how can we know who to trust with guns when we can’t provide effective background checks for people entering the country?
This speech was, by all means, persuasive. It used the right words and tone to impact the audience in just the right way. The words he chooses trigger emotions. Words and phrases like “radical Islam” and “terrorism” spur the audience to feel anti-immigrant emotions and to agree with Trump’s radical opinions Aside from this, he sprinkles in facts to support his opinions, but there may not be total truth behind them. I would give this speech a 4 on the truth-o-meter.
Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFIVXkJWzfA
(1) http://www.cbsnews.com/news/orlando-shooting-omar-mateen-father-seddique-mateen-taliban-god-punish-gays/
(2) http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/11/politics/hillary-clinton-gun-control-second-amendment/
(3) http://dailycaller.com/2015/10/21/fbi-director-admits-us-cant-vet-all-syrian-refugees-for-terror-ties-video/
Donald Trump addressed Mexican and American press after a meeting he had with the Mexican president earlier that day. Trump said that a mutually beneficial partnership between Mexico and America is in the best interest for both parties. He reiterated the need for a physical border between Mexico and the US, claiming that over 1,000,000 illegal border crossings happen each and every day. Trump seemed to backtrack on some of the former statements he has made in his campaign. He made it clear that he loves the Mexican people. He described them as “hard workers, amazing people, and beyond reproach.” This is a very different tone from when he called Mexican immigrants drug lords and criminals. The overall message of Trump’s speech was that the US and Mexico need to have trust, and work together on problems that are mutually beneficial. I believe that this speech was a huge success for Trump. It is the first time that he presented himself in a formal situation that a president may also be in. He was very well mannered and did not stray from his talking points. The first fact that I chose to research was Trump’s claim that over 1,000,000 illegal border crossings occur per day. This fact is completely false. The only data I found on border crossings stated a maximum of 600,000 border crossings per day, both legal and illegal (1). The second fact I chose to research was that wages in the US have been declining for 18 years. This fact is also false, although the general trend shows a declination, it is not constant. In fact wages have been going up since 2014, although very gradually (2).
https://youtu.be/WSWF71EKp6g
(1) http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/us-mexico-border
(2) https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/central.html
link to speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxD5QkzmVOA
On August 31st, 2016 Donald Trump gave a speech on the issue of immigration to the citizens of Mexico City in order to show his plan for Mexico and America’s relationship with one another. At the beginning of his speech he expresses his love for the United States and acknowledges the president of Mexico’s love for his own country in order to grab the audience’s attention. Trump then goes on to express why he believes the United States and Mexico need to work together so both countries can be happy and prosperous, and states five shared goals in order to create the environment he wants to achieve. These five shared goals include ending illegal immigration from Central America into Mexico and from Mexico into North America, having a more secure border such as a wall, dismantle drug cartels and put an end to the smuggling of weapons and funds, improving NAFTA in order to keep industry in our hemisphere and away from competition such as china, and lastly keep manufacturing wealth and so jobs can stay in the United States and Mexico. Although Donald Trump had some good ideas within his five shared goals, I did not find this speech very persuasive. I think it was a good idea for Trump to consider Mexico and America working together to better both countries and he also had the right idea of trying to help keep industry in this hemisphere but he had poor word choice and speaking skills, for example he overuses the word tremendous in the beginning of his speech. I also believe it is a little farfetched to believe building a wall is practical economically and it is also hard to imagine people not being able to find a way to get past it. At the beginning of his speech he stated a few simple facts that I found interesting, one being between Mexico and America there is one half of a trillion dollars in trade. He was correct with this fact, in 2015 there were 583.6 billion dollars in goods and service trade between the United States and Mexico(1). Trump also stated there are one million legal crossings across the United States Mexico border each year which is probably true. The number of incoming crossings in 2015 was 507,676 people (2). It is assumed there other half a million comes from outbound crossings. Mexico does have a way of tracking which also has around one million people cross the U.S. Mexico border daily (2). Overall, this speech could be a 4 on the truth-o-meter because the facts may be true, but whether or not he will follow through with the plans he addresses in his speech is plausible because of the practicality of them.
https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/americas/mexico
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/sep/14/donald-trump/trump-says-1-million-legal-crossings-along-us-mexi/
Speech: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/media/remarks-in-mexico-city-mexico
On the campaign trail in hopes of receiving the Republican nominee, Donald Trump gave a speech in New Hampshire on June 16th, 2016. He was surrounded by supporters at a large rally held for him at Saint Anselm College. This speech was given four days after the Orlando night club shooting, which was the largest mass shooting in America’s history, and specifically targeted LGBT members of the Orlando community. Throughout the speech, Trump argues that “we have a dysfunctional immigration system that does not permit us to know who we let into our country.” He also was very insistent that the reason this tragedy happened was because the immigration system is much too relaxed and does let the government screen people thoroughly. This is simply not the case. Refugees and immigrants from most countries go through rigorous background checks and screenings before being allowed to enter the country legally (1). Another point Trump hammers home is that Omar Mateen, the Orlando shooter, was born and raised in Afghanistan before immigrating to the United States, which is probably where we got his radical Islamic ideas. Omar Mateen was actually born in New York, just like Donald Trump himself (1). Mateen’s parents were indeed born in Afghan and immigrated to the United States, which is something Trump does get correct. However, he is wrong when saying that Mateen’s father had previously stated that he was running for president of Afghanistan, which no records can be found of. It is true that he campaigned on behalf of a candidate for president of Afghanistan, but never actually ran himself (2). Overall, Trump’s point of immigration laws being the reason people “like Omar Mateen” got into the country is not backed up by any of the facts he has cited or spoken of.
As well as the immigration reform, another main point Trump makes is his support of the LGBT community in this time of crisis. This is a very ironic point now as he has chosen Mike Pence as his running mate, someone who has repeatedly stated his dislike for anyone LGBT and opposition to LGBT rights (3). On the truth-o-meter, Trump ranks at a ⅕ in this speech. There were not many facts that he did get right and actually had information to back him up, and the fact that he did have so much incorrect information truly brings the persuasiveness of this speech down. Trump is not a very gifted persuasive speaker. He ignites passion in those that already support his views, but is not talented at bringing those who are unsure on to his side, which is a key element in being a persuasive speaker.
Trump’s speech addressing the Orlando shooting as well as his ideas for immigration reform is overall just a rehashing of things he has said in the past, just in different words and with different circumstances. His “facts” are weak at best and truly aim to incite passion in his supporters rather than to persuade potential voters.
speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnUE1LtxalI
(1) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/14/fact-check-donald-trumps-immigrant-speech-after-orlando-terror-a/
(2) http://www.cbsnews.com/news/orlando-shooting-omar-mateen-father-seddique-mateen-taliban-god-punish-gays/
(3) http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2016/01/04/what-we-know-gov-mike-pences-position-gay-rights/78257192/
On July 25, 2016 Hillary Clinton gave a speech at a VFW Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her speech was directed to the military veterans present at the convention. She stated that if she was president she would give her full support to veterans so that they can all have equal access to programs and healthcare. That they would not be deprived of, or waitlisted for appointments, treatments and medication. I did find her speech a bit persuasive, she used her father as a link to connect herself to the audience. She spoke about the greatness that is America and the sacrifice the military makes. “We have the world’s greatest military, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” Though she seemed really geared toward speaking about the support she has always given to military affairs and how she will make sure their needs are met, her speech lacked energy. The audience did not seemed connected to what Clinton said, and the applause that was given was half hearted. Clinton mentioned that she was responsible for the Heroes at Home Act,a program that created programs for current/former military members that suffered from the PTSD and brain injuries; in research of this fact it turned out to be true (1). Clinton also noted that in 2007 she “fought successfully to amend the 2007 Defense Appropriation Act.” This was also a true statement (2). I would give Hillary Clinton a 3.2 / 5 on the truth meter, she spoke a lot of plans that she has previously worked on. Clinton also gave voice to new ideas, but did not give concrete examples of how. (2)
(1)/(2) http://correctrecord.org/hillary-clinton-a-record-of-service-to-veterans/
Trump is literally speaking to an African American church in Detroit, Michigan.
Trump repeats himself on many occasions about how he is going to go into the community and learn what the real problems are and try to fix them. He promises to get African American communities on the right track by starting them off right with a good education which hence, leads to good jobs and a good income. He claims that he wants to reform our political system in a way so that it doesn't work for just itself, but specifically the people in the room (Christian African Americans). Trump believes we need a civil rights movement for our time that ensures rights to a great education, also the right to live in safety and in peace and a "really really great job, a good paying job, and one that you really love to go to every morning. Trump says he wants to big our companies back and that we need to protect our workers. Trump states that he wants to rebuild Detroit. He rambles about the wasted potential of young black men and how when one individual suffers the whole country suffers together. He claims that he will right the wrongs suffered by the African American community. He has a self proclaimed talent to get things done, we'll see if that talent is possible in the white house, should he end up there. He makes a remark that our country is born of a Christian heritage, interesting."The America of Tomorrow will be one of unity, togetherness and peace and perhaps prosperity". Toward the end of his speech he recites a passage from first John chapter four,"No one has ever seen God but if we love one another god lives in us and his love is made complete in us". Personally I don't find this speech to be persuasive because i think its very hypocritical for him to be talking about love and peace when he preaches such hatred and violence towards Muslims. I think it's great that he's trying to reach out to the African American community but I think that the people he was speaking to were the people that need help the least, its the people our on the streets and in gangs that really need government support(maybe i'm wrong).
In this particular speech there isn't really facts, but statements to "fact check".
trump says our country's heritage is christian, and I guess hes not 100% wrong, but hes not totally right. There's many ways to look at it but basically our country was founded by people who followed Christianity in some form, but our country wasn't made to be expressly Christian so its debatable whether that statement is really true(1), I'll give this "fact" a 3.7 because of its unclear. I searched his website for anything that remotely addressed righting the wrongs done on the African American community, the closest thing to that is his plan of "unifying the nation". I cant definitely say that he is lying about this but it seems kind of fishy to me, I'll say 2.98 on this "fact". All in all this is a decent speech which is obviously directed toward a single audience, African American Christians, hopefully if he does make it into office that he will sty true the promises he made.
Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eMK77EZO70
(1) http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/2011/06/did-america-have-a-christian-
founding
(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrshXpUtBHc from Trumps website
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The speech I chose was given by Donald Trump on the economy. He is speaking at the Economic Club of New York. Donald Trump talked about his plan for economic revival, which he says will massively increase jobs, wages, and income. He has a goal of four percent economic growth, and creating 25 million new jobs. He believes that people will flourish under minimum government burden. To achieve this, he said his presidency would have a Policy of Americanism. This means policies will be made to put America first by asking the simple question, does it create more jobs and better wages? A part of this policy of Americanism is bringing businesses back to America. He says that many businesses are moving to Mexico and other countries, due to the heavy taxing on businesses in America. To fix this problem, he plans to cut business taxes down from the current 35 percent, to 15 percent. He belives these tax cuts will result in an explosion of new businesses and jobs in America, as well as money roaring back into our country. The other part of this tax reform is for reduced, or no income tax for low wage Americans. He believes this will give low wage Americans a chance to prosper, making them taxable again. Another plan of his is to get rid of job killing regulations. Clean energy restrictions that were brought on by Obama have sent businesses out of the country. Donald Trump plans on ending these kinds of restrictions, to let the economy flourish on its own. I found his speech persuasive. Donald Trump says that he's giving the hard working people a voice, by promising more jobs and higher wages. His speech was persuasive because it made promises of increases in jobs, wages, and income, and had a pretty straightforward way of explaining his plan, to keep those promises. One fact that Donald Trump says is that 93 million Americans are out of work. This is actually true, however, many of those Americans who are out of work are either retired or taking care of familes (stay-at-home parents). But still, there is 7.8 million Americans who have stopped looking for a job because they believe no jobs are available for them. Another thing Donald Trump said was one in six young men in the U.S. are either jobless or in jail. According to a study by CBO, this is true. CBO says economic, policy, and skill-set changes have contributed to this large increase of jobless or jailed. I give Donald Trump a 4 on the Truth-O-Meter, based on the facts I checked. The facts he said were accurate, they were just stretched or manipulated to support his viewpoint.
Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_EGeoUdTnA
Fact 1: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/05/09/cbo-nearly-1-6-young-men-u-s-jobless-incarcerated/
Fact 2: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/10/21/what-we-know-about-the-92-million-americans-who-arent-in-the-labor-force/
During this speech, Democrat Hillary Clinton is physically speaking to a somewhat small audience within a studio for the MSNBC television network. Yet she is reaching out to America, her supporters, and all women. The clip begins by an audience member asking Clinton: “What strategies do you plan to employ when dealing with the conflict between women and children’s rights versus the practices being utilized by some of our Middle Eastern allies?”. Hillary begins answering by describing her entailment in Beijing, when she visited in 1995, and infamously stated “Women’s rights are human rights”. She describes her duties as secretary of state, and how she put women’s rights at the center of foreign policy. She thoroughly explains her beliefs and visions to spread feminist ideals across the globe, and to use her presidency and the US government to do so. She also goes into detail about her fight for LGBT rights, and how those are also human rights. She persuades the audience through her heavy background knowledge and experience, to relate and entitle herself to knowing how to implement what she believes into our nation. I personally found it persuasive and impressive, when listening to her talk and fight for human rights. I feel as if she didn’t sugarcoat anything to make appear more moderate to get the attention of a different group of voters. Clinton states that she traveled to 112 countries, and raised the belief of gender equality among each and every one of them. (1) I would give this fact a 3. While she is accurate about the number of countries she visited, I think it’s opinion based and a little far fetched of her to openly state that 112 countries believe and praise Clinton’s views. It’s also not uncommon for the Secretary of State to travel so much and so broadly. Clinton then when to state how she raised gay rights, specifically in Geneva. She made a speech and argued that gay rights are human rights. She argues that the people are who often the most oppressed and mistreated in “a lot” of countries, are LGBT members. (2) It really depends who you're asking when talking about “groups”. I think it was vague of her to say “ a lot of countries”. According to a few articles and polls I found, Muslims today seem to be the most oppressed group in the world. And considering a good amount of people in America believe that whites are oppressed, I think Clinton should have gone into specific detail about it. I give this fact a 2. Clinton however really did go to Geneva and make a speech about Gay rights, so that’s entirely true.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/hillary-clintons-overseas-diplomacy-versus-other-secretaries-of-state/2013/01/08/742f46b2-59f3-11e2-9fa9-5fbdc9530eb9_blog.html
https://www.pop.org/content/most-oppressed-people-world
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/clintons-geneva-accord-gay-rights-are-human-rights/2011/03/04/gIQAPUipcO_blog.html?utm_term=.d87e287f3cb4
Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXU5wGX3yUs
In his speech, given on August 31st, 2016, in Phoenix, Arizona, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is speaking to a group of vigilante and dedicated supporters in regards to the heightened issue of illegal immigration. Illegal immigration has become one of the primary issues of the Trump campaign, due to Trump's outspoken rhetoric at his many rallies, interviews, and following some of the tragic terrorist attacks in 2015 and 2016. Trump opens his speech stating that he is both a lover of the United States and of Mexico, and wants to create a fair relationship with Mexico. It becomes clear as Trump continues through his speech that while Trump may be claiming that he wants friendship with Mexico and the Mexican people, his greatest interest is simply protecting the American working class, even if that means limiting new people in the United States whether they are legal or illegal immigrants. Trump wastes no time in his speech attacking the current political system in Washington and speaking of the corruption taking place, likely to present himself as the new, fresh mind in politics. While speaking, Trump seems to make some weaker claims for wanting a more selective immigration process, citing that one reason not everyone should be allowed into the United States is because many immigrants will not be able to assimilate into American culture and thrive. Unfortunately for Trump, the numbers associated with that statement do not add up. According to the Center for Immigration studies, and the 2010 Census, with the current immigration system in the United States, the state lowest average income for a legal immigrant was Arizona, with $48,124 (1). The same 2010 Census holds the poverty line for a family of four at $21,954, more than $26,000 lower than what the average legal immigrant in Arizona is making (2). When looking at a breakdown of Arizona's 14.3% living poverty demographically, minorities do make up the three largest groups, however it is important to note that the state still has a majority making what is considered a living wage, and that the poverty report grouped all citizens, not just immigrants (2). Certainly not enough to say that immigrants are not likely to get decent jobs upon arrival in the United States. Trump also dwells on the state of the United States-Mexico border. He argues that the border is too open, makes illegal immigration too easy, and that the border overall needs to be secured and reinforced. This border argument goes back to Trump stating that illegal immigrants take too many American jobs. Despite Trump's claims, United States enforcement officials state that 81 percent of the southern border meets one of the top three levels of "operational control" (3). The remaining 19 percent of the border mainly consists of rural and sparse land that would have harsh crossing conditions regardless. In addition, Border Patrol has 100 percent visibility in high density urban areas, and the net levels of illegal Mexican immigration are at zero. From 2005 to 2010, approximately 1,400,000 Mexicans entered the United States illegally, and approximately 1,400,000 of them left (3).
Trump's rhetoric when speaking of the border includes using large numbers in order to evoke fear in his audience, stating that illegal immigration cost the United States 113 billion dollars. This does happen to be true. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, illegal immigration cost the United State 113 billion dollars in 2013. This money was divided between 29 billion dollars at the federal level, and 84 billion at the state and local levels (4). Trump continues to bash illegal immigrants by accusing them of being less educated than the American worker. There are numbers that support this claim. Pew Research Center reports that 47 percent of illegal immigrants in the United States do not have a high school diploma. Of United States born citizens, only 8 percent have not graduated from high school (5). While I do not find Trump to be persuasive, due to his tendency to bash the current status of illegal immigration more than he offers real and plausible solutions, I can see how many would. Trump uses powerful rhetoric and clearly know which words to use in order to evoke fear in the American people. By being able to play off of terrorist attacks and job security as part of his speeches, he is able to target Americans in the areas that have been major issues and become major fears in the news over recent years. The reality is that by nature, once people are scared, they want to be comforted and told that someone can make it all better, similar to a parent comforting a child after a nightmare. Trump does not articulate clear policy position or outlines for change, however his powerful rhetoric makes it possible for him not to do so. What Trump continually does throughout his speech is present facts that appear scary or intimidating, then assure the audience that he wants to end that, and that he wants to make a change. This gives him major appeal to those who find normal politicians to be too elitist or simply difficult to follow. On the Truth-O-Meter, Trump would get a two. While half of his facts were true, he used them in a way that was slightly manipulative or only part true. For example, when Trump cites the 113 billion dollars illegal immigration has cost the United States, he presents it as one sum of money, as if every single person in the United States was affected by that number because it was a federal sum, instead of the reality that only 29 billion dollars of that sum was federal, and the other 84 billion dollars was divided among both the state and local governments (4).
(1)http://cis.org/node/3877
(2)http://tucson.com/news/local/arizona-is-now-no-in-poverty/article_551a7372-415a-5dc5-a27d-ab19a1171e81.html
(3)https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/report/2012/07/06/11888/the-facts-on-immigration-today/
(4)http://www.fairus.org/publications/the-fiscal-burden-of-illegal-immigration-on-united-states-taxpayers
(5)http://www.pewhispanic.org/2009/04/14/a-portrait-of-unauthorized-immigrants-in-the-united-states/
Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGWZUce9syE
On September 8th, 2016, Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton delivered a speech at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. Johnson C. Smith University is a HBCU, or Historically Black College and University, so her target audience was college students, especially those of African-American descent. In this speech, Clinton promises to make college more affordable, make the economy fairer, raise the minimum wage, get people who work full time out of poverty, and, in her own words, "finally [...] guarantee equal pay for women, it is long overdue!" Clinton also discusses the idea of increasing opportunities for vocational training in high school, and focuses the latter part of her speech on Donald Trump. I personally found Clinton's speech persuasive, as I am both a woman working a low-paying job and a future college student, so many of the issues she discussed are relevant to me. In my opinion, Clinton's speaking style also helped her persuasiveness. Clinton seemed energetic and excited to speak and the pauses between her phrases weren't overly long; this helped keep the audience engaged and interested in what she was saying. The two facts I checked in Clinton's speech were her claims that Trump's tax plan would give his family a $4 billion tax cut and that Trump said Putin was a better leader than Obama. The first claim, that Trump's family would receive a $4 billion tax cut under his tax plan, is not only true, but is an understatement (1). Trump's tax plan would actually give his family an estimated $7.1 billion tax cut (1). The second claim is also true. Trump said that Putin is a better leader than Obama during an interview aired on July 28th, 2016, on Fox and Friends (2). I give Clinton a 4.5 out of 5 on the Truth-O-Meter, as she didn't say anything that wasn't true, but I believe she could have elaborated more when discussing her economic policies.
(1) http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/288648-trumps-family-would-get-a-71-billion-windfall-from-estate-tax-plan
(2) http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/07/28/trump-putin-is-a-better-leader-than-obama/
Speech:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?414955-1/hillary-clinton-campaigns-charlotte-north-carolina
Donald Trump, on August 31, 2016, spoke to a crowd in Phoenix, Arizona. In the beginning of the speech he said, "I am going to win the White House in November." The bulk of the speech was about illegal immigration plan. His vision is to reform the current immigration policy under the Obama administration, which Hillary Clinton will continue if she became president. Trump's number one objective if he becomes president would be to build a wall along the southern U.S. border. He would also have Mexico pay for the wall. The wall would have above and below ground sensors, towers, as well as aerial surveillance. Trump stated that he would start building the wall on day one of his presidency. During his speech, Trump mentioned that he recently met with the President of Mexico. They agreed to get rid of guns, people, and drugs crossing the boarder. They want to put the drug cartels out of business. He would have zero tolerance for criminal aliens if he were president. In my opinion, Trump's speech was persuasive. It made me believe that we need to fix America's immigration system. The people at the convention got very excited by Trump's speech. Trump makes me think that we need to secure borders and enforce laws for better security. The first fact that I fact checked was the statement that Trump made saying that there are at least two million criminal aliens now inside the U.S. according to federal data. According to Michelle Mittelstadt of the Migration Policy Institute, there are 820,000 unauthorized immigrants in the United States who’ve ever been convicted of a crime(1). This shows that Trump is saying a half Truth since he does not know the correct fact and went with a statistic that sounds good for his cause. I give it a 2.5 out of 5 rating on truthfulness. The other fact that I fact checked was when Trump stated that Obama gave amnesty to approximately five million illegal immigrants. Trump thought that Obama defied federal law and the constitution with his executive order. According to npr Fact Check, In 2014, Obama tried to expand his deportation reprieve to millions of additional immigrants, most of whom had children who are U.S. citizens or were Green Card holders (2). Since the article said millions so Trump is not entirely wrong, I give him 4.5 out of 5 for truthfulness.
Sources:
1)http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-09-01/trump-says-there-are-2-million-criminal-aliens-us-its-not-clear-where-he-got
2)http://www.npr.org/2016/08/31/492096565/fact-check-donald-trumps-speech-on-immigration
Speech:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxD5QkzmVOA
Donald Trump is speaking mostly to the general American public. He is talking about the Islamic State and all of the things it has done to ruin our world. This is a soft spot among most Americans because we all want to be safe in a country and world without terrorism. His vision for the presidency through terrorism is to completely get rid of it. He plans on sending as much military force to Iraq and Syria and needed, and pairing with Egypt, Russia and Jordan to destroy ISIS. He wants all actions of the government to be focused around Radical Islam. He also plans on the “extreme vetting” of immigrants. He wants it to be extremely hard for any immigrants to get into the United States and make the screening process terrible. I did find Trump’s speech to be persuasive, although i disagree with many of the propositions that he makes. He listed many, many examples of terrorism, which was quite persuasive. The answers he proposes, however, make little to no sense and don’t seem like they would solve the problem. One quote from the speech, “the oppression of women and gays in many Muslim nations,” doesn’t quite add up. Indonesia has the largest percentage of Muslim population in the world and yet they don’t oppress women. They were one of the first nations in the world to elect a woman president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, in 2001.[1] Another fact, does match up, “The Boston Marathon Bombing wounded and maimed 264 people, 5 and ultimately left five dead – including 2 police officers.” He was correct in these [2] and more numbers that were included in the speech. He references multiple terror attacks and has correct information for them. On the Truth-O-Meter, I would probably give this speech a 4 based on how much research was done to find out the numbers for the attacks.
[1] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Megawati-Sukarnoputri
[2] http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/03/us/boston-marathon-terror-attack-fast-facts/
[3] transcript of the speech: http://time.com/4453110/donald-trump-national-security-immigration-terrorism-speech/
On September 12, Donald Trump gave a speech to the National Guard Association in Baltimore, Maryland (1). In this speech, Trump uses patriotic rhetoric to affirm his support for the National Guard and make several promises to insure the National Guard has all the resources they need and "a direct line to the Oval Office". Trump's patriotic references to the flag and national security throughout the speech were a fairly effective use of persuasive rhetoric. He talked about focusing on national security at home as well as destroying terrorist groups such as ISIS. The other way that Donald Trump was persuasive was by bringing up Hillary Clinton's email scandal. By bringing up the scandal, he was appealing to voters that do not trust Clinton and tried to convince them to support him. The drawn out email scandal and subsequent FBI investigation have been detrimental to Clinton's campaign for many months, leading many to believe she is untrustworthy and secretive. In his speech, Trump asserts that Clinton "broke federal law by hiding and deleting her emails". Trump also says that by hiding and deleting her emails, Clinton put classified information into enemy hands. However, neither of the facts above seem to be backed up by solid evidence. After the investigation, the FBI recommended that no charges be brought against her and while there was some "potential violations" there was not enough evidence to suggest that she or any staffers broke federal law (2). There was also no clear evidence that Clinton's email servers had been successfully hacked by enemies, but the FBI did assert that it may have been possible. On the Truth-O-Meter, I would give Trump a 3 on this particular speech. He correctly stated statistics about the National Guard earlier in the speech ["since 9/11, 780,000 National Guard members have been sent overseas"] (3) and he is partially correct about Clinton's emails. Compared to many of his other speeches, this one contained a fair amount of truth. He also laid out a couple of plans about his presidency including: putting "America first", being a president for all Americans (although that one is hard to believe considering he wants to deport a significant amount of American citizens), and destroying Islamic terrorist groups in order to protect our nation. One of the most interesting lines in the speech to me was when Trump said he was running so that the "powerful could not beat up on the powerless". An interesting quote from a man that has never been the latter.
Sources:
(1)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsbR4UMWk2U
(2)http://www.factcheck.org/2016/07/a-guide-to-clintons-emails/
(3)http://www.nationalguard.mil/portals/31/Documents/PostureStatements/2016%20National%20Guard%20Bureau%20Posture%20Statement.pdf
On August 31, 2016, Republican nominee Donald Trump addressed a crowd in Phoenix, Arizona about his stance on illegal immigration in the United States. His audiences usually consist of uneducated white individuals who are unhappy with the government’s current policies, most specifically immigration. In this speech, Trump begins by stating that “the fundamental problem with the immigration system is that it serves the needs of wealthy activists and powerful politicians.” He continues to state that amnesty and open borders would be the worse policy, resulting in more and more undocumented aliens taking the jobs and the wages that belong to the American citizens. He says that the United States annually spends 113 billion on illegal immigration, without much to show for it. He insists that the “catch-and-release” system that our government currently practices allows the 2 million illegal criminals to continue to roam the streets and put American citizens at risk. Trump sees the presidency as his opportunity to restrict outsiders from entering the United States and “destroying our country” by erecting a large, physical wall along the Southern border. This wall, he states, would be completely funded by Mexico, and that they would be willing to do so. If an undocumented immigrant is found in the states, his plan is to detain them until they are brought “far, far away.” He then goes on promising the crowd that in his first day in office, all 11 million illegal immigrants will be swept out of this country within the first hour of his leadership.
Although Trump does a good job at attacking his opponents and making himself seem like his actions are for the good of the whole, to those who consider themselves to be more moderate/liberal on the spectrum, he is only persuasive to those who are easily influenced and are not fully educated on political issues. He comes off as having a very strong stance by his beliefs, incessantly yelling his visions to “make America great again” and insulting the current policies. These tactics of his could come off as very persuasive to many people.
Donald Trump states that there are over “1 million legal border crossings everyday,” which he sees to be preposterous. This is only moderately true, because many people have to cross the border for work or school. Also in this speech, he angrily announces that “our veterans, in many cases, are being treated worse than illegal immigrants.” This claim is not true whatsoever- veterans are one of the most highly respected people in our country. I give Trump a 3 on the Truth-O-Meter. Although he mostly pulls his facts from respectable sources, he is prone to distorting them to favor his campaign, therefore violating the truth and making him a more dishonest candidate.
Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-XOJsHKsE
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/
Donald Trump’s speech on fighting terrorism: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/donald-trump-terrorism-speech-227025
Trump spoke on the topic of terrorism and national security. Trump was speaking to his supporters and those of the American public who are concerned with the current situation of national security and terrorism. Trump references the various acts of terrorism around the world to bring a sense of urgency to his campaign and to draw in the interest of the audience of people who fear for their safety. He targets those who were dissatisfied with the foreign policy of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the Middle East by claiming that they unleashed ISIS and caused overall unrest in the region as well. He says that Obama lacked moral courage to call the Muslim nations out on the oppression experienced by women and gays, and by claiming that Hillary’s advocacy for intervention in Libya led to disaster. Trump articulates that he plans to “Make America Safe Again”. He plans on maintaining a presence in the Middle East to prevent a loss of the changes made within the country as a result of U.S. involvement. He also claims that control of the the oil in Iraq through a U.S. presence to safeguard oil would prevent potential income for ISIS. He also suggests a limited immigration policy of only admitting people into the U.S. if they share “American” values and respect Americans using screening testing of potential immigrants. I think that opening the speech by mentioning the numerous atrocities committed by ISIS and terrorist groups was an effective way to make Trump appear as a protective leader who has the interests of the country and the safety of the average citizen in mind. Personally, I disagree with some of the measures that Trump proposes to take against ISIS and those countries. The immigration policy is not congruent with the fact that the U.S is essentially a nation of immigrants. It also does not take into account the many people who are merely fleeing the oppression that Trump claims is against the ideologies of America. The call to act due to the acts of ISIS Is persuasive. It appears that Trump was desperate to blame his opponent and the current President for the creation of the problem. He attempts to appear as a observant bystander who witnessed the developments in the Middle East, when the problem cannot be blamed on any single person. Trump says that the shooter in Orlando was investigated by the FBI prior to the shooting This turns out to be valid (1). He was investigated in 2009, 2013, and 2014, Also in the speech, he claims that ISIS made around $500 million in 2014 from oil sales in Iraq. This proved to be incorrect. The oil is the property of the people of Iran (2). I would give Trump a “D” for his credibility. He often over exaggerates facts and uses them to support his arguments. He also made a false statement about the issues of ISIS funding as well.
(1):http://www.wsj.com/articles/before-orlando-shooters-routine-last-days-hints-of-instability-1465858489
(2):http://www.factcheck.org/2016/06/trump-wrong-on-iraqi-oil/
I chose to do my blogpost on a speech Donald Trump did on September 12, 2016. This speech was made to the National Guard Association in Baltimore Maryland. Coincidentally, I used to live in Maryland, in Catonsville, a suburb of Baltimore. In this speech, Donald Trump is speaking to the National Guard veterans, and to his supporters. He speaks directly to the veterans, and then to both his supporters, and the veterans at different points in the speech. Donald Trump in this speech many times speaks of his vision for his presidency. One of the first times of this is in the beginning of the speech when he vaguely says he is going to take care of the veterans (1). He does not really cite any specific plans, just says that. Later in the speech, Donald Trump speaks again in the vague manner we have come to know from this Republican candidate, and he speaks of the need for immigration control. During this time, he makes it clear that his supporters are not bad people for wanting his policies, just patriotic Americans! He also speaks of bringing better economic working conditions to african americans, and hispanics. No specific plan, just claims. He also plans to create new plans to fix what came from Obama, and Clinton. He says he will create a new foreign policy and military to defeat ISIS. He wants to defeat the defence sequester which he calls a “disaster.” He also plans to outfit our military with new gear. He states the administration will favor the national guard at every turn. At the start of the speech it was persuasive, as he was praising the hard work of the veterans, however as he started bashing Hillary, and then making vague claims of what he would do in the presidency, his persuasiveness was less and less in my eyes. One thing Donald trump claims in his speech is that he was at Ground Zero during 9/11. When fact checked, results show he was down there, but he was not helping. The report I found sighted he actually made money by getting grants for rebuilding his building that were not even affected. He was down there to check on his investments, and most likely did not donate any money to victims (2). Another claim he made is that Hillary Clinton bashes his followers. This is a true statement, as she did indeed call his supporters a basket of deplorables (3). If I were to give it a rating on a truth meter, I would give it a 3 out of 5, as there are truths, but also false statements in the speech.
1.https://www.c-span.org/video/?415086-1/donald-trump-condemns-hillary-clintons-basket-deplorables-remark
2.http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/14/hundreds-more-9-11-questions-that-donald-trump-won-t-answer.html
On September Third, 2016, Donald Trump Gave a speech to an African American church in Detroit, Michigan. Several important African American leaders were there, including Dr. Ben Carson. Trump discusses his vision on building America on the same values of the African American church, and bringing businesses back to the country and specifically Detroit, which he says will help fix the disproportionately high black unemployment rate in Detroit. Trump's speech was a lot of words, and he listed a lot of problems, said he would fix them, but never explained how, So his speech wasn't the most persuasive. He really didn't say too many facts other than that the black unemployment rate is disproportionately high in Detroit, which is a true statement (1). He also stated that Detroit has lost a lot of jobs, with no specific number, but this is also a true statement, depending on how many jobs you consider to be a lot. Detroit has lost thousands of jobs due to reliance on the automotive industry as its sole major economic output; once the automotive industry in Detroit declined, unemployment rose immensely (2). My rating of the facts of his speech is a 5.
Seth Rosenberg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfZDKWo2LxE
(1)http://npc.umich.edu/publications/u/2013-10-npc-working-paper.pdf
(2)http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/08/17/us/detroit-decline.html?_r=0
On June 22 of this year Donald Trump spoke in the SoHo district of New York City to combat Hillary Clinton. He was addressing New York citizens primarily with this speech, because both he and Clinton are residents of New York, making it a hotly contested state.
Donald mentioned in other words that a president needed to have a strong economic background to succeed in maintaining our country, citing that he started a business with a small loan and created a multi-billion dollar business, implying that if he were president that he would strengthen the US economy.
While I find the economic optimism of the speech heartwarming, and would love to have a strong economy, his lack of actual concrete plans, and his hate speech towards Clinton and the muslim religion do not lend themselves to appreciation. He specifically states that Clinton “allowed the Chinese to steal intellectual property”. After investigating this claim I found that as the head of the state department, Clinton had nothing to do with sanctions against intellectual property theft, meaning it is in no way her fault. This makes Trump’s claim a total lie and I would rate it a 1
Trump also said the father of the Orlando shooter was a Taliban supporter. After investigating this claim I found that the father has on more than one occasion actually spoken out against the Taliban, so once again, Trump’s claims have no weight of proof behind them, awarding him a 1 on the truth-o-meter.
Trump needs to abstain from harsh comments in the future, unless he can truly prove their validity.
Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUW2-MUonbo
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/22/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-speech-fact-check/
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/06/donald-trump-clinton-speech-fact-check
-Jordan Johnson
On June 22 of this year Donald Trump spoke in the SoHo district of New York City to combat Hillary Clinton. He was addressing New York citizens primarily with this speech, because both he and Clinton are residents of New York, making it a hotly contested state.
Donald mentioned in other words that a president needed to have a strong economic background to succeed in maintaining our country, citing that he started a business with a small loan and created a multi-billion dollar business, implying that if he were president that he would strengthen the US economy.
While I find the economic optimism of the speech heartwarming, and would love to have a strong economy, his lack of actual concrete plans, and his hate speech towards Clinton and the muslim religion do not lend themselves to appreciation. He specifically states that Clinton “allowed the Chinese to steal intellectual property”. After investigating this claim I found that as the head of the state department, Clinton had nothing to do with sanctions against intellectual property theft, meaning it is in no way her fault. This makes Trump’s claim a total lie and I would rate it a 1
Trump also said the father of the Orlando shooter was a Taliban supporter. After investigating this claim I found that the father has on more than one occasion actually spoken out against the Taliban, so once again, Trump’s claims have no weight of proof behind them, awarding him a 1 on the truth-o-meter.
Trump needs to abstain from harsh comments in the future, unless he can truly prove their validity.
Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUW2-MUonbo
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/22/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-speech-fact-check/
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/06/donald-trump-clinton-speech-fact-check
-Jordan Johnson
I watched a video of Donald Trump’s I’m Going to be America’s Champion Speech. During his speech he spoke to many different groups, a couple key ones that I thought were interesting were Bernie Sander’s supporters and Inner city families, which I think were aimed at African American voters. Trump went for Bernie supporters using the same idea of Bernie’s issue with trading where America was getting the bad end of it. With the inner city families he said that he would put them back to work in the jobs that they were wanting and had. I thought the speech itself was fairly persuasive but because of how he talks and acts while on the stage it definitely dampened the positive and vote for me vibe that he was attempting to put out. I think that in the part of the speech where he was talking about the corrupt and rigged system I thought was very persuasive.
The two facts that I checked were Russia gave money to the Clintons. This for what I could find was true. While not completely sure if it was a reliable source or not a Moscow based initiative that was backed and funded by the government gave money to the Clinton foundation. The other fact I checked was that Trump campaign received most preliminary votes than ever before. This was also true. Trump has won more votes than any other presidential candidate in GOP history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaR5TxQcGWU
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russian-government-initiative-gave-millions-to-clinton-foundation/
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/06/trump-trumps-wins-historic-race-record-fashion/
I read the transcript of Donald Trump's Detroit club speech from the beginning of August. This speech campaigned to the residents of Detroit, especially those living in poverty. He makes sure to argue that all that Hillary Clinton stands for is against the working American. His vision for America during his presidency is to ensure that all working class Americans are put in a position to be economically successful especially via reducing taxes or outsourcing jobs over seas. Trump noted that Detroit's per capita income was below $15000 and half the national average. My sources note that Detroit's per capita income was around $23000. This is a huge over exaggeration on his part which is used entirely to be more persuasive (1). Another point he made noted that Hillary Clinton was proposing a taxe hike to small businesses. However, the only increase that she had to anything close to that was a 4% income tax increase to households earning more than 5 million. Overall, I would grade his accuracy and truthfulness as about a 2 because he exaggerates the issues he brings up to be more persuasive. I felt that overall this speech was very persuasive but only because it struck at several points that he exaggerated. By doing this, I feel he is being rather misleading about what is actually happening and instead his attempt to persuade me fails on these grounds.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/campaign/290777-transcript-of-donald-trumps-economic-policy-speech-to-detroit
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest-income_metropolitan_statistical_areas_in_the_United_States#Metropolitan_statistical_areas_ranked_by_per_capita_income
(2) Under 'Small Business Taxes' http://www.factcheck.org/2016/08/trumps-economic-speech/
From Morgan L: On August 25th, 2016, Hillary Clinton gave a speech addressing the students and staff of Truckee Meadows Community College on the topic of how the rise of the alt-right movement is detrimental to our diverse society as a whole by perpetuating ideas of white supremacy and paranoia against immigrants (1). Despite a very strong message as a whole, Clinton’s beginning statements, “I love community colleges” and “I want to be a small business president” in particular (1), are obviously pandering to the audience, which is definitely expected of one on the campaign trail. In retrospect, however, it made Clinton’s later points and criticisms seem slightly more disingenuous than they could have been if she had gotten to her point sooner. The majority of her attacks against the Trump campaign were targeted at the rise of the extremist alt-right movement. While Trump points out the violence in the black community, Clinton brings up how much progression there has been over the last decade in strong black support groups and churches (1). She also tells of how Trump wouldn’t disavow the former leader of the KKK until he received backlash (2). She also responded to Trump’s attacks on her health by debunking faked medical records that heightened her “illness” to a considerable degree by stating one day prior, "These were not written by me and are not based on any medical facts." (3). Overall I would give her arguments a 4 on the truth-o-meter, considering she had multiple facts that invalidated Trump’s paranoid and nationalistic rhetoric but also pandered a bit herself.
(1)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_soeyHVrawY
(2)https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/03/01/donald-trump-and-david-duke-for-the-record/
(3)http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/22/politics/hillary-clinton-health-conspiracy-theory-explained/
I viewed Donald Trump's speech to the New York Economic Club, he was speaking to those in power and those watching that are in the work force. Trump stated that our economy used to have a lot of growth and a gradually increasing standard of living, he made claims that nowadays the growth has halted and the focus is more on the distribution of wealth rather than on improving the overall cash flow, and that our labor force and overall jobs are declining. He said that this is not right for America especially at the moment and that he would focus on building up the economy and making it grow overall and increase today's standard of living. So far Trumps campaign has been very controversial, in the beginning most of the people I knew including myself made slanderous remarks towards him, mostly calling his campaign a joke. However as of recently Trump has been proving to be honest on his issues and therefore is more likely to be honest on his stances. Personally I believe Trump to be a full fledged supporter of these ideals so I rate him a 5 on honesty, I truly believe that Trump is the candidate for the working man and that most of his ideals especially economical ones he will pursue until the end.
http://nypost.com/2016/09/15/trump-should-give-this-speech-every-day-to-nov-8/
On August 19th Donald Trump gave a speech in Michigan. During the speech Trump was trying to appeal to African American voters. Trump claimed that the Democratic Party had failed African Americans. He said that because of bad treaties enacted during Clinton's time as Secretary of State many jobs went overseas. He also said that it was because of the Democratic government has produced only poverty, joblessness, failing schools, and broken homes. Then he appeals to African American voters by saying what do you have to lose. Most of his speech was spent accusing Democrats and Hillary Clinton of failing the African American/Detroit community. He discussed his vision for the presidency a little. He said he will end corruption and restore integrity to government service, the government will work for the people, he will defeat ISIS, lower taxes, and repeal Obamacare. I did not find his speech that persuasive most of it was spent criticizing Hilary Clinton. He brought up the same topics he always does about Benghazi and the Clinton foundation taking money. He relied on empty rhetoric to convince people when I think if he had talked about his policy plans more he could be more persuasive.
In his speech Donald Trump says that NAFTA was signed by Bill Clinton and endorsed by Hillary Clinton but he does not mention that it was created and negotiated under the Bush administration. So to claim that because of the Democratic parties leadership people have suffered is a half truth in the case of NAFTA. (2)
Trump also claims that the TPP would cost America 1 million manufacturing jobs. First, it is very hard to predict the effect a trade deal will have on jobs. Second, the amount of jobs that would be affected depends on the model you use to calculate it. According to Peter Petri, a professor at the Brandeis International Business School TPP could result in the loss of around 150,000 jobs, in research published in Tufts University Global Development and Environment Institute the total is around 448,000. In this case Trump has gone to the extreme end of the scale of something that is very hard to predict making this claim at best a half truth.
I would give Trump a rating of 3 in his speech. Well most of his statistics were accurate many of the claims he made regarding them were not. Also, Trump has trouble with causation vs correlation in his arguments.
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K678kE_bZq8
2. http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-07-28/hillary-clinton-s-stand-nafta-and-tpp-it-s-complicated-and-evolving
3. http://www.ibtimes.com/tpp-trade-deal-does-it-threaten-american-jobs-depends-who-you-ask-2292847
I read a speech by the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. She was speaking to the general public in all but she was specifically speaking to all the Hispanics in America and those across the border. Clinton says that as president she wants to greet immigrants with respect and she wants to help Hispanics get more jobs. She also wants to help families be better off. She says she wants to focus on what she started off focusing on, the kids and families. I found her speech persuasive and I believe that her idea of our nation is more reasonable than Trump's. Her speech is persuasive because she is focusing on our nation as a whole and not just our top class white people of America. Clinton said that poverty is going down in America, which is true at the moment. But, according to statistics, in 2008 they were lower than they are now. She also said that American families' incomes are increasing and that is true. According to statistics it has slowly increased in the past year. On a scale of 1 to 5 for truthfulness I would give Hillary a 3. She is being somewhat truthful but also not including some of the truth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/speeches/remarks-on-trumps-birtherism-and-divisive-rhetoric-at-the-congressional-hispanic-caucus-institute/
http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/08/17/432578282/fact-check-is-it-obamas-fault-that-poverty-has-grown
In the speech I listened to, Trump was speaking to business owners, primarily those from large businesses and corporations, at the New York Economic Club. He was outlining his economic plan for his presidency. He planned on lowering taxes, so as to help stop the outsourcing of jobs to other countries, and begin bringing them back into the country. He also talked about removing restrictions on energy production and other business practices, focusing heavily on increasing coal usage and steel production. To me, his speech was more comical than convincing. Some of his ideas were downright backwards, like claiming that focusing on green, renewable energy was hurting the US, and the general vagueness that was prevalent throughout his speech. During his speech he claimed that 92 million Americans were unemployed, but according to statistics from the US department of labor, the number is actually closer to 8 million Americans. He also claimed that the US military used old, worn out equipment, despite the fact that the US spent almost $600 billion dollars on military expenses last year (over 300 billion more than china, the next highest spender) [2]
[1] http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
[2] http://books.sipri.org/files/FS/SIPRIFS1604.pdf
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