As the 2016 Presidential election winds down, we look back fondly (?) on the biggest whoppers of the general campaign.
There have been some big ones, some utterances so absurd that they invite laughter rather than scorn.
Our journey begins from the dates the two major party candidates amassed enough delegates to secure their nominations. At that point, we consider the general election campaign to have begun.
Here are our highlights — or is it lowlights?
Clinton and her email server
Hillary Clinton on whether the FBI backed up her story regarding her use of a private email server for State Department business: “As the FBI said, everything that I’ve said publicly has been consistent and truthful with what I’ve told them,” she said in an August interview just days after her original claim had been shown by a number of fact-checkers to be false.
Trump and the Iraq War
Donald Trump is convinced he was against the Iraq War from the beginning. No one else seems to be. No matter how many times it was pointed out that this statement, “I was against the Iraq War from the beginning,” wasn’t true, he kept repeating it.
Trump and the unemployment rate
Trump says the unemployment rate is 42%.
That’s higher than it was at the height of the Great Depression, when it hit nearly 24%.
“Our real unemployment rate — in fact, I saw a chart the other day, our real unemployment — because you have 90 million people that aren’t working,” he said in an August interview with Time magazine.
“Ninety-three million to be exact. If you start adding it up, our real unemployment rate is 42%,” he said.
Trump ‘stalking’ Clinton
Clinton said Trump stalked her all over the debate stage last month, a claim she repeated several times after the second debate. It wasn’t true any time she said it.
Trump: 650 million immigrants may move to US
Sure, if everyone in the Western Hemisphere decides to move here.
Pence: The Clinton Foundation gives ‘less than 10 cents on the dollar’ to ‘charitable causes’
He made this claim during the vice presidential debate. It’s wrong.
Pence: ‘Well, he never said that’
When Pence’s rival, Tim Kaine brought up things that Trump had said, Pence repeatedly denied that he did. Well, he did.
Trump: Clinton’s immigration plans will bankrupt Social Security
Fact is they might save Social Security.
Trump: ‘Thousands of jobs leaving Michigan, leaving Ohio’
“They’re all leaving. And we can’t allow it to happen anymore,” Trump said during the first debate.
Trouble is those states are gaining jobs.
Trump on the state of black America
At a rally in North Carolina in September, Trump said: “Our African-American communities are absolutely in the worse shape they’ve ever been in before. Ever, ever, ever.”
Worse than slavery? Jim Crow? Worse than the 50-year period when at least one black person was lynched every week?