News

PolitiFact: Trump wins ‘Lie of the Year’

by Jesse Byrnes - 12/21/15 12:39 PM ET

Fact-checking website PolitiFact has administered its “Lie of the Year” title to Donald Trump for the Republican presidential candidate’s “various statements” throughout his 2016 campaign.

“When it comes to inaccurate statements, the Donald was on fire,” Politifact said Monday in announcing the title.

{mosads}PolitiFact found that about three-quarters of the Trump statements it reviewed were “mostly false,” “false” or “pants on fire.”

The remarks listed as “pants on fire” included Trump’s claim that he watched “thousands and thousands of people” cheering when the World Trade Center buildings fell on 9/11, something he has stood by despite an onslaught of scrutiny from independent fact-checkers.

Trump’s claim that the Mexican government sends “the bad ones over” the border and a statistic he shared on Twitter overstating the number of white people killed by black people (that he later sought to distance himself from) were also listed as “pants on fire” remarks.

“Trump hasn’t apologized or backtracked on his statements. Instead, when challenged, he offers flimsy explanations and suggests he shouldn’t be held accountable — or simply insists he’s right,” PolitiFact wrote on Monday.

Trump also took the top three spots in the organization’s annual Readers’ Poll of falsehoods. The announcement comes a day after Trump earned his first “true” rating from PolitiFact after saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “an 80 percent approval rating.”

The businessman has remained atop polls for the GOP nomination since shortly after entering the race over the summer.

Tags 2016 GOP primary Donald Trump Donald Trump Donald Trump presidential campaign PolitiFact