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Debate 3: Fact checking Hillary Clinton

Posted at 5:27 PM, Oct 19, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-19 22:54:52-04

In a last ditch-effort to sway voters before the historic November 8 election, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump me Wednesday night for their third and final debate in Las Vegas.

Following debate two, widely mocked for the candidates’ tendency to veer off-topic and discuss issues unrelated to their policies, the third debate promised to be an interesting one.

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Third debate: Fact checking Donald Trump

Second debate: Fact checking Hillary Clinton

First debate: Fact checking Hillary Clinton

But exactly how truthful were the candidates as they took the stage and answered questions in front of millions of voters for the last time?

We teamed up with PolitiFact to bring you the most important fact checks from Wednesday's debate. On this page we followed Clinton’s answers.

See the results below.

MOSTLY TRUE: Clinton says there are 33,000 gun-related deaths per year.

While the number is accurate, but it leaves unsaid that the bulk of these deaths are suicides, not homicides. 

HALF TRUE: Clinton claims Trump hired undocumented immigrants.

It was reportedly a Trump subcontractor that hired undocumented immigrants. Not Trump himself.

HALF TRUE: Clinton claims Trump invited Russians to hack Americans.

Trump said at a press conference in South Florida that he hoped Russia was able to find "the 30,000 emails that are missing." That was a reference to Clinton’s emails, not Americans’ emails more broadly. 

MOSTLY TRUE: Clinton claims Trump encouraged Japan to get a nuclear weapon.

TRUE: Clinton says Trump's tax plan overwhelmingly helps the wealthy.

Trump’s tax plan would deliver more tax cuts to the top 1 percent (equivalent to 1.32 percent of GDP) the than the Bush tax cuts (0.66 percent of GDP).

HALF TRUE: My jobs plan is the biggest investment since World War II.

Using rough estimates of public investment in several sectors, the size of Clinton’s proposals — at least $900 billion over 10 years — appears larger than any other 10-year investment since World War II. It’s worth keeping in mind, though, that when we look at the size of the historical public investments as a share of GDP, there have been 12 years since World War II with larger public investments.
 
In terms of whether these investments will result in new, good-paying jobs, that’s all a matter of prediction.

TRUE: Clinton says the federal government sued Trump for housing discrimination.

This is accurate. The Justice Department sued Trump, his father and their company under the Civil Rights Act in 1973. In many instances, the government said, prospective black tenants were blocked from renting in his buildings.

MOSTLY TRUE: Trump is the first nominee to not release his tax returns.

Save, every other major nominee for the past 40 years have released their tax returns, except Gerald Ford.