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Trump once declared that a candidate under federal investigation “has no right to run.” Here is the context

Theo
Trump once declared that a candidate under federal investigation “has no right to run.” Here is the context

Claim:

In November 2016, Donald Trump declared that a candidate under investigation by the federal government “has no right to run” and that it is “virtually impossible” for an indicted president to lead the government.

Evaluation:

Rating: Correct assignmentRating: Correct assignment

Rating: Correct assignment

Statements made by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016 that it was impossible to govern as president while under impeachment were revived after the 2024 presidential candidate was charged with “91 crimes in four criminal cases.”

Readers asked us to examine the credibility of such statements attributed to Trump. Social Media. For example, in December 2023, the following was shared on the r/Conservative subreddit:

(Twitter)

The text in question comes from two different Trump rallies in November 2016 – a rally on November 3 in North Carolina and a rally on November 5 in Colorado. Trump’s statements referred to then-FBI Director James Comey’s revelation to Congress on October 28 that his agency had reopened a criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton.

The wording in question appears to come from reporting by CNN’s KFile. In July 2023, that team published an article that brought to light several statements made by Trump following Comey’s revelation (emphasis ours):

On November 3, 2016, Trump made similar comments in Concord, North Carolina: “If she wins, it would trigger an unprecedented constitutional crisis that would paralyze the functioning of our government,” he said.

“She will probably examined for many years, and it will probably end – in my opinion – in a criminal trial. I mean, look at it. Who knows? But it certainly looks like it will.” (…) “You has no right to stand for electionyou know that,” Trump said. “No right.”

Trump added at a rally in Denver on November 5, 2016, that Clinton was “the prime suspect in a wide-ranging criminal investigation” because of her controversies “practically impossible for them to govern.”

The paraphrased collection of statements is sometimes misquoted as a direct quote. However, as shown in the meme shown here, the parts in quotation marks are statements Trump made in November 2016, and the paraphrased parts accurately reflect the intent of those statements. Therefore, the claim is true.

Sources:

Chozick, Amy and Patrick Healy. “’This Changes Everything’: Donald Trump Exults as Hillary Clinton’s Team Rumbles.” The New York Times, October 28, 2016. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/29/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html.

Speech: Donald Trump – Concord, NC – November 3, 2016. www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-CuQGDneyY. Retrieved January 17, 2024.

Speech: Donald Trump in Denver, CO – November 5, 2016. www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm01YVyt4nY. Retrieved January 17, 2024.

“Trump’s 91 criminal charges and where they stand.” CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/trumps-91-criminal-charges-and-where-they-stand/. Retrieved January 17, 2024.

Turner, Abby and Andrew Kaczynski. “Trump once said a president charged with a crime would shut down the government and create a constitutional crisis | CNN Politics.” CNN, July 3, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/03/politics/kfile-trump-president-indictment-halt-government/index.html.

u/ultimis. Words of advice from Trump. December 16, 2023, https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/comments/18juqov/words_of_advise_from_trump/.

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