How do we know what to believe? Who is telling the truth?

Being truthful is an important attribute for anyone seeking their party’s nomination for U.S. president.

Currently, the leading contenders for the presidential nomination are Hillary Clinton for the Democrats and Donald Trump for the Republicans.

How do these candidates measure up on being truthful?

PolitiFact, a non-partisan, Pulitzer-prize winning fact-checking service, recently published an objective evaluation of the truth or falsity of controversial statements made by the leading presidential candidates. These statements were viewed as questionable, either by the other candidates, the press, or both.

The PolitiFact staff carefully researched each of the statements and then, based on their research, categorized them into one of six categories: “mostly false,” “false,” “pants on fire,” “true,” “mostly true,” and “half-true.”

Examining the candidates’ statements is very illuminating.

Donald Trump’s controversial statements were rated “mostly false, false or pants on fire” 76 percent of the time. His statements were rated “true, mostly true or half-true” only 24 percent of the time.

Hillary Clinton’s controversial statements were rated “mostly false, false or pants on fire” 28 percent of the time. Her statements were rated “true, mostly true or half-true” only 72 percent of the time.

The obvious conclusion is that Hillary Clinton tells the truth much more often than Donald Trump.

Please keep this in mind when you cast your vote in November.

 

Donald Holmes

Buchanan