Trump overstates McCain’s role in aiding the FBI with a false chronology on when the senator provided a so-called
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s slam on Sen. John McCain flips reality on its head when it comes to who gave veterans the option to see a private doctor at public expense. He also pins some of his woes in the Russia investigation on a distorted account of the late senator’s actions in the matter.
Trump overstates McCain’s role in aiding the FBI with a false chronology on when the senator provided a so-called “dossier” that detailed many salacious but unconfirmed details about Trump and his aides.
The president also got his history wrong on veterans.
“McCain didn’t get the job done for our great vets,” Trump said. “I got it done.”
Actually, McCain got it done.
Trump routinely takes full credit for enacting the Choice program, suggesting he had fulfilled a campaign promise to provide private-sector care for veterans while ignoring the fact that it was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2014. This time, his boast came as part of a broad-brush denunciation of McCain, the senator from Arizona, Vietnam war naval aviator and tortured prisoner of war who died in August of brain cancer.
RELATED: President Trump signs John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act
A look at the claims:
TRUMP: “John McCain received a fake and phony dossier. Did you hear about the dossier? It was paid for by Crooked Hillary Clinton. Right? And John McCain got it. He got it. And what did he do? He didn’t call me. He turned it over to the FBI, hoping to put me in jeopardy.” — remarks Wednesday at an Army tank factory in Lima, Ohio .
TRUMP: “So it was indeed (just proven in court papers) ‘last in his class’ (Annapolis) John McCain that sent the Fake Dossier to the FBI and Media hoping to have it printed BEFORE the Election. He & the Dems, working together, failed (as usual).” — tweet Sunday.
THE FACTS: Trump’s chronology is incorrect. McCain did not present then-FBI Director James Comey with a copy of the memos compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele until December 2016, according to a deposition from a McCain associate, David Kramer.
