Daniel Dale
By Daniel Dale, CNN

Donald Trump sat down Friday with prominent podcast host Joe Rogan for a
conversational interview that ran for nearly three hours � and the former
president delivered his standard bombardment of false claims, at least 32
in all.

Many of those false claims are lies that were debunked months or even years
ago. The claims spanned a variety of topics, including immigration policy,
environmental and energy policy, the legitimacy of the 2020 election,
Trump�s record in office, Vice President Kamala Harris, crowd sizes, and
how schools deal with transgender children.

Here is a fact check of 32 false claims Trump made to Rogan. This is not
intended as a complete list of the inaccurate statements Trump uttered in
the interview; with just over a week to go until Election Day, we were
unable to look into every dubious assertion he made.
Immigration

Migrants and murderers: Trump repeated his frequent false claim that �we
had 13,099 murderers dropped in our country over the last three years.� In
reality, as the Department of Homeland Security and independent experts
have noted, that official figure is about immigrants with homicide
convictions in the US today who entered the country over decades, including
during Trump�s own administration, not over the past three years or under
the Biden administration. You can read more here.
Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump attends a
rally in Coachella, California, on October 12, 2024. The rally was one of
multiple visits to blue states Trump has made during the campaign.

Related article Trump returns to �epicenter of everything� for Madison
Square Garden rally

Trump�s border wall: The former president falsely claimed, �You know, I
built 570 miles of wall.� That�s a significant exaggeration; official
government data shows 458 miles were built under Trump � including both
wall built where no barriers had existed before and wall built to replace
previous barriers.

Harris� border role: Trump repeated a regular false claim about Harris:
�She was in charge of the border.� She was not and is not; Homeland
Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is the Biden administration official
in charge of border security. In reality, President Joe Biden gave Harris a
more limited immigration-related assignment in 2021, asking her to lead
diplomacy with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in an attempt to address
the conditions that prompted their citizens to try to migrate to the United
States.

The number of migrants: Trump claimed that at least �21 million� people
have illegally crossed the border during the Biden administration. Through
September, the country had recorded under 11 million nationwide
�encounters� with migrants during the Biden administration, including
millions who were rapidly expelled from the country; even adding in so-
called gotaways who evaded detection, estimated by House Republicans as
being roughly 2 million, there�s no way the total is �21 million.�
Elections, campaigns and crowds

The outcome of the 2020 election: Trump repeated his lie that he won the
2020 election, falsely claiming, �I won that second election so easy.� He
lost, fair and square, to Biden, who beat Trump 306-232 in the Electoral
College and earned over 7 million more votes than Trump.

The legitimacy of the 2020 election: Trump made various specific false
assertions about the 2020 election, claiming it was �crooked�; that his
opponents cheated using the guise of the Covid-19 pandemic; and, vaguely,
that it was marred by �old-fashioned ballot-screwing.� All of this is
baseless.

Polling in 2016: Trump told a story about how, he said, a Washington
Post/ABC News poll of Wisconsin during his 2016 race against Hillary
Clinton showed him �down 17 points the day before the election,� but he
knew it was wrong because of the size of his crowds, and he ended up
winning the state: �I was down 17 points in Wisconsin and I won; it�s
crooked stuff.� This story is false; the poll showing him down 17 the week
of the election came during his 2020 race against Biden, and he lost
Wisconsin that year � though by less than one percentage point.
Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance speaks with Jake
Tapper on "State of the Union."

Related article Vance insists Trump�s �enemy from within� comments weren�t
directed at political rivals

The 2020 election and Wisconsin: Trump falsely claimed, �If you take a look
at Wisconsin, they virtually admitted that the election was rigged, robbed
and stolen.� This did not happen, �virtually� or otherwise; while some
Wisconsin Republicans certainly support Trump�s claim that the election was
rigged and stolen, the state�s elections authorities have not made such
assertions � and as PolitiFact previously reported, even Republican-led
election reviews did not find that Trump won the state.

An election ruling in Virginia: Trump falsely claimed that, just before he
walked in for the Friday interview, there was a ruling in a legal �case
where they found thousands of illegal ballots.� This case did not involve
�illegal ballots�; rather, a judge ruled that Virginia had purged voter
registrations from its rolls too close to Election Day. You can read more
here.

Grocery stores and identification: Calling for strict voter identification
laws, Trump spoke of how identification is required in other circumstances,
saying, �When you go to a grocery store, you give ID.� This was a little
vaguer than his previous declarations that �you need� ID to buy groceries,
but it�s nonsense nonetheless; few grocery shoppers are required to provide
identification unless they are paying by check or buying alcohol, tobacco
or certain medications.

A Carter commission and mail-in ballots: Trump repeated his false claim
that a commission led by former President Jimmy Carter published a report
whose �primary finding was you cannot have mail-in ballots.� Trump added,
�The one thing with Jimmy Carter: He had a very strong commission. It was,
no mail-in ballots.�

Though the commission Carter co-chaired was generally skeptical of mail-in
ballots, calling absentee voting �the largest source of potential voter
fraud,� it did not say, �You cannot have mail-in ballots,� as Trump
claimed. In fact, its report highlighted an example of successful mail-only
elections � noting that Oregon, a state that has been conducting elections
by mail-in voting since the late 1990s, �appears to have avoided
significant fraud in its vote-by-mail elections by introducing safeguards
to protect ballot integrity, including signature verification.�

The report also offered some recommendations for making the use of mail-in
ballots more secure and called for �further research on the pros and cons�
of voting by mail (as well as early voting).

Trump�s Las Vegas crowd size: In his latest exaggeration about crowd sizes,
Trump claimed there were �29,000 people� at his event the night prior. His
rally Thursday night, in Las Vegas, was at an arena with a capacity under
19,000.

Trump�s McDonald�s crowd size: Trump falsely claimed that there were
�28,000 people sitting around� the McDonald�s in Bucks County,
Pennsylvania, where he held a publicity event last weekend in which he
briefly performed some of the duties of an employee (the restaurant was
closed to the public). This is fiction; while videos show there was a
substantial pro-Trump crowd gathered in the vicinity of the restaurant, it
is obvious that it didn�t approach 28,000. A local journalist on the scene,
Tom Sofield, the publisher of Bucks County news outlets, wrote on social
media Tuesday: �There were several thousand excited supporters nearby, but
the figure wasn�t 25,000, as stated by the former president later.�

Harris� schedule: Trump, criticizing Harris� work ethic, falsely claimed
she �took off yesterday� and �took off the day before,� and also that
�she�s going to take off tomorrow or the next day.� Trump is entitled to
argue that Harris isn�t campaigning hard, but she was not �off� or
scheduled to be off any of these days. On Wednesday, she participated in a
CNN town hall in Pennsylvania; on Thursday, she held a rally in Georgia; on
Friday, she held a rally in Texas; on Saturday, she held a rally in
Michigan; on Sunday, she is scheduled to make a series of campaign stops in
Philadelphia.
Foreign policy

Trump and ISIS: Repeating one of his regular false claims, Trump said, �We
defeated ISIS in record time. It was supposed to take years, and we did it
in a matter of weeks.� The ISIS �caliphate� was declared fully liberated
more than two years into Trump�s presidency.

Obama and Kim Jong Un: Trump, touting his relationship with Kim Jong Un,
revived his old false claim that the North Korean leader refused to meet
with Barack Obama when the then-president sought a meeting: �They wouldn�t
meet Obama. He (Obama) tried to meet. They wouldn�t even talk to him about
it.�

There is no evidence that Obama ever sought a meeting with Kim. Independent
experts on North Korea and former Obama officials told CNN in 2019 that the
claim is fictional.
Former President Donald Trump has floated the idea of replacing federal
income taxes with tariffs.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sean "Diddy" Combs has been accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in 2005, according to a new lawsuit that joins more than two dozen others accusing the music mogul of sexual misconduct.

The civil lawsuit was one of two filed on Monday in a New York state court in Manhattan by Tony Buzbee, a lawyer who says he represents more than 150 victims of Combs' abuse, and has filed at least 17 lawsuits.

In Monday's second lawsuit, another male accuser said he was a 17-year-old auditioning for the reality TV show "Making the Band" when Combs and a bodyguard sexually assaulted him in 2008.

"The lawyer behind this lawsuit is interested in media attention rather than the truth," Combs' lawyers said in a statement resembling those issued after earlier Buzbee lawsuits. "In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone--man or woman, adult or minor."

Combs, 54, has also pleaded not guilty to criminal sex trafficking charges in federal court in Manhattan, where he faces felony counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Federal prosecutors have accused the Bad Boy record label founder of coercing men, women and children into sex acts without their consent, bribing and intimidating them into keeping quiet, and employing his staff to cover up his crimes.

Combs has been held for six weeks in a Brooklyn jail after being denied bail twice, and is appealing his detention.

In the complaint involving the 10-year-old, the California plaintiff known as John Doe said he was an aspiring actor and rapper when a consultant whom his parents had hired arranged an "audition" with Combs at a New York hotel.

According to the complaint, after Doe told Combs he would "do anything" to become a star, Combs gave him a soda spiked with drugs, pushed him down, and forced him to perform oral sex.

Doe said he lost consciousness, and upon waking was sore and had his pants undone. He said he cried and asked to see his parents, leading Combs to say he would hurt them "badly" if Doe revealed what happened, the complaint said.

In the second complaint, a different California plaintiff named John Doe said Combs forced him to perform oral sex on himself and the bodyguard, with Combs framing the latter as a "test" of how much Doe wanted to succeed in the music industry.

Doe failed the audition, after Combs deemed him "untrustworthy due to his reservations about performing oral sex on his bodyguard," the complaint said.

Combs' criminal trial is scheduled for May 5, 2025.

https://www.reuters.com/

CHICAGO — Prosecutors say a 15-year-old Chicago girl who accepted a ride from a stranger in December was drugged, kidnapped, and repeatedly raped by the man, who locked her inside his basement apartment for nearly five months.

Chicago police officers freed the girl last week after she found a piece of mail bearing the apartment’s address and called 911, officials said as they filed charges in the case.

Derek Swift, a 48-year-old man who has been arrested 52 times in his life, was detained as a safety risk by Judge Susana Ortiz.

The girl, who spent her 16th birthday in captivity, was walking near her South Side home in December when Swift pulled up and offered her a ride, Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord said, according to a transcript of his detention hearing.

After initially declining his offer, the girl relented because he kept asking. Once inside the car, Swift offered her alcohol and pills but refused to say what the drugs were, according to McCord. Again feeling pressured, the girl took the pills and then lost consciousness.

She woke up naked in the bedroom of Swift’s basement apartment, and he allegedly prevented her from leaving.

https://cwbchicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/DEREK-D-SWIFT--768x432.jpg
Derek Swift (Chicago Police Department)

“She remained in that apartment for the following months,” McCord said. The Chicago Police Department issued a missing person bulletin about the girl four weeks after she disappeared.

Month after month, Swift came and went from the apartment, bringing her food from a gas station and sometimes leaving her alone for days, according to McCord. He brought alcohol home and made her take more pills.

“When she would refuse to take the pills, he would grab her face and shove the pills into her mouth,” the veteran prosecutor alleged.

McCord said the apartment doors each had two locks, but the girl could only open one of the locks.

“Every time he came back in the apartment, he would, what she termed, rape her,” McCord stated. On two occasions, he forced her to take pregnancy tests, McCord said. Following her release, a test revealed that she is not currently pregnant.

Swift gave the girl a phone, which he used to check on her, but warned that he would kill her if she tried to leave and would kill anyone she tried to call, said McCord. He searched her phone when he came home to ensure that she had not made any calls.

This story is made possible by contributions to the Cook County Courtroom Transparency Fund.

Finally, on April 29, the girl saw an address on a piece of mail in the apartment and used the phone Swift gave her to call the police. CPD officers removed her from the apartment and took her to a hospital. A search of the phone showed no call activity other than between the girl and Swift, McCord said.

Swift surrendered to police hours after officers removed her from the apartment. He allegedly admitted to picking the girl up, although he believed she was 20 years old, and claimed that their sexual relationship was consensual.

Assistant Public Defender Joseph Crawford, representing Swift during the detention hearing, said Swift initially picked the girl up because “he believed that he was giving her a place to stay after she had no other place to live.

While Crawford said the girl told Swift she was 20, McCord said the girl told him she was 16.

“Regardless of whether he thought she was 16, 26, or 46,” McCord argued, “it is irrelevant because the age is not an element” relevant to the charges filed against Swift, including criminal sexual assault by force and kidnapping.

Crawford also questioned why the girl did not call anyone sooner or leave the apartment.

“It is important when the police come, she tells them that she tried to leave twice,” McCord countered. “The first time he caught her, [he] stood over her with an open hand, struck her across the face.”

“The second attempt, he forcibly pushed her body against the wall; she did not believe that she had a way out,” she continued.

“She’s now a child who had been in this basement, fed pills, raped every day, and threatened that he would kill her, threatened he would kill her loved ones. She didn’t say anything, but how can she? She is a child. She is a child who was being traumatized in the most unimaginable way.”

https://cwbchicago.com/2024/05/chicago-man-charged-abducting-sexually-assaulting-teen-for-months.html