AP FACT CHECK: Trump says Pelosi, Dems defended Iran general

AP FACT CHECK: Trump says Pelosi, Dems defended Iran general

SeattlePI.com

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's relentless attacks on the impeachment investigation and Democrats' stance on Iran strained the truth on various fronts, from claiming that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani to asserting that even Ukraine's president said Trump did nothing wrong in withholding military aid.

In weekend tweets and interviews, Trump repeatedly left out important context or simply made stuff up.

To a core question — did the U.S. killing of an Iranian general avoid an imminent attack on U.S. interests? — there is no definitive answer more than a week after missiles flew. Trump and his officials said the U.S. attack achieved that result but have yet to prove it.

Trump over the past week offered distortion across the breadth of public policy. He declared clean-air achievements when the air has become dirtier.

He complained that he didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize for peace in Ethiopia, when he had little or nothing to do with Ethiopia's peace deal with neighboring Eritrea.

And in the midst of dangerous brinkmanship with Iran, Trump falsely accused President Barack Obama of opening the U.S. treasury to Tehran and handing over a fortune.

A look at the claims and reality:

IRAN

TRUMP: “Where have the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats gone when they have spent the last 3 days defending the life of Qassem Soleimani.” — tweet Saturday.

TRUMP: “You know what bothers me? When I see a Nancy Pelosi trying to defend this monster from Iran ... When Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats want to defend him, I think that’s a very bad thing for this country.” — remarks Thursday at event on environmental regulations.

THE FACTS: That's a misrepresentation.

Pelosi and other Democrats have questioned the strategy behind...

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