‘I Don’t Even Know Where to Begin’: CNN’s Anderson Cooper Summons Daniel Dale to Fact-Check Trump’s Latest Pre-Court Rant

Former President Donald Trump spoke to cameras before entering a New York City courtroom for his hush money trial on Thursday, and like many other statements he has made, there was quite a bit to be fact-checked. CNN’s Anderson Cooper described the rant as a “lengthy screed full of things which are factually incorrect or hyperbole or complete overstatement” and quickly brought in reporter Daniel Dale to get the facts straight.

Trump used his time in front of the cameras to do some quickfire campaigning, and among his topics was the economy and how much President Joe Biden is ruining it. However, several of his claims were demonstrably false:

Cooper: Okay. The former president there, in a lengthy screed full of things which are factually incorrect or hyperbole or complete overstatements, saying the economy is the worst it’s ever been, claiming that the stock market is crashing, which it is not. And we’re going to bring in Daniel Dale for a fact-check shortly, but just the sheer volume of false things there was, well, quite normal for the former president. Daniel joins us right now. Daniel, I mean, I don’t even know where to begin.

Dale: Yeah, that’s a constant challenge, fact-checking Donald Trump, Anderson. Only Donald Trump could bring a crowd size lie to a criminal trial. He keeps saying this entire area is locked down. He said there’s not a person within five blocks. That is categorically untrue. There was a designated protest zone right across the street at a park, literally right across the street from the courthouse. And the fact is that very few, just a handful of pro-Trump demonstrators, have shown up. They’re not being prevented from going there by police, as he claimed on social media the other day.

He said a whole bunch of things about a whole bunch of topics. Tons of people from prisons and mental institutions flooding across the border. There’s no evidence of that and his own campaign has not been able to produce any evidence, but I’ve repeatedly inquired. He said, we built 571 miles of border wall. That’s more than 100 miles exaggerated. It’s 458, including much of which was a replacement wall, secondary wall, rather than a new wall in unguarded areas. He said California gas prices were just announced at $7.60. That’s something you hear from him a lot. There may be a station or two somewhere in California where that’s true. The average, though today is $5.41. So, more than $2 off there.

He also complained about the dollar crashing, as you said. Well, he also complained on social media this week that the dollar had just hit a 34-year high against the yen. So he’s complaining from both ends of this. The reality is, Anderson, the dollar is significantly stronger against foreign currencies than it was when he left office.

And he repeated his claim, you hear a lot from him that we had no wars. Now generously, you can say that he was suggesting he didn’t start any wars. But as we know, he certainly presided over a number of wars. He presided over the wars in Iraq. Afghanistan did not fully withdraw U.S. troops, troops in Syria and other countries. So, “no wars” is at very least a significant exaggeration.

Watch the video above via CNN.