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NY Times Reports Obama Only Told 18 Falsehoods During Entire Presidency

Former President Barack Obama / Getty Images
Getty Images
December 14, 2017

A recent New York Times analysis claims that over his eight years in office, former President Barack Obama only told 18 distinct lies.

The Times set out to compare the trustworthiness of Obama compared to President Donald Trump. "In his first 10 months in office, [Trump] has told 103 separate untruths, many of them repeatedly. Obama told 18 over his entire eight-year tenure," the piece reads.

On the list are some of Obama's most well-known whoppers, including "If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan," and that he "didn’t set a red line" on Syria's use of chemical weapons.

By contrast, fact-checker Politifact ruled that over the course of his presidency, Obama made 43 "false" statements and 48 "mostly false" statements. Politifact also identified 7 "pants on fire" statements, which are falsehoods that are "not accurate and make a ridiculous claim."

The majority of Politifact's "Pants on Fire"-rated claims didn't even make it on to the Times list, including:

In addition, several Obama claims that were rated "Four Pinocchios" by the Washington Post fact-checker are missing from the Times list, including four from the Post's list of "Obama’s biggest whoppers."