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Fact Check: Trump’s, Clinton’s Claims in 2nd Presidential Debate

In the second presidential debate the two candidates fought tooth and nail and made some questionable claims.

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During the second second presidential debate at Washington University in St Louis on Sunday, Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic candidate traded as eries of charges.

During the debate, Trump falsely claimed that Clinton "viciously attacked” women with whom her husband Bill Clinton had been sexually linked. He also questioned her own treatment of women. Clinton, meanwhile, didn't give a square account of the fallout of her use of a private email server while serving as US secretary of state.

A look at some of the claims in the second presidential debate:

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When asked whether the predatory behavior with women that he described in a 2005 video amounted to sexual assault, Trump replied: "No, I didn't say that at all."

FACT CHECK: He certainly did not own up to sexual assault in his boastful remarks in 2005. But he clearly described groping and kissing women without their permission, using his celebrity status to impose himself on them.

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Trump referred to Hillary Clinton's behavior when, as a young public defender, she was assigned to represent a child rape accused.

She’s seen on two separate occasions laughing at the girl who was raped. Kathy Shelton, that young woman, is here with us tonight.

FACT CHECK: At no point was Clinton seen laughing at the victim.

In 1975, at the age of 12, Shelton was sexually assaulted in northwest Arkansas. Clinton was asked by a judge overseeing the case to represent her alleged attacker.

In an interview a decade later, Clinton expressed horror at the crime, but was recorded on tape laughing about procedural details of the case.

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Donald Trump on women linked to Bill Clinton sexually: "Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and attacked them viciously."

FACT CHECK: There is no clear independent evidence that Hillary Clinton "viciously" attacked women who alleged or confirmed sexual contact with her husband.

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After a yearlong investigation, there is no evidence that anyone hacked the server I was using, and there is no evidence that anyone can point to, at all ... that any classified material ended up in the wrong hands.
Hillary Clinton

FACT CHECK: Maybe, maybe not. While there's indeed no direct, explicit evidence that classified information was leaked or that her server was breached, it was nevertheless connected to the internet in ways that made it more vulnerable to hackers — and the public may never know who saw them.

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Donald Trump on Bill Clinton: "He lost his licence. He had to pay a $850,000 fine."

FACT CHECK: Trump's facts are, at best, jumbled. In 1998, lawyers for Bill Clinton settled with former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones for $850,000 in her four-year lawsuit alleging sexual harassment. It was not a fine, and there was no finding or admission of wrongdoing. And Clinton’ did not lose his law licence.

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She (Clinton) wants to go to a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster... she wants to go to single-payer, which means the government basically rules everything.
Donald Trump

FACT CHECK: It's Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders — not Clinton — who supports a Canada-style government-run health care system.

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Donald Trump, asked whether he had ever sexually assaulted a woman, said: "No, I have not."

FACT CHECK: He's been accused of it but a case has not been proved. Trump's first wife, Ivana Trump, accused him of rape in a deposition in the early 1990s. She later said she didn't mean it literally, but rather that she felt violated.

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Donald Trump: "She is raising your taxes and I am lowering your taxes. ...She's raising everybody's taxes massively."

FACT CHECK: Clinton is not raising taxes on "everybody." Nearly all of Hillary Clinton's proposed tax increases would affect the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

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Hillary Clinton: "He would end up raising taxes on middle-class families"

FACT CHECK: Trump is proposing massive tax cuts for both individuals and businesses. Yet it's not clear that all Americans would benefit.

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If we repeal (Obama’s health care law) as Donald has proposed, all of those benefits I have mentioned are lost to everybody... and then we will have to start all over again.
Hillary Clinton

FACT CHECK: Clinton is essentially correct. A complete repeal of the health care law would wipe the slate clean and lawmakers would have to start over.

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Hillary Clinton said, “Since the Great Recession the gains have all gone to the top.”

FACT CHECK:

Median household income rose sharply last year for the first time since the Great Recession, rendering Clinton’s comments out of date. The median income, $56,500, was up 5.2 percent from the previous year — the largest single-year increase since record-keeping began in 1967. Moreover, the income gains were stronger for lower-income families. 
Binyamin Appelbaum, The New York Times

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