High Five: Attacks on Syria, Black Lives Matter

Except for a fact check involving Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr., who may be up for a job in the administration of President Donald Trump, Trump himself dominated the most-clicked PolitiFact Wisconsin items in April 2017.

Commanding the most page-views during the month was a claim about Trump’s missile attack on Syria made by U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, a Madison-area Democrat.

The other most popular topics involved criticism of the Black Lives Matter group by Clarke, whose department is under fire for the dehydration death of a jail inmate, and Trump’s first trip to Wisconsin since becoming president.

Here’s the rundown of the High Five.

1. Mark Pocan wrongly claims Donald Trump had no legal authority to launch missile attack on Syria

Our rating: False.

There was plenty of debate about the legal authority a president has to order military action. But Pocan went too far in saying there was none for a limited action like the strike Trump ordered.

2. Pro-Sheriff David Clarke group says Clarke called Black Lives Matter hate group, terrorist movement

Our rating: True.

More specifically, the claim was that Clarke has said Black Lives Matter "is a terrorist movement, a hate group and calls it, Black LIES Matter." It was made by Sheriff David Clarke for U.S. Senate, a committee that’s trying to draft Clarke to run against U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., in 2018.

Clarke has repeatedly used Lies instead of Lives in labeling the group, and has repeatedly called it a hate group. In his memoir, he calls the group a "terrorist organization."

3. Were the 7 nations identified in Donald Trump's travel ban named by Barack Obama as terror hotbeds?

Our rating: Half True.

There was a new surge of clicks on this fact check, which was published in February 2017. Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, claimed the seven were "identified by the Obama administration as the seven most dangerous countries in the world in regard to harboring terrorists."

The Obama administration did put those seven countries -- Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen -- on a list that makes travel into the United States somewhat more difficult. But that list doesn’t necessarily identify the seven as being the most dangerous.

4. While mentioning Keystone XL, Donald Trump errs in saying pipelines must use only American steel

While visiting Kenosha, in his first trip to Wisconsin as president, Trump said: "All pipelines that are coming into this country from now on has to be American steel."

Our rating: False.

The White House had made it clear weeks earlier that a memorandum signed by Trump related to the use of American steel does not apply to the Keystone -- only to new pipeline projects. And though the memorandum could put pressure on pipeline companies to use American steel, it does not contain any requirements that only American steel be used.

5. Ahead of Donald Trump's Wisconsin visit, his record as president on the meter

In this article, we looked at Trump’s PolitiFact record since he was inaugurated. We found, on the eve of his visit to Kenosha, that 65 percent of his statements checked by PolitiFact had been rated Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire.