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20 Fact Checks From the First 2016 Presidential Debate

NBC News and our friends at PolitiFact fact checked the first presidential debate. Here's what we found.
Image: Donald Trump
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton during the presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2016.Patrick Semansky / AP

NBC News and our friends at PolitiFact fact checked the first presidential debate. Here's what we found.

1. Trump said it’s “wrong” that he supported the invasion of Iraq. It’s not.

2. Trump said he told Howard Stern “very lightly, I don’t know, maybe, who knows?” about the war in Iraq. Trump actually said “I guess so, yeah.”

3. Trump said Clinton and her campaign started the “birther” movement. They didn’t.

4. Trump said it was “wrong” to say that stop-and-frisk racially profiled individuals. It did.

5. Trump said ending stop-and-frisk made the city more dangerous. It didn’t.

Related: Follow NBC News' Coverage of the 2016 Presidential Debates

6. Trump said murder is up in New York City. It’s not.

7. Trump said he “did not say” global warming is a hoax. He did.

8. Clinton denied that she said TPP was the “gold standard” of trade deals. She did.

9. Clinton said “the only two” tax returns Trump's released showed he didn’t paid taxes those years. They did show that, but the same records show he did pay federal income taxes in three other years.

10. Trump said “you will learn more” from financial disclosure than from tax returns. You won’t.

Related: Analysis: Hillary Clinton's Studies for Debate With Donald Trump Pay Off

11. Clinton said Trump rooted for the housing crisis. He did repeatedly say it could benefit him as an investor.

12. Trump said “nobody knows” the DNC hack was perpetrated by Russians. U.S. intelligence say they have a “high confidence” it was.

13. Trump said ISIS controls “a lot of” oil in Libya. They don’t.

14. Trump said the U.S. should have taken Libya’s oil. That violates the Geneva Convention.

15. Trump said he got the first-ever endorsement of ICE earlier in the day and that it was 16,500 Border Patrol agents. He did not receive the endorsement of the federal agency, but rather the endorsement of a union that represents 6,700 ICE employees earlier in the day. He received the endorsement of another group of 16,500 border patrol agents in March.

Related: "Put-Downs and Comebacks: The Best Zingers From Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton"

16. Trump said he started his company with a “very small loan in 1975,” while Clinton said he got $14 million from his father. She’s right: Trump got millions more than he acknowledges.

17. Trump said Clinton has been fighting ISIS for her entire adult life. It’s only been around for a fifth of her adult life.

18. Trump said Clinton is spending “hundreds of millions” on ads against him. She’s spent $96.4 million.

19. Trump said he “didn’t say” women don’t deserve equal pay unless they do as good a job as men. In October, Trump told a young woman who asked if she’d make equal pay under a Trump presidency, “you’re gonna make the same if you do as good a job.”

20. Trump said he “never said” pregnancy is an inconvenience to employers. He did.