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Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump tangled in an intense series of exchanges tonight during 2016's first general-election presidential debate, moderated by NBC's Lester Holt. The candidates made charges about each other's records while defending their own careers and policy proposals.

But were they always telling the truth? How often did Trump and Clinton spin facts to fit their arguments?

ABC News fact-checked some of the most noteworthy claims made in the debate:



Best Lines of the First Presidential Debate



To Fact-Check or Not: Campaigns Disagree on the Role of Debate Moderator





Fact-check No. 1: Trump claims he did not say global warming is hoax perpetrated by the Chinese

Clinton: "Because we will be making investments where we can grow the economy. Take clean energy. Some country is going to be the clean energy superpower of the 21st century. Donald thinks that climate change is a hoax, perpetrated by the Chinese. I think it's real."

Trump: "I did not. I did not. I do not say that. I do not say that."

Grade: False

Explanation: Trump tweeted in November 2012 that the "concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese." This tweet resurfaced in January 2016, when former Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders pointed it out on NBC's "Meet the Press." The next day, Trump addressed the comment on "Fox & Friends," saying his tweet was basically a joke, saying, "I often joke that this is done for the benefit of the Chinese. Obviously, I joke. But this is done for the benefit of China, because China does not do anything to help climate change." He has, on other occasions from 2012 to 2015, called global warming a hoax, though he has not attributed it to the Chinese.









Fact-check No. 2: Clinton has been fighting ISIS her "entire adult life"

Trump: "See, you are telling the enemy everything you want to do. No wonder you have been, no wonder you have been fighting ISIS your entire adult life."

Grade: False

Explanation: ISIS has its origins in al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni insurgent group founded in 2004 after the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. In 2013, the group rebranded itself as the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and shifted operations to include Syria, where the civil war enabled its growth and resurgence. This occurred after Clinton had finished serving as secretary of state. Clinton is 68 years old and turned 18 in 1965, almost 51 years ago.









Fact-check No. 3: Trump started his business with $14 million borrowed from his father

Clinton: "Donald was very fortunate in his life, and that's all to his benefit. He started his business with $14 million, borrowed from his father, and he really believes that the more you help wealthy people, the better off we'll be and that everything will work out from there. I don't buy that. I have a different experience. My father was a small-business man. He worked really hard."

Grade: Yes and no

Explanation: Trump claims that his business grew out of a $1 million loan from his father in 1975. But a casino license disclosure from 1985 shows that in the late 1970s and early 1980s Trump took $14 million in loans from his father and his father's properties, according to The Wall Street Journal.









Fact-check No. 4: Trump said Clinton called the Trans-Pacific Partnership the "gold standard" of trade deals

Trump: "You called it the gold standard. You called it the gold standard of trade deals. You said it's the finest deal you have ever seen, and then you heard what I said about it, and all of a sudden you were against it."

Grade: Yes and no.

Explanation: Clinton said the TPP "sets the gold standard" and has used many other glowing terms to describe the agreement, but she did not say it was the "finest deal" she has ever seen. While Clinton served as secretary of state, she promoted the TPP well after negotiations began in 2010, saying in 2012 in Australia that it "sets the gold standard in trade agreements to open free, transparent, fair trade, the kind of environment that has the rule of law and a level playing field." She used many other complimentary words — including "exciting," "innovative," "ambitious," "groundbreaking," "cutting edge," "high quality" and "high standard" — according to a compilation by the fact-checking site PolitiFact — but there are no records of her saying it was "the greatest deal" she had "ever seen." Furthermore, Clinton began to moderate her position on the TPP as she began preparing her second presidential bid, culminating with a full renunciation of it during a 2015 PBS interview, in which she said, "As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it." It is worth noting that she was not serving as secretary of state when the deal was finalized. Clinton countered Trump in Monday's debate by trying to clarify that she said she had "hoped" TPP would set a gold standard for trade. But it is clear from her 2012 remarks that at least one time in public, she declared that it "set" the gold standard, with no qualifiers.

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