In a post from January 9, 2019, Politifact quotes President Donald Trump as saying, “Sen. Chuck Schumer, who you will be hearing from later tonight, has repeatedly supported a physical barrier in the past along with many other Democrats.” Trump said this during a January 8 address from the Oval Office.
“They changed their mind only after I was elected president,” Trump added.
Politifact then shows evidence that this statement is literally true, but goes on to bring in things Trump has said in the past and some nitpicking to give the claim a “Mostly False” rating.
Here is what Politifact concluded based solely on what the president said on January 8:
Trump said Schumer has [sic] “has repeatedly supported a physical barrier in the past along with many other Democrats. They changed their mind only after I was elected president.”
Schumer, along with tens of other Democrats including former President Barack Obama, voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which authorized building a fence along about 700 miles of the border between the United States and Mexico. That’s the majority of the barrier in place today along the southern border.
But, this being Politifact, they just couldn’t give Trump a win, so they used the president’s previous claim that the 2006 fence was “not a wall” but a “little fence.”- READ MORE