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PolitiFact’s guide to the third presidential debate

C. Eugene Emery Jr.
By C. Eugene Emery Jr. October 19, 2016

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump face-off for the last time at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

Over 90 minutes, do you think they might say something in need of fact-checking?

That’s what we’re here for. We have 20 staffers ready to fact-check the claims made by both the candidates.

Want to follow along with PolitiFact during Wednesday’s debate?

There are a couple of ways to do it. You can watch our live blog, which will deliver fact-checks in real-time here.

Or, if you’re watching the debate through a livestream, the Duke Reporters’ Lab is experimenting with a Google Chrome plug-in that will send you pop-up notifications on your computer screen every time we issue a PolitiFact Truth-O-Meter rating. You can download the extension and learn more about it here.

What are the PolitiFact records of the two candidates?

We've ruled on 270 of Clinton's statements. Her typical rating: Mostly True, which she's earned in 27 percent of the cases. She's been Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire in 27 percent of our rulings.

We've put Trump on the Truth-O-Meter 297 times. His typical rating, by far, has been False. He's earned it for 35 percent of the statements we've checked. He's been rated Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire in 71 percent of our rulings.

 

 

Statements by Clinton or comments made about her can be seen here. Statements by and about Trump can be found here. Note that the scorecard for each candidate only includes statements they've actually made, not statements made about them.

When the released Wikileaks emails come up -- and they will -- what should you believe?

We suggest looking through our analysis of some of the attacks Trump has been making. In many cases, Trump is going too far.

What about Clinton’s private email server?

We’ve got you covered there, too. Read our PolitiFact Sheet about the email controversy.

And if Trump denies saying something …

Well, we’ve already documented 17 cases where Trump denied saying something, but in fact said it. We have those catalogued here for you.

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PolitiFact’s guide to the third presidential debate