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| - Fact Check: Donald Trump's 'filthy' remark on India's air quality goes viral with misleading claims
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the claim is misleading. During the Presidential debate, Trump described the air quality in India, China and Russia as "filthy".
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India Today Fact Check
Trump used the word “filthy” to describe the quality of air in India. He used the same word to describe the air quality in China and Russia as well.
US President Donald Trump and Democratic representative Joe Biden touched on various issues during the final Presidential debate ahead of the election in US on November 3. Also, the third India-US 2+2 ministerial dialogue will be held next week with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper visiting India.
Amid this, a three-second video where Trump can be heard saying “India is filthy” is viral on social media criticising the US President for his outrageous comment on India. Some netizens also took this as an opportunity to take a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with whom Trump maintains a friendly relationship.
Gaurav Pandhi, national coordinator of Congress party took to his Twitter to term PM Modi as the weakest PM the country ever had.
Sharing the video on his verified Twitter handle, Pandhi wrote, “ Modi's BEST FRIEND 'Doland': "India is FILTHY" OUTRAGEOUS! Never before any leader of any country in the world ever dared to say this about our country. But today, they all know that Modi is a GASBAG who will play it down to save his image. The weakest PM India ever had!“
Modi's BEST FRIEND 'Doland': "India is FILTHY" OUTRAGEOUS!
Never before any leader of any country in the world ever dared to say this about our country. But today, they all know that Modi is a GASBAG who will play it down to save his image.
The weakest PM India ever had! pic.twitter.com/7pVMSJPw9n — Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) October 23, 2020
Gaurav Pandhi also shared the same post on his verified Facebook page. West Bengal Youth Congress also shared the same claim on its verified Facebook page.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the claim is misleading. During the Presidential debate, Trump described the air quality in India, China and Russia as “filthy”.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here and here.
AFWA probe
With the help of keywords search, we found that the viral video is part of a longer speech by the US President and he used the word “filthy” to describe the air quality of India. Trump had made similar remarks during the first debate on 29 September when he said that China, India and Russia contribute to global pollution.
We found multiple media reports on Trump’s “filthy” remark.
According to a Hindustan Times report published on October 23, 2020, Trump used the word “filthy” to describe the quality of air in India.
The report states that the remark was made during Trump’s final presidential debate against Democratic presidential nominee Biden at Belmont University on October 22 night.
As per an NDTV report, Trump described India’s air quality as “filthy” while defending his decision to pull out of the Paris accord and denounce Joe Biden's plans to tackle climate change.
The Paris climate accord aims to strengthen the global response to the climate change threat by capping global warming "well below" two degrees Celsius.
Reports also confirmed that along with India, Trump also accused Russia and China of not taking care of their air quality and termed their air quality “filthy” as well.
We also heard the part from the debate where Trump talks about climate challenges. At one hour 17 minutes into the video, when asked what they would do to combat climate change and support job growth at the same time, Trump said, "We have the best carbon emission numbers that we have had in 35 years. Under this administration, we are working so well with the industry. But this is all we can do. Look at China, how filthy it is. Look at Russia, look at India, it is filthy. The air is filthy. The Paris accord, I took us out because we would have to spend trillions of dollars and we were treated very unfairly.”
Thus it is clear that the “filthy” remark was not made by US President Trump to describe India, but the air quality in India, China, and Russia while defending his decision to pull out of the Paris accord.
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