PolitiFact: Has Obama Provided Guns to Drug Cartels?
PolitiFact Texas checks Gov. Rick Perry's claim that President Barack Obama provided guns to Mexican drug cartels. Photo by Bob Daemmrich, Texas TribuneAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
While addressing the state GOP convention earlier this month, Gov. Rick Perry accused said America elected the wrong person in 2008 and said President Barack Obama had “provided guns to Mexican drug cartels.” KUT’s Emily Donahue went over the governor’s statements with Gardner Selby of the Austin American-Statesman’s PolitiFact Texas.
On what likely sparked the claim:
It was a botched federal gun trafficking investigation on the U.S.-Mexico border out of Arizona in which federal agents lost track of hundreds of firearms that they were letting flow into Mexico. The idea was they were going to build cases against Mexican drug cartels with the weapons playing into that.
Two of those guns turned up at the scene of a shootout where a U.S. agent died. PolitiFact Texas discusses President Obama’s involvement.
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