Clinton, Trump clash in first debate: CNN's Reality Check Team vets the claims. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump clashed Monday in their first head-to-head debate of the general election season, with Trump in particular straying from the truth, CNN's Reality Check Team found. The team of reporters, researchers and editors across CNN listened throughout the debate and selected key statements from both candidates, rating them true; mostly true; true, but misleading; false; or it's complicated. Clinton claimed Trump "thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese," a charge Trump immediately denied. Who's telling the truth? On November 6, 2012, Trump tweeted, "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."