WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is mischaracterizing Joe Biden's position on the U.S. pandemic response, stretching the facts on his own policies in the crisis and playing down the risk to meatpacking employees who are being called to work as infections run high.

Trump capped the weekend by taking questions from Fox News anchors and viewers in an open-air evening session Sunday against the backdrop of the Lincoln Memorial. Over the previous week, Trump persisted in bragging about U.S. coronavirus testing despite the country's weak record on that front.

His comments were among many that fell short of reality in the past week as federal social distancing guidelines expired and some states took steps to reopen businesses. The nation's death toll continues to climb.

Trump's newest spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, held the first White House briefing by a press secretary in over a year, pledging she will "never lie to you, you have my word on that." She then spread several misstatements.

Trump and his veterans affairs secretary, meanwhile, exaggerated progress in the testing of front-line health workers during the pandemic. Trump has repeatedly insisted that anyone who needs a test can get one, but that's not what the VA says about its employees.

A review:

ON BIDEN

TRUMP, claiming Biden called his travel restrictions on China xenophobic: "Biden has written a letter of apology." ... "He actually apologized (and said) I made the right move." — Fox News, Sunday night.

THE FACTS: There's no such letter in sight. Moreover, Biden supported Trump's restrictions on travel from China — yes, essentially calling them the right move.

Trump's Democratic presidential rival has accused him of having a record of xenophobia but not explicitly in the context of the president's decision to limit travel from China during the pandemic. Trump took to calling the virus the "China virus" and the "foreign virus" at one point, prompting Biden to urge the country not to take a turn toward xenophobia or racism in the pandemic.

___

MEAT PLANTS

TRUMP, on his emergency order to reopen meat plants after many closed because workers were sickened by COVID-19. "I think it's all working out. ... Those people are tending to get better quickly." — Fox News, Sunday night.

THE FACTS: He offered no support for the contention that workforces at meat plants are rapidly returning to health.

In a report Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said more than 4,900 workers at meat and poultry processing facilities have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, 20 of whom have died.

The illnesses occurred among 130,000 workers at 115 facilities in 19 states, according to the CDC. Some states didn't provide data, so the actual count is believed to be higher.

The CDC said plant workers may be at risk for a number of reasons, such as difficulties with physical distancing and hygiene and crowded living and transportation conditions. The researchers suggested that disinfection be enhanced and that workers get regular screening for the virus, more space from co-workers and training materials in their native languages.

___

PRESS SECRETARY

McENANY: "We have a handwritten FBI note that says, quote, 'We need to get (Flynn) to lie,' quote, and 'get him fired.' There was an unfair target on the back of General Michael Flynn." — news briefing Friday.

THE FACTS: She's misquoting and mischaracterizing the newly released FBI notes and emails related to Trump's former national security adviser.

The message, included on a page of handwritten notes that appeared to recap an internal FBI debate about how best to approach Flynn, reads: "What's our goal? Truth/admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?"

The notes also say: "If we're seen as playing games, WH will be furious. Protect our institution by not playing games."

Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States. His lawyers last week released internal correspondence obtained through a Justice Department review of the handling of the case. They contend the documents bolster their allegations that Flynn was set up to lie when he was questioned at the White House three years ago.

___

McENANY: "I've seen a whole lot of scant information about Michael Flynn, when there was a whole lot of speculation about 'Russia, Russia, Russia' culminating in ... the complete and total exoneration of President Trump." — news briefing Friday.

THE FACTS: False. Special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation did not result in a "complete and total exoneration" of Trump. Mueller explicitly stated that his report did not exonerate the president.

In the report, Mueller said his team declined to make a prosecutorial judgment on whether to charge Trump, partly because of a Justice Department legal opinion that said sitting presidents cannot be indicted.

The detailed report factually laid out instances in which Trump might have obstructed justice. On a potential conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign, Mueller said the investigation did not collect sufficient evidence to establish criminal charges on that front.

___

TESTING

TRUMP, responding to a Harvard University study that 5 million tests would be needed to safely reopen the country: "It will increase, and it'll increase by much more than that in the very near future. We're way ahead of everyone on testing. ... We're going to be there very soon. If you look at the numbers, it could be that we're getting very close." — remarks Tuesday on aid for small businesses.

THE FACTS: Actually, Trump is nowhere close in his prediction of providing 5 million tests a day, according to his own federal "testing czar."

"There is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even 5 million tests a day," Dr. Brett Giroir, the federal health official overseeing U.S. testing, told Time magazine the same day.

Trump was addressing a Harvard study that said to ensure a safe reopening of the U.S., 5 million tests a day would be needed by June, and 20 million a day by late July.

Giroir told Time those numbers couldn't be supported by current technology. The U.S. recently tested as many as 300,000 a day, and Giroir said he plans to hit 8 million per month by next month.

Asked again about it the following day, Trump backtracked, saying the U.S. could hit 5 million tests perhaps eventually. He said "we are going to be there at a certain point."

___

TRUMP: "I've told you that we inherited a very broken test — a broken system and a broken test." — remarks Tuesday.

THE FACTS: He's repeating a false assertion that he inherited a "broken" COVID-19 test from the Obama administration. The novel coronavirus did not exist until late last year, so there was no test to inherit.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instead struggled to develop its own test for the coronavirus in January, later discovering problems in its kits sent to state and county public health labs in early February.

It took the CDC more than two weeks to come up with a fix to the test kits, leading to delays in diagnoses through February, a critical month when the virus took root in the U.S. Not until Feb. 29 did the Food and Drug Administration decide to allow labs to develop and use their own coronavirus diagnostic tests before the agency reviews them, speeding up the supply. Previously, the FDA had only authorized use of a government test developed by the CDC.

Meantime the U.S. bypassed a test that the World Health Organization quickly made available internationally. Trump has said that test was flawed; it wasn't. The U.S. has strikingly lagged a variety of countries in its ability to test people widely and quickly, despite increasing its capacity after a first chapter that public health officials acknowledged was a failure.

More than 6 million people have been tested in the U.S. More than 1 million have been sickened by the virus and more than 60,000 have died. The U.S. has experienced roughly 1 in 4 reported deaths from the virus worldwide.

___

VETERANS

TRUMP, on the administration's health care efforts during the coronavirus outbreak: "We also acted swiftly to secure our veterans' health care facilities. ... And we're being helped very greatly by the passage of all the things that we got passed, Robert, especially Choice, so that people can go and see their doctor when they have to." —remarks Thursday, with Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie in attendance.

THE FACTS: Trump is wrong on two fronts. He didn't pass the Veterans Choice program, and that program has had little impact during the virus outbreak. In fact, since March, the VA suspended the program's key provisions that granted veterans the option to see private doctors if they endured long waits for care at the government-run VA.

Congress first approved the program in 2014, and President Barack Obama signed it into law. Trump expanded it.

The program allows vets to see a private doctor for primary or mental health care if their VA wait is 20 days (28 for specialty care) or their drive is only 30 minutes or more.

But since the program's expansion in June 2018, the VA has not seen a major increase in veterans seeking care outside the VA, partly because wait times in the private sector are typically longer than at the VA.

The VA also took steps in late March to restrict veterans' access to private care, citing the added risks of coronavirus exposure and limited capacity at private hospitals.

Under the temporary restrictions, the VA is reviewing referrals for nonemergency care "on a case-by-case basis for immediate clinical need and with regard to the safety of the veteran when being seen in-person, regardless of wait time or drive time eligibility," said VA spokeswoman Christina Noel. She said the VA is expanding use of telehealth to address many of veterans' routine medical needs.

Republican lawmakers and conservatives such as Fox News host Pete Hegseth, a close ally of Trump's who was considered for the VA secretary job in 2018, have argued that the expanded Choice program has been rendered ineffective during the coronavirus outbreak — not excelled as a model of care.

"This is a time when the VA should do everything possible to expand health care choices for veterans, not arbitrarily restrict them," said Nate Anderson, executive director of Concerned Veterans for America.

___

WILKIE, when asked how many VA employees have been tested for the coronavirus: "Well, we've tested well over 60,000." — MSNBC interview on April 22.

THE FACTS: He overstated it by double. The VA actually has tested 32,155 out of 390,000 total employees, according to department figures provided Friday to Congress.

Wilkie was responding to concerns about shortages of personal protective equipment at VA medical centers, such as masks and gloves. He argued that VA staff is doing fine because of low infection rates, but VA nurses who spoke last month to The Associated Press said it's been difficult to get a test from the department to know if they have the virus.

According to the VA, employees who have been exposed to patients with COVID-19 and show symptoms may be tested "at a VA medical center, local health departments, or community resources, depending on what resources for testing are available." The department said Friday that all employees at its nursing homes had now been tested, and it would expand testing to other "vulnerable" employees this week.

To date, about 2,000 staff at VA facilities have tested positive for COVID-19, and an additional 3,500 have been quarantined and are unable to work out of concerns they are infected, according to agency documents. About 20 staff have died.

The VA has pointed in part to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for not supplying it with enough medical supplies. In its update Friday to Congress, the VA said it did not have enough tests for every staff member who wanted one, but it remained a goal for the department.

More than a dozen Democrats led by Sen. Jon Tester, the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, have called on Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act to ensure that VA employees get an adequate supply of protective equipment.

___

TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS

TRUMP: "Lives were saved by my EARLY BAN of China into our Country." — tweet Sunday.

TRUMP: "I closed the country to China." — on Fox News, Sunday night.

TRUMP: "I did something that the experts thought I shouldn't have done: I closed down our country and our borders. I did a ban on China." — remarks Tuesday.

THE FACTS: This is one of Trump's most frequent exaggerations. Trump didn't "ban" all the people infected with coronavirus from entering the U.S. from China. There were in fact many gaps in containment and initial delays in testing, leading to the U.S. rising to No. 1 globally in the number of people infected by COVID-19. It hit the 1 million mark in infections this past week.

Nor did Trump decide on his own or against the advice of experts to impose travel restrictions on China. He followed a consensus recommendation by his public health advisers.

His order in late January temporarily barred entry by foreign nationals who had traveled in China within the previous 14 days, with exceptions for the immediate family of U.S. citizens and permanent residents as well as American citizens.

___

TRUMP: "How do you keep American citizens — you say they're coming in from China, they want to come back to their country. There is a tremendous problem in China; they want to come back. Are we supposed to say to an American citizen, 'You can't come back into your country'? And we did do testing." — remarks Tuesday with Florida's governor.

TRUMP: "The people that we're allowed were heavily scrutinized and tested U.S. citizens." — tweet Sunday.

THE FACTS: He's incorrect that Americans returning from China were tested for the coronavirus as part of Trump's travel restrictions imposed in late January.

Americans returning from China were allowed back after enhanced screening at select ports of entry, which could include a temperature check and observations for symptoms.

That's not the same as getting a test, which was in short supply in February due to problems with the CDC diagnostic kits. U.S. scientists say screenings can miss people who don't yet show symptoms of COVID-19. While symptoms often appear within five or six days of exposure, the incubation period is 14 days.

___

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — A look at the veracity of claims by political figures.

___

Find AP Fact Checks at http://apnews.com/APFactCheck

Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck