Tag: lies

Misinformer, Meet Liar: Correcting Maria Bartiromo’s Latest Trump Interview

National Memo logo

On March 16, Fox News Primetime and Fox’s Maria Bartiromo hosted former President and Celebrity Apprentice host Donald Trump for a friendly interview full of the kind of lies and misinformation for which both interviewer and interviewee are known.

Bartiromo spent most of the interview lobbing softball questions and letting blatant lies go unchecked while the former president rattled off a series of lies and delusions. In several instances, Bartiromo herself was a source of false information.

Below is a list of some of the lies and distortions uncritically aired by Fox. Continue reading.

Corruption, Anger, Chaos, Incompetence, Lies, Decay

New York Times logo

END OUR NATIONAL CRISIS: The Case Against Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s re-election campaign poses the greatest threat to American democracy since World War II.

Mr. Trump’s ruinous tenure already has gravely damaged the United States at home and around the world. He has abused the power of his office and denied the legitimacy of his political opponents, shattering the norms that have bound the nation together for generations. He has subsumed the public interest to the profitability of his business and political interests. He has shown a breathtaking disregard for the lives and liberties of Americans. He is a man unworthy of the office he holds.

The editorial board does not lightly indict a duly elected president. During Mr. Trump’s term, we have called out his racism and his xenophobia. We have critiqued his vandalism of the postwar consensus, a system of alliances and relationships around the globe that cost a great many lives to establish and maintain. We have, again and again, deplored his divisive rhetoric and his malicious attacks on fellow Americans. Yet when the Senate refused to convict the president for obvious abuses of power and obstruction, we counseled his political opponents to focus their outrage on defeating him at the ballot box.

Trump and Republicans settle on fear — and falsehoods — as a midterm strategy

When asked what evidence President Trump had that “unknown Middle Easterners” were in the migrant caravan, he told reporters to “search” with their cameras. Credit: The Washington Post

President Trump has settled on a strategy of fear — laced with falsehoods and racially tinged rhetoric — to help lift his party to victory in the coming midterms, part of a broader effort to energize Republican voters with two weeks left until the Nov. 6 elections.

Trump’s messaging — on display in his regular campaign rallies, tweets and press statements — largely avoids much talk of his achievements and instead offers an apocalyptic vision of the country, which he warns will only get worse if Democrats retake control of Congress.

The president has been especially focused in recent days on a caravan of about 5,000 migrants traveling north to cross the U.S. border, a group he has darkly characterized as gang members, violent criminals and “unknown Middle Easterners” — a claim for which his administration has so far provided no concrete evidence.

View the complete October 22 article by Ashley Parker, Philip Rucker and Josh Dawsey on the Washington Post website here.

Donald Trump’s Pathetic Lies

The following article by Steve Chapman was posted on the Creators.com website August 6, 2017:

Credit: Pedro J. Perez/Morguefile.com

When Huey Long was running for office in Louisiana, he told crowds that as a boy on Sunday mornings, he would hitch the family horse to a buggy to take his Catholic grandparents to Mass and then ferry his Baptist grandparents to church. When a surprised friend said, “I didn’t know you had any Catholic grandparents,” Long replied: “Don’t be a damn fool. We didn’t even have a horse.”

Long was governor and a U.S. senator in the 1920s and ’30s, an innocent age when politicians carefully rationed their lies, dispensing them for specific purposes and striving to keep them believable. He might find himself unable to function in the era of Donald Trump, who churns out fiction nonstop with no rhyme, reason or restraint.

Even after two years on the political stage, Trump continues to outdo himself. His penchant for lies resembles an incorrigible alcoholic’s thirst for drink: He lives for the next one and can’t abstain, no matter what it costs him. Continue reading “Donald Trump’s Pathetic Lies”

President Trump’s claim that Obama spent $7 billion to upgrade air traffic control and ‘totally failed’

The following article by Michelle Ye Hee Lee was posted on the Washington Post website June 7, 2017:

“The previous administration spent over $7 billion trying to upgrade the system, and totally failed. Honestly, they didn’t know what the hell they were doing. A total waste of money, $7 billion-plus, plus. It’s time to join the future. That is why I’m proposing new principles to Congress for air traffic control reform, making flights quicker, safer and more reliable.”
— President Trump, remarks announcing plans for air traffic control, June 5, 2017

On June 5, in a White House ceremony, President Trump announced a plan to transfer part of federal air traffic control responsibilities to a private, nonprofit corporation. According to the administration, spinning off all air traffic control operations to a private, nonprofit corporation would allow the Federal Aviation Administration to focus solely on safety regulation. Continue reading “President Trump’s claim that Obama spent $7 billion to upgrade air traffic control and ‘totally failed’”

Pruitt’s claim that ‘almost 50,000 jobs’ have been gained in coal

The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website June 6, 2017:

“Since the fourth quarter of last year until most recently, we’ve added almost 50,000 jobs in the coal sector. In the month of May alone, almost 7,000 jobs.”
— Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” June 4, 2017

“We’ve had over 50,000 jobs since last quarter — coal jobs, mining jobs — created in this country. We had almost 7,000 mining and coal jobs created in the month of May alone.”
— Pruitt, interview on ABC’s “This Week,” June 4 Continue reading “Pruitt’s claim that ‘almost 50,000 jobs’ have been gained in coal”

What Trump got wrong on Twitter this week (#8)

The following article by Michelle Ye Hee Lee was posted on the Washington Post website April 21, 2017:

It’s been more than a month since our last roundup of what the president got wrong on Twitter in a given week, an occasional Friday series at The Fact Checker. President Trump has been tweeting less frequently, and his tweets have become more ceremonial — simply sharing photos or videos of memorable events or commemorating a holiday.

But in the past week, Trump tweeted misleading or false claims about several issues that were worth delving into. Here’s a look at what Trump got wrong in 10 tweets since last Friday. Continue reading “What Trump got wrong on Twitter this week (#8)”

Trump’s claim that ‘no administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days’

The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website April 20, 2017:


President Trump falsely claimed that “no administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days,” during a speech in Wisconsin on April 18. The Post’s Fact Checker found that other presidents, most notably Franklin D. Roosevelt, accomplished more than he has so far. (The Washington Post)

“No administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days.”

— President Trump, remarks in Kenosha, Wis., April 18, 2017 Continue reading “Trump’s claim that ‘no administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days’”

New Poll Suggests Donald Trump’s Brand Is Going Right Down The Tubes

The following article was posted on the Trumpaccountable website April 11, 2017:

Photo Credit: FlickR/Gage Skidmore

President Trump this morning, while speaking to a gathering of CEOs, falsely claimed responsibility for the creation of 600,000 jobs in his first 100 days:

“You see what’s going on,” Trump asserted. “You see the numbers. We’ve created over 600,000 jobs already in a very short period of time, and it’s gonna really start catching on now because some of the things that we’ve done are big league, and they are catching on. Already, we’ve created more than almost 600,000 jobs.” Continue reading “New Poll Suggests Donald Trump’s Brand Is Going Right Down The Tubes”

Conspiracy Theorist in Chief

The following commentary by the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board was posted on their website April 6, 2017:

It was bad enough back in 2011 when Donald Trump began peddling the crackpot conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not a native-born American. But at least Trump was just a private citizen then.

By the time he tweeted last month that Obama had sunk so low as to “tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process,” Trump was a sitting president accusing a predecessor of what would have been an impeachable offense. Continue reading “Conspiracy Theorist in Chief”