WATCH: Pence and other RNC speakers can't defend Trump's record, so they resort to lies. So many lies. #TrumpChaos pic.twitter.com/K9xgktXDkv
— DNC War Room (@DNCWarRoom) August 27, 2020
Tag: Trump administration lies
Kellyanne Says Biden Has No Pandemic Plan — Then Claims She Read It
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway falsely claimed on Wednesday that Joe Biden had no plan to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Less than a minute later, she claimed to have read Biden’s entire COVID-19 plan.
On Fox News, Conway complained that Democrats had not explained how Biden would address the coronavirus.
“If they’ve got a good idea,” she demanded, “they shouldn’t be sitting ’til November 4th.”
Host Sandra Smith corrected Conway, noting that Biden indeed has a plan.
Mike Pence says coronavirus pandemic will be ‘largely’ behind us by Memorial Day – as Texas prepares to re-open retailers this week
Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that the coronavirus pandemic could be ‘largely’ behind Americans as early as Memorial Day Weekend.
Pence’s remarks come as Texas partially re-opened its economy this week despite the number of COVID-19 infections still rising.
‘Am I going to be on my boat and fishing in early June, Mr. Vice President?’ asked Geraldo Rivera of Fox News on his radio show. Continue reading.
Pence chief of staff rants wildly about anti-Trump conspiracy at DOJ — gets promptly shut down on CNN
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” with fill-in host Dana Bash, the chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence argued that the Justice Department is rife with officials who are biased against Donald Trump, only to have Bash remind him that the all the investigations of the president have been initiated by Trump appointees.
After complaining about how the Roger Stone case was handled, Martin Short lashed out at the Justice Department after Bash stated, “Barr ordered the Justice Department to re-examine the case of the former national security advisor Michael Flynn who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators and President Trump said that Flynn’s situation is unfair, and he wished him best wishes and good luck. Why is the attorney general inserting himself in cases involving the president’s associates?”
Because, again, there has been a bias within the Department of Justice that the Attorney General Barr is trying to correct,” Short shot back. “He said that the president has not called him directly to do these things, but he is acting independently to do the reviews and I think that he is doing a terrific job with it.” Continue reading.
Mnuchin Again Insists 2017 Tax Cuts Will ‘Pay For Themselves’
Trump administration officials continue to make wildly inaccurate statements about the economic impact of the Republican 2017 tax law. On Wednesday, contrary to all available evidence, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told the Senate Finance Committee that he stands by previous administration claims that the tax cuts “will pay for themselves.”
“This will be simple math,” Mnuchin testified under oath. “We measure this over 10 years. We got eight years left. I look forward to writing the committee a letter in eight years going through all the exact numbers.”
Mnuchin’s claim, flagged by American Bridge, a progressive opposition research organization, is widely disputed by experts, even experts who tout the benefits of the 2017 law. Continue reading.
The viral video of Mike Pence being grilled by an ER doctor about Medicaid cuts, explained
Pence struggled to justify a new policy in an exchange that captured something profound about the health care debate.
Dr. Rob Davidson was grabbing a bite at the Drake Diner in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday when Vice President Mike Pence just happened to stroll in. The polite but determined exchange that ensued became a viral video — and captured something profound about the state of the health care policy debate in President Trump’s America.
Davidson works as an emergency room doctor in western Michigan and is the executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare. He told Vox he was in Iowa for a press conference related to his work for the committee. So as Pence glad-handed around the diner, Davidson took the opportunity to press him on a new plan the Trump administration rolled out earlier that same day that would allow states to use waivers and block grants to cut federal Medicaid funding.
When Pence walked up to his table, Davidson introduced himself and said, “I’m an emergency doctor. I’m worried about the plans [Trump] talked about last week to maybe cut Medicare, and then the rollout today of cutting Medicaid. I work in one of the poorest counties in Michigan and my patients depend on expanded Medicaid, so how is that going to affect my patients?” Continue reading.
Pentagon Now Says 50 Troops Suffered Brain Injuries After Iran’s Missile Strike
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Tuesday raised to 50 the number of U.S. service members who suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iran’s missile strike earlier this month on an Iraqi air base, the third time the number of injuries has been increased.
The new casualty total belies President Donald Trump’s initial claim that no Americans were harmed. Days after the attack, the military said 11 service members were injured. Last week, the Pentagon said that 34 U.S. service members were hurt.
Lt. Col. Thomas Campbell, a Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday that 16 additional service members were diagnosed with traumatic brain injury. Of the 50, Campbell said, 31 service members had returned to duty. Continue reading.
Democrats ‘utterly unpersuaded’ by evidence behind Soleimani strike
Democrats said Wednesday that the Trump administration failed to present evidence supporting the claim that a top Iranian general killed in a U.S. drone strike was planning an imminent attack.
The frustration boiled over after back-to-back closed-door briefings on the strike that killed Iranian Quds Force leader Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said the evidence represented a “far cry” from an imminent attack, while Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) called the briefing “sophomoric.” Continue reading.
An avalanche of confessions: Trump’s chief of staff just admitted a stunning amount of wrongdoing on live TV
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney adopted a new approach to President Donald Trump’s war on impeachment in a Thursday press briefing: admitting a gigantic amount of wrongdoing in one sitting and daring Republicans to care.
The avalanche of confessions began in the White House briefing room, where Mulvaney revealed that the United States will host the upcoming G7 summit of world leaders at Trump National Doral in Miami, the president’s own Florida resort.
This is a grotesquely corrupt move, and the White House knows it. Even if, as Mulvaney claimed, the Doral was the best possible location for the G7 in the country — a ridiculous assertion — it would still be incumbent on the administration to choose another location to avoid the appearance of corruption and the reality of a conflict of interest. Mulvaney claimed that, all things considered, Trump decided he would “take the hit” of accusations of corruption. But it’s not just Trump who “takes the hit,” it’s the entire federal government, and the United States itself, that gets stained with corruption, and that’s a condemnable choice to make.
View the complete October 17 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.
10 times Trump Cabinet officials said something that soon fell apart
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted Wednesday that he was on that fateful call between President Trump and Ukraine’s president — about a week and a half after playing dumb about the call’s contents in an interview. As The Post’s Philip Bump writes, it’s a great example of a politician saying things that are strictly true while completely misleading the people he’s supposed to serve.
And as far as obfuscations go, it’s got plenty of company in Trump’s Cabinet. Continue reading “10 times Trump Cabinet officials said something that soon fell apart”