Tag: Trump lies

Trump’s very inaccurate claim that the whistleblower is ‘very inaccurate’

Washington Post logo“Well, the whistleblower was very inaccurate. The whistleblower started this whole thing by writing a report on the conversation I had with the president of Ukraine. And the conversation was perfect; it couldn’t have been nicer.”

— President Trump, remarks to reporters, Oct. 2, 2019

“The whistleblower said terrible things about the call, but he then — I then found out he was secondhand and third-hand. In other words, he didn’t know what was on the call.”

— Trump, remarks to reporters, Oct. 2

“The Whistleblower’s facts have been so incorrect about my ‘no pressure’ conversation with the Ukrainian President.”

— Trump, in a tweet, Oct. 9 Continue reading “Trump’s very inaccurate claim that the whistleblower is ‘very inaccurate’”

Minnesota DFL on Trump Rally in Minneapolis

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Ahead of Donald Trump’s MAGA rally today in Minneapolis, Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement:

“Instead of addressing rising prescription drug costs or stagnant wages, protecting Medicare, or keeping jobs in Minnesota, Trump is coming to our state after spending the week attacking our hardworking public servants and facing scandals on every front. We already know he has broken his promise to the people in our state to work for them – Minnesotans recognize a scam when we see one.

“Rather than give oxygen to the incomprehensible lies he’ll undoubtedly spew, DFLers will be spending the day talking to voters and canvassing in neighborhoods across the state. Donald Trump’s agenda of broken promises will yet again lead him to lose Minnesota and bring down his Republican enablers along the way.”  Continue reading “Minnesota DFL on Trump Rally in Minneapolis”

Trump cites ‘obligation to end corruption,’ but ex-ethics official says he’s digging deeper hole

‘There’s no more debating the facts. He did it,’ Walter Shaub says

President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed criticism from House Democrats and others over his renewed calls for foreign governments to investigate his domestic political rivals, even as text messages from U.S. diplomats suggest he insisted of trading a White House visit with Ukraine’s president for just that.

Experts see a president and administration only digging a deeper hole — and unable to help themselves or build a strategy to allow congressional Republicans to counter House Democrats’ message that Trump is corrupt and putting his own interests over those of the United States.

In a morning tweet, the president wrote that he has “an obligation to end CORRUPTION, even if that means requesting the help of a foreign country or countries.”

View the complete October 4 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

CNN won’t run two Trump campaign ads, citing ‘demonstrably false’ claims

Washington Post logoCNN said Thursday that it will not run two Trump campaign ads because they disparage the network’s journalists and make “demonstrably false” claims while discussing impeachment and pushing unsubstantiated allegations of corruption against former vice president Joe Biden.

The network’s decisions come as the Trump administration escalates its attacks on congressional Democrats’ impeachment efforts and continues to lash out at media organizations it tries to discredit as “fake news.” CNN’s move brought renewed ire from Trump’s reelection campaign, as Communications Director Tim Murtaugh called the news network a “Democrat public relations firm” that “spends all day protecting Joe Biden.”

The first rejected ad, posted last week to YouTube, suggests the president is being unfairly scrutinized for pressing Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son Hunter. The ad accuses Trump’s potential 2020 opponent of corruption, continuing a favorite talking point of the president and his supporters amid an impeachment inquiry and concerns Trump used his office to create trouble for a political rival.

View the complete October 3 article by Hannah Knowles on The Washington Post website here.

‘Short-fingered vulgarian’ Trump mocked for working himself into expletive-laden lather in hours-long rant

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump tweeted out an expletive in his ongoing morning rant against impeachment.

The president sent out eight tweets over nearly two hours reacting to TV news reports and complaining about the impeachment process launched last week by House Democrats, each one seemingly angrier than the last, until he reached a crescendo shortly before noon.

“The Do Nothing Democrats should be focused on building up our Country, not wasting everyone’s time and energy on BULLSH*T, which is what they have been doing ever since I got overwhelmingly elected in 2016, 223-306,” Trump tweeted. “Get a better candidate this time, you’ll need it!”

View the complete October 2 article by Travis Gettys from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

NOTE:  Remember, it’s the GOP-controlled Senate that is holding up legislation, the U.S. House has sent 400+ bills to the Senate where Sen. McConnell is stonewalling action on them.

Trump’s false claim that the rules for whistleblowers were recently changed

Washington Post logo“WHO CHANGED THE LONG STANDING WHISTLEBLOWER RULES JUST BEFORE SUBMITTAL OF THE FAKE WHISTLEBLOWER REPORT? DRAIN THE SWAMP!”

— President Trump, in a tweet, Sept. 30, 2019

This all-caps tweet is emblematic of the anger expressed by President Trump as the House’s impeachment inquiry goes forward, on the basis of a whistleblower complaint about his efforts to persuade the Ukrainian government to investigate a potential 2020 rival, former vice president Joe Biden.

It also is emblematic of how inaccurate news flows into the president’s Twitter account. A speculative article on a conservative website provided fodder for talking points by presidential allies on television, which in turn caught the attention of the president. Then the president stretched the claim even further into a Four-Pinocchio statement.

Let’s explore.

View the complete September 30 article by Glenn Kessler on The Washington Post website here.

Former Ukraine prosecutor says Hunter Biden ‘did not violate anything’

Washington Post logoKIEV, Ukraine —  A former top Ukrainian prosecutor, whose allegations were at the heart of the dirt-digging effort by Rudolph W. Giuliani, said Thursday he believed that Hunter Biden did not run afoul of any laws in Ukraine.

“From the perspective of Ukrainian legislation, he did not violate anything,” former Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuri Lutsenko told The Washington Post in his first interview since the disclosure of a whistleblower complaint alleging pressure by President Trump on Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelensky.

Lutsenko’s comments about Hunter Biden — which echo what he told Bloomberg News in May — were significant, because Trump and his personal attorney Giuliani have sought to stir up suspicions about both Hunter and former vice president Joe Biden’s conduct in Ukraine in recent weeks. Joe Biden is leading Trump in many opinion polls ahead of the 2020 election.

View the complete September 26 article by Michael Birnbaum, David L. Stern and Natalie Gryvnyak on The Washington Post website here.

Whistleblower can’t explain Trump’s DNC missing server theory

President has alleged that a DNC server somehow ended up in Ukraine

The whistleblower accusing President Donald Trump of pressuring the president of Ukraine to influence the 2020 U.S. election wrote in a complaint that he or she was unsure why Trump also asked the foreign leader to turn over a hacked computer server belonging to the Democratic National Committee.

In the complaint, released publicly on Thursday following a prolonged struggle between the White House and Democrats in Congress, the whistleblower said he or she did not understand Trump’s request that Ukraine locate and turn over a server used by the DNC during the 2016 presidential election and subsequently examined by CrowdStrike, a U.S. cybersecurity firm.

CrowdStrike helped the DNC investigate an intrusion of its systems that the firm eventually blamed on two Russian hacking groups, but there are no missing servers despite Trump’s allegation that one somehow ended up in Ukraine, a theory popular among conservative conspiracy theorists.

View the complete September 26 article by Dean DeChiaro on The Roll Call website here.

Trump’s false claims about Hunter Biden’s China dealings

Washington Post logo“When Biden’s son walks out of China with $1.5 billion in a fund, and the biggest funds in the world can’t get money out of China, and he’s there for one quick meeting and he flies in on Air Force Two, I think that’s a horrible thing. I think it’s a horrible thing.”

— President Trump, remarks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sept. 25, 2019

“Ask how his son made millions of dollars from Ukraine, made millions of dollars from China, even though he had no expertise whatsoever.”

— Trump, in remarks to reporters with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Sept. 24

“The son took money from China — a lot of money from China.”

— Trump, remarks to reporters at the United Nations, Sept. 23

We’ve been writing a lot about Trump’s false claims concerning Ukraine, Joe Biden and Biden’s son, Hunter. Now let’s turn our attention to Trump’s repeated suggestions that Hunter struck it rich with a sketchy deal in China.

View the complete September 26 article by Glenn Kessler on The Washington Post website here.

Trump offered Ukrainian president Justice Dept. help for Biden investigation, memo shows

Washington Post logoPresident Trump told his Ukrainian counterpart to work with the U.S. attorney general to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and offered to meet with the foreign leader at the White House after he promised to conduct such an inquiry, according to a rough transcript of the call released Wednesday.

Those statements and others in a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were so concerning that the intelligence community inspector general thought them a possible violation of campaign finance law. In late August, intelligence officials referred the matter to the Justice Department as a possible crime, but prosecutors concluded last week that the conduct was not criminal, according to senior Justice Department officials.

The document released Wednesday, in keeping with White House practice, is a memorandum of a telephone conversation and is not a verbatim account. A cautionary note on the memo of the call warns that the text reflects the notes and memories of officials in the Situation Room and that a number of factors “can affect the accuracy of the record.”

View the complete September 25 article by Devlin Barrett, Matt Zapotosky, Carol D. Leonnig and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.