Tag: Trump lies

Ex-Trump aide pours cold water on claim president is playing 4-D chess: ‘He’s eating the chess pieces’

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President Donald J. Trump began his presidency lying about the crowd size at his inauguration and now appears to be ending his four-year tenure with another lie involving the same issue.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted out two overhead photos of Trump supporters Saturday, writing, “AMAZING! More than one MILLION marchers for President @realDonaldTrump descend on the swamp in support.”

McEnany did not respond to comments asking her where she derived at the crowd number. But falsifying a crowd-size isn’t a genius strategy perfectly crafted to change the stories of history. A former Trump aide explained it’s just another lie. Continue reading.

The ending of Trump’s presidency echoes the beginning — with a lie

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The Trump administration is ending as it began: with a lie about crowd size.

On Saturday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted two overhead photos of President Trump supporters who had gathered for a pro-Trump march in Washington, writing, “AMAZING! More than one MILLION marchers for President @realDonaldTrump descend on the swamp in support.”

McEnany was off by many orders of magnitude — the crowd of thousands was a notable show of force, perhaps, but a far cry from the million marchers she claimed. Continue reading.

Spin, hyperbole and deception: How Trump claimed credit for an Obama veterans achievement

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President Trump has told mistruths about the 2014 VA Choice Act more than 156 times, seeking to deny the contributions of rivals including Barack Obama and John McCain.

The first time President Trump claimed false credit for the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act — which President Barack Obama signed into law in 2014 — was on June 6, 2018. That day, as Trump signed the Mission Act, a modest update to the bipartisan VA Choice legislation, he seemed to conflate the two.

“So it’s now my great honor to sign the VA Mission Act, or as we all know it, the Choice Act, and to make Veterans Choice the permanent law of our great country,” the president said, standing in the Rose Garden. “And nobody deserves it more than our veterans.”

In the coming weeks, Trump began systematically erasing from the legislation’s history not just Obama but also the late senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), who not only co-sponsored the VA Choice Act but also was so instrumental in passing the Mission Act that he is one of three senators for whom the act is officially named.

That didn’t stop Trump from falsely claiming — as he did at a tank factory in Lima, Ohio, in March 2019 — that McCain, his frequent political rival, failed to make any progress on the VA Choice Act. Continue reading.

The Memo: Trump grapples with credibility gap in crisis

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The Trump administration’s credibility problems are coming home to roost in the middle of a growing national crisis, now that President Trump has been hospitalized with COVID-19.

Washington and the wider world were aflame with gossip and conspiracy theories Friday as it became apparent that Trump’s condition was more serious than had first been acknowledged. He left the White House in Marine One, bound for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, shortly after 6 p.m.

Attempts to steady the ship of state by the White House were not successful. Much of the blame for that lies in an apparent attempt to underplay the health challenges the president faces, and the administration’s longer record of misleading statements on a multitude of topics. Continue reading.

Three Trump ads in Spanish, many distortions

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With Florida an intense battleground in the presidential election, President Trump’s campaign has been running ads in Spanish-speaking television markets and uploading them to YouTube (“Donald J. Trump En Español”). In many cases, the ads simply repeat false or misleading claims first uttered in English about his Democratic opponent, former vice president Joe Biden.

We previously fact-checked Trump’s “Goya” campaign ad. Now we’re taking a crack at three more Spanish-language ads.

‘Capacidad mental’

“Mental capacity”

Spanish: “Ahora a los 77 años y en su tercera candidatura presidencial, Biden claramente está debilitado. … Joe Biden no tiene la fuerza, la energía, ni la capacidad mental para liderar este país.” 

English: “Now 77 years old and on his third presidential campaign, Biden clearly is weakened. … Joe Biden doesn’t have the strength, energy or mental capacity to lead this country.” Continue reading.

Let’s break down this incredibly stupid Trump campaign email that’s almost impossible to fathom: analysis

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Let’s take a look at a Trump-Pence campaign fundraising email, because we could all use a laugh.

Friend,

For MONTHS the Fake News polls have shown Sleepy Joe ahead of your President in key battleground states.

The lying media doesn’t want to upset their Democrat Partners, so in a recent poll, they’re still reporting I’m down a few points. Ridiculous. They’re trying to TRICK the American People into thinking I have no chance of winning, but WE know that couldn’t be further from the truth.

It’s going to be an uphill battle to win these critical states, and I am counting on YOU to step up and help ensure a MASSIVE VICTORY. I need you to contribute to the Official Battleground State Fund […]

Please contribute ANY AMOUNT TODAY to the Official Battleground State Fund and your gift will be 600%-matched.

Let’s break this down, why don’t we? Continue reading.

Conservative columnist unpacks why Trump’s ‘people in the dark shadows’ comment was so troubling

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“Dark Shadows” isn’t only the name of a 1960s/early 1970s soap opera about vampires, witches and werewolves — it is also a phrase that President Donald Trump is using to rally his far-right base. During a Monday night appearance on Laura Ingraham’s “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News, Trump claimed that “people in the dark shadows” and “people that you haven’t heard of” are working to get Vice President Joe Biden elected in November.

And conservative Never Trump journalist Bill Kristol, in an article for The Bulwark, points to those comments as examples of Trump’s love of conspiracy theories.

“Perhaps one shouldn’t…. be too alarmed by a politician claiming his opponent is being manipulated by men operating in the dark shadows,” Kristol writes. “Politicians exaggerate and even make up things. It’s life in a democracy. But this wasn’t just any politician. It was the president. And this isn’t just any president. It’s one who’s not been afraid to encourage, or at least excuse, violence by his supporters.” Continue reading.

Jim Gaffigan, Popular Comedian, Breaks Silence To Torch Trump On Twitter

Jim Gaffigan is an award-winning, well-regarded, popular comedian. Part of Gaffigan’s appeal is his family-friendly comedy, that he writes and works on with his wife and frequently centers around food and Gaffigan’s obsessions with food. Gaffigan has a large family, which includes five children, leading to my favorite Gaffigan joke: “If you want to know what it’s like to have a fourth, just imagine you’re drowning … and then someone hands you a baby.” Gaffigan is also devoutly Catholic, and was asked by the Roman Catholic Church to do warmup for the World Meeting of Families back in 2015, when he opened for the Pope—yes, that Pope.

If you’ve ever listened to Gaffigan interviewed or watched his act, he tends to stay away from talking politics. He’s not averse to saying that he is in general liberal, but he also doesn’t do much joking when it comes to the current political climate. However, on Thursday night, Gaffigan seems to have become fed up with the titanic levels of hypocrisy on display and the depressing level of pig-headedness shown by people pretending that what Trump is saying and doing is anything besides grotesque. So Gaffigan went online, and went off.

It began innocuously enough.

Continue reading.

Trump has betrayed people for over 3 years

AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s distortion on Dems and the pledge

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is accusing the Democrats of taking God out of the Pledge of Allegiance at their national convention. He’s distorting what happened. 

TRUMP: “The Democrats took the word GOD out of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democrat National Convention. At first I thought they made a mistake, but it wasn’t. It was done on purpose. Remember Evangelical Christians, and ALL, this is where they are coming from-it’s done. Vote Nov 3!” — tweet Saturday.

THE FACTS: That’s a misleading accusation. The central programming of the convention featured the entire pledge, complete with “under God.” Continue reading.