Tag: lies

The sorest winner of all time cannot stop whining

The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch was posted on the Washington Post website January 24, 2017:

President Donald Trump meets with business leaders at the White House yesterday. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

THE BIG IDEA: Somebody call the wambulance. Donald Trump needs a box of Kleenex for all the whining he’s doing.

Just like his campaign, the first days of his presidency have been animated and defined by grievance.

At a White House reception last night to discuss his 2017 agenda, Trump devoted the first 10 minutes to rehashing the 2016 campaign. The commander-in-chief told a bipartisan group of congressional leaders that between 3 million and 5 million illegal votes caused him to lose the popular vote.

That is a ludicrously false claim, and this is not hyperbole: Trump is the sorest winner in American history. Continue reading “The sorest winner of all time cannot stop whining”

Sean Spicer held a press conference. He didn’t take questions. Or tell the whole truth.

The following article by Chris Cillizza was posted on the Washington Post website January 21, 2017:

White House press secretary Sean Spicer held a press briefing Saturday night.  Except not really.  Spicer delivered a statement blasting the media for allegedly underestimating the size of the crowds for President Trump’s inaugural ceremony.  He took no questions.  The full text of Spicer’s statement is below. Using Genius, I annotated it. You can too! Sign up for Genius and annotate alongside me! To see an annotation, click or tap the highlighted part of the transcript.

Good evening.  Thank you guys for coming.  I know our first official press briefing is going to be on Monday, but I wanted to give you a few updates on the President’s activities.  But before I get to the news of the day, I think I’d like to discuss a little bit of the coverage of the last 24 hours. Continue reading “Sean Spicer held a press conference. He didn’t take questions. Or tell the whole truth.”

What Trump got wrong on Twitter this week

The following article by Michelle Ye Hee Lee was posted on the Washington Post website January 6, 2017:

President-elect Donald Trump speaks in Hershey, Pa., during his “thank you” tour. (Don Emmert/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

As we enter the administration of a president who is both prolific on Twitter and prone to tweeting factual inaccuracies, the Fact Checker faced a conundrum: How much effort should we devote to fact-checking President-elect Donald Trump’s tweets?

Tweets are ephemeral — in theory, at least. By the time we start on one fact check of Trump’s tweet, he may have tweeted many others that are fact-checkable. Many of Trump’s tweets are easy to debunk and do not rise to the level of a Pinocchio rating. In fact, Twitter users often correct Trump within minutes, in fewer than 140 characters.

So, we are launching an occasional feature looking at what Trump got wrong on Twitter in a given week. We will continue to devote full fact checks of claims Trump makes on Twitter when the fact check allows for discussion of a substantive policy issue. But as for the rest, we will include them in a roundup on Fridays. We will keep the analysis of each tweet as short as possible, with links to additional information for readers who want to know more. As always, we welcome reader suggestions. Continue reading “What Trump got wrong on Twitter this week”

Trump’s Deep Character Flaws Will Define His Presidency; Media Should Focus Attention There

The following article by Eric Boehlert was posted on the Media Matters website January 26, 2017:

Donald Trump continues to make history.

We know of no other president in American history who has started out his tenure by unfurling two preposterous bookend lies, the way Trump did during his first days in office.

He lied fantastically about the size of his inauguration crowd. And then, taking a sledgehammer to the premise of free and fair elections, he lied fantastically about millions of Americans having voted illegally on Election Day, supposedly costing him the popular vote victory. Continue reading “Trump’s Deep Character Flaws Will Define His Presidency; Media Should Focus Attention There”

Trump’s Twitter falsehoods fire up his base, provoke opponents and distract from larger issues

The following article by Cathleen Decker was posted on the L.A. Times website December 15, 2016:

Dawn had barely broken Thursday when Donald Trump once again broadcast via Twitter a provably false claim: that the Obama administration had not raised an alarm about Russian interference in the presidential election until after Hillary Clinton’s defeat.

In fact, on Oct. 7, the administration issued an official statement accusing the Russians of being behind the cyberattacks that appear to have harmed Clinton’s campaign. Continue reading “Trump’s Twitter falsehoods fire up his base, provoke opponents and distract from larger issues”