Tag: Trump has to lie to be re-elected

The Rise in Testing Is Not Driving the Rise in U.S. Virus Cases

New York Times logoAs coronavirus cases have surged in recent weeks, President Trump has repeatedly said the growing case count is a result of increased testing, not a worsening outbreak. An analysis by The New York Times, however, shows the rise in cases far outpaces the growth in testing.

The average number of tests conducted nationwide has grown by 80 percent since early June, to 780,000 per day. Daily case counts have grown by 215 percent in the same period.

Thirty-one states show an increase in cases beyond what would be expected from expanded testing, if the severity of the outbreak had remained about the same. Florida, the state with the largest discrepancy, is reporting more than 11,000 new cases per day, on average, while only about 2,400 cases each day would be expected because of increased testing. California and Texas numbers are also far above what would be expected. Continue reading.

Trump tried to blame Black Lives Matter protests for the coronavirus surge. Data doesn’t support his claim.

Washington Post logoOne of the obvious reasons that President Trump has resumed regular coronavirus press briefings is poll data. Recent data indicating broad skepticism about Trump’s handling of the pandemic and increased support for his probable opponent in November’s election clearly spurred the White House to resume the briefings, in the hope that voters would shift their perceptions of how Trump has handled the crisis.

Trump, never a staunch adherent to the concept of subtlety, tried to put a fine point on where he thinks blame should lie for the recent surge in new cases.

“There are likely a number of causes for the spike in infections,” he said. “Cases started to rise among young Americans shortly after demonstrations, which you know very well about, which presumably triggered a broader relaxation of mitigation efforts nationwide.” Continue reading.

CNN host cuts off a Trump spokesperson with a devastating fact-check about the president’s COVID-19 predictions

AlterNet logoDuring a very contentious interview with a spokesperson for Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, CNN host Poppy Harlow was forced to cut-off senior advisor Mercedes Schlapp and list off all the times the president predicted the COVID-19 crisis would subside on its own.

In the interview, which ran over 15 minutes, the CNN host and the Trump spokesperson repeatedly talked over each other, with Harlow at one time telling her guest that they had plenty of time to discuss the topics at hand and to please let her finish asking her questions.

As host Harlow attempted to press her on the growing caseload of COVID-19 infections, Schlapp attempted to bring former Vice President Joe Biden into the conversation which forced the CNN host to stop her. Continue reading.

Trump Campaign, Fox News Fabricate Lie To Smear Biden

President Donald Trump’s media allies are distorting a quote from presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in order to falsely claim that Biden called police “the enemy.” The lie followed a now well-trod path from Trump’s campaign to his propagandists in Fox News prime time.

Biden has called for police reform following the brutal killing of George Floyd by officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While describing some of his campaign’s proposals during an interview with progressive activist Ady Barkan published by NowThis News on Wednesday morning, Biden highlighted the problem of police militarization and how it impacts public perceptions of law enforcement.

The Defense Department has provided more than $5 billion in free surplus military equipment to local law enforcement since 1996, including at least $760 million after the Trump administration lifted restrictions implemented by President Barack Obama, according to a CNN analysis. Public outcry in response to police usage of military-style equipment against protesters has led to a bipartisan push in Congress to reform or end that program. Continue reading.

4 Years Later, Only 3 New Miles of ‘Wall’ And Not A Single Peso From Mexico

Trump visited Arizona to tout 212 miles of new fence — but only three were built where there was previously no barrier.

WASHINGTON ― Four years after promising a 2,000-mile “Great Wall” made of reinforced concrete and paid for by Mexico, President Donald Trump took a victory lap for securing three new miles of steel fence that was paid for by raiding the military budget.

“This is the most powerful and comprehensive border wall structure anywhere in the world,” Trump said Tuesday during a visit to the Mexican border at Yuma, Arizona, where he said 212 miles have been built and that close to 500 would be finished by the end of the year. “Our border has never been more secure.”

In fact, only three of those 212 miles are along parts of the border that previously had no barrier. The rest have replaced existing fencing, a process that began under President George W. Bush and continued under President Barack Obama. Continue reading.

Twitter labels Trump video tweet as manipulated media as it cracks down on misinformation

Washington Post logoThe label marks the fourth time Twitter has added labels to the president’s tweets

Twitter on Thursday evening took the rare step of appending a warning label to one of President Trump’s tweets after the company determined it violated its policies on manipulated media.

The president tweeted a doctored version of a popular video that went viral in 2019 that showed two toddlers, one black and one white, hugging. In the version Trump shared, the video has been edited with ominous music and a fake CNN headline that says, “Terrified toddler runs from racist baby.”

“Racist baby probably a Trump voter,” the headline then says in a subsequent screen.

The video then cuts to the original clip of the children hugging, and then cuts to the message: “America is not the problem. Fake news is.” Continue reading.

Trump Falsely Claims Obama ‘Never Even Tried’ to Address Police Misconduct

New York Times logoAs President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday encouraging changes to policing, he falsely accused his predecessor, President Barack Obama, of choosing not to tackle the issue. Here’s a fact-check.

WHAT WAS SAID
“President Obama and Vice President Biden never even tried to fix this during their eight-year period. The reason they didn’t try is because they had no idea how to do it. And it is a complex situation.”

False. The Obama administration tried to address police misconduct in numerous ways, and some of those efforts have been reversed or limited by the Trump administration.

“The assertion that the Trump administration has done more than the Obama administration is ridiculous,” said Barry Friedman, a law professor and director of the Policing Project at New York University School of Law. “The Obama administration has taken a number of critical steps in police reform.” Continue reading.

White House targets protesters with misleading video

Washington Post logo“Antifa and professional anarchists are invading our communities, staging bricks and weapons to instigate violence. These are acts of domestic terror. The victims are peaceful protesters, the residents of these communities and the brave law enforcement standing watch.”

— The White House, in a tweet, June 3, 2020

From the Rose Garden on June 1, President Trump warned that the voices of “peaceful protesters” against the killing of George Floyd, an African American man, in Minneapolis by police have been drowned out by “professional anarchists, violent mobs, or, arsonists, looters, criminals, rider rioters, Antifa and others.”

Two days later, the White House tweeted (and then later deleted) a 58-second video that appeared to offer evidence to support this claim. The video, which gained more than one million views in the less than three hours it was online, purported to show “Antifa and professional anarchists … staging bricks” for future nefarious use.

Yet a closer examination of the video tells a different story. Continue reading.

Fox News’ Andrew Napolitano Backs Twitter’s Right To Fact-Check Trump

The legal analyst said Twitter can correct any user it wants, “including the president of the United States.”

Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano exposed the holes in President Donald Trump’s threat to regulate social media platforms like Twitter after the company tagged the president’s tweets with fact-check warnings.

“Can they do this?” Fox News host Sandra Smith asked Napolitano of Twitter’s move on Wednesday.

“The short answer is yes,” Napolitano responded, before adding, “The president is right about the bias in social media and the president is also understandably not happy about his being fact-checked. I mean, nobody would [be].” Continue reading.

The Memo: Trump tweets cross into new territory

The Hill logoPresident Trump’s critics are sounding the alarm as his public comments and tweets cross new lines with the 2020 election less than six months away.

Trump has suggested without evidence that MSNBC host Joe Scarboroughwas involved in the death of a staffer almost two decades ago when he was a Florida congressman. Trump’s insinuations have provoked an unsuccessful plea from the woman’s widower for Twitter to remove the tweets in question.

Trump has also raised the specter of widespread fraud if voting by mail is allowed on a broad basis in November’s election. In a Tuesday morning tweet, he suggested that mail-in voting would be “substantially fraudulent” and alleged “this will be a Rigged Election.” Continue reading.