Day 402: Trump Flagrantly Misquotes Fox News to Attack Democratic Rival
Donald Trump did a whole bunch of TV watching Saturday, as he typically does. He even got into the act by doing a phone interview with Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro.
But it was his tweeting that raised some eyebrows. He again claimed the Russia investigation was a witch hunt (despite numerous indictments and an ever-rising number of guilty pleas) and blamed Barack Obama for not doing more to stop Russian interference (despite Trump’s incongruous earlier claims that the Russia investigation is a witch hunt).
Additionally, earlier in the day, the Democrats released their FISA memorandum in opposition of Devin Nunes’ (R-CA) memorandum. It was a big talking point on cable news shows, where various pundits weighed in on the contents and reasoning behind it. Trump, however, decided to shamelessly misquote Fox News’ coverage to make it appear as though they were bashing Adam Schiff (D-CA).
As CNN’s Brian Stelter pointed out, Fox News was actually saying the exact opposite.
Trump is putting actual fake news — as the term was originally meant — into the public domain. If deleting words mid-quote to make something true is fair game, the following quotes can now be attributed differently.
Actual quote, Donald Trump:
Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong — no collusion!
New quote:
“Russia announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were impacted. The Trump campaign did wrong — collusion!”
Actual quote, Donald Trump:
“And I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia. I have no loans in Russia. I don’t have any deals in Russia. President Putin called me up very nicely to congratulate me on the win of the election.”
“I would love to be able to get along with Russia. Now, you’ve had a lot of presidents that haven’t taken that tack. Look where we are now. Look where we are now. So, if I can — now, I love to negotiate things, I do it really well, and all that stuff. But — but it’s possible I won’t be able to get along with Putin.”
New quote:
“I have loans in Russia. I have deals in Russia. I love Russia.”
Actual quote, Donald Trump, Jr.:
“In terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets…We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
New quote:
Actually, that one can remain exactly as it is.
Actual quote, Donald Trump:
Well, again John, there has been no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians or Trump and Russians. No collusion. When I watch you interviewing all the people leaving their committees, I mean, the Democrats are all running for office, trying to say this that — but bottom line, they all say there’s no collusion. And there is no collusion.
New quote:
“There has been collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians. Collusion. Bottom line, there’s collusion.”
402 days in, 1060 to go
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