There’s a high bar to accusing someone of committing a “lie,” and we don’t do it lightly.
A lie isn’t just a false statement. It’s a false statement whose speaker knows it’s false. In these instances, the president — or his administration — have clear reason to know otherwise.
Jan. 21, 2017: Lied about inauguration crowd size to the CIA
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Trump's words: The inaugural crowd "looked honestly like a million and a half people” adding that “it went all the way back to the Washington Monument."
Lie: Aerial photos of the crowd at 11a.m. and 12 p.m. — around the time Trump took the oath of office — show that the crowd witnessing the inauguration did not extend back to the Washington Monument.
EarthCam / Via earthcam.com
Jan. 23, 2017: Lied about voter fraud at a reception with congressional leaders
Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images
Trump's words: Sources confirmed to multiple media outlets that Trump spent at least 10 minutes of his meeting with congressional leaders talking about how three to five million "illegals" voted in the election, costing him the popular vote.
Lie: There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. The National Association of Secretaries of State — which has a majority of Republicans — said they are "not aware of any evidence that supports the voter fraud claims made by President Trump." And in a Michigan legal filing by Trump's lawyers after the election, they wrote, "All available evidence suggests that the 2016 general election was not tainted by fraud or mistake."
This is not the first time Trump has claimed he would have won the popular vote if illegal immigrants had not voted. Almost 20 days after the election, Trump tweeted about the issue.
While Trump won the presidency with 309 electoral votes, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes.
A claim that 3 million "illegal aliens" had voted in the election was published by right-wing conspiracy site InfoWars on Nov. 14, but voting officials have said there is no evidence of this.
Trump's words: "You have people who are registered who are dead, who are illegals, who are in two states," Trump told ABC's David Muir. "You have people registered in two states. You have people registered in New York and New Jersey. They vote twice." He also cited a Pew report as evidence, saying, "Take a look at the Pew reports."
Lie: Once again, not true. Trump references a debunked Pew study by a political-science blog hosted by the Washington Post.
Jan. 25, 2017: Lied about size of the inauguration crowd on ABC News
Trump's words: Trump finished his ABC News interview by pointing to framed photographs hung on a wall. "Here's a picture of the crowd," he said. "The audience was the biggest ever. This audience was massive, look how far back it goes." He then pointed to another panoramic photo, saying the crowd — which he described as "a sea of love" — goes "all the way down."
Lie: The audience wasn't "the biggest ever." As mentioned above, photographs from the inauguration show that the crowd did not extend as far back as Trump claims it did.
Trump's words: A day after Trump signed an executive order to extend a wall along the southern border and insisting Mexico would pay for it, the president said he and Enrique Peña Nieto agreed to cancel the meeting.
"The president of Mexico and myself have agreed to cancel our planned meeting scheduled for next week," Trump said at the GOP retreat in Philadelphia. "Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly, with respect such a meeting would be fruitless and I want to go a different route."
Lie: Hours earlier, Peña Nieto tweeted that he called the White House to cancel the meeting, adding, "I lament and reject the decision of the United States to continue building a wall that for years does not unite us, but divides us."
Jan. 26, 2017: Lied that the murder rate is rising in Philly
Alex Wong / Getty Images
Trump's words: At the GOP retreat on Jan. 26, Trump said that Philadelphia's murder rate is "steady, I mean just terribly increasing."
Lie: The homicide rate in Philadelphia has been steadily declining over the past decade. According to statistics from the Philadelphia Police Department, there were 277 murders in 2016 compared with 280 murders in 2015. Over a five year period, murders were down 19%. And over a ten year period, murders were down 41%.
Correction: About 11 million more households watched the 2017 inauguration than the 2013 inauguration. This post earlier said that was incorrect.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2k8QFrM
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