# Again: WaPo correction to Trump GA calls **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 16, 2021, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-wapo-correction-to-trump-ga-calls/937994 "2021-03-16T07:12:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-wapo-correction-to-trump-ga-calls/937994/1 "2021-03-16T07:12:08Z")
@What_Exit you were too quick to close that vacuous thread. You never know, somebody might have come along soon enough with the actual story. Here it is: > **[Trump is exploiting a journalist's mistake to whitewash his potentially...](https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/trump-georgia-call-2651094645)** > > Former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to use a new correction in the Washington Post on Monday to paper over some of his most egregious conduct after the 2020 election.Here's what happened. Back in January, the Post reported on a call... TL;DR: WaPo reported that story about Trump calling GA Elections Investigator Frances Watson demanding that she “find the fraud” (or however he worded it). WaPo reported it based in input from some second- (or third-?) party sources, who quoted some of Trump’s words from memory. WaPo included the quotes, which were not Trump’s actual words, but the intent was clear and accurate enough (arguably). When the actual recording was recently exposed, WaPo issued a correction to the actual words Trump was quoted as saying. Now, rightwing politicians and commentators are blasting WaPo for the absolutely false, fake, phony reporting, and also reporting that WaPo totally retracts their bogus report in shame. When in fact WaPo merely corrected the exact words Trump was quoted as saying, but the gist of it remains. Read the story cited above for the details. ETA: Above link is to a story-about-the-story at AlterNet. I’ll post a link to the actual WaPo story if I find it. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-wapo-correction-to-trump-ga-calls/937994/2 "2021-03-16T07:22:50Z")
Okay, here’s the WaPo article: > **[Trump pressured a Georgia elections investigator in a separate call legal...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-call-georgia-investigator/2021/01/09/7a55c7fa-51cf-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html)** > > More than a week before he urged the Georgia secretary of state to overturn the election results, the president spoke to the state’s chief elections fraud investigator and urged the official to find wrongdoing as part of an ongoing inquiry. It has the paragraph describing the correction, in italics, at the beginning. Trump’s exact words were not “find the fraud” (as even I myself mis-quoted in the OP above), rather that the investigator would find “dishonesty”. There were some other corrections to Trump’s exact wording too. ETA: It’s that AlterNet article, however, that focuses on the way rightwing politicians and commentators are “exploiting” the correction to “whitewash” Trump’s culpability in that call. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-wapo-correction-to-trump-ga-calls/937994/3 "2021-03-16T07:25:02Z")
> rightwing politicians and commentators are blasting WaPo for the absolutely false, fake, phony reporting, Proverbs 26:11 _As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly._ ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-wapo-correction-to-trump-ga-calls/937994/4 "2021-03-16T07:32:54Z")
I wonder what their spin will be when the grand jury that is now convened indicts Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-wapo-correction-to-trump-ga-calls/937994/5 "2021-03-16T07:35:00Z")
How many people are on a Grand Jury? How many of them does it take to indict? What are the chances of getting a truly unbiased jury? Even more problematical, what are the chances of getting an unbiased jury for a criminal trial, which requires a unanimous vote to convict? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-wapo-correction-to-trump-ga-calls/937994/6 "2021-03-16T07:37:44Z")
You never know – sometimes you get people on a jury who take their civic responsibility seriously. Or maybe I’m just a hopelessly naive optimist. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-wapo-correction-to-trump-ga-calls/937994/7 "2021-03-16T11:39:20Z")
Sort of like the Ukraine call: “Read the transcript!” Yeah, we did and it proves he was guilty as sin. What matters is what’s on the recording, not what the Reich Wing is violently overreacting to. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-wapo-correction-to-trump-ga-calls/937994/8 "2021-03-16T13:49:45Z")
While I agree that the recording in no way exonerates Trump, this is another example of why using quotations when you don’t actually have a solid source is bad journalism. Summarizing the contents, intent, and how it was perceived by the official would have been plenty and would have eliminated the need for future correction if the actual recording came out. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-wapo-correction-to-trump-ga-calls/937994/9 "2021-03-16T14:14:51Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > How many people are on a Grand Jury? How many of them does it take to indict? What are the chances of getting a truly unbiased jury? Even more problematical, what are the chances of getting an unbiased jury for a criminal trial, which requires a unanimous vote to convict? 16-23 people on a grand jury and a simple majority to indict. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-wapo-correction-to-trump-ga-calls/937994/10 "2021-03-16T14:51:35Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > How many people are on a Grand Jury? 1000, I’m guessing. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-wapo-correction-to-trump-ga-calls/937994/11 "2021-03-18T11:13:58Z")
That’s a lot of kids you got, grandpa. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-wapo-correction-to-trump-ga-calls/937994/12 "2021-03-18T13:36:59Z")
And in the vast majority of cases the prosecutor gets an indictment (assuming they want one…sometimes they don’t). The old saying is, “If a district attorney wanted, a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich.”