President Trump’s low regard for the truth is, by now, well established. Yet his penchant for lying, about matters large and small, seems to be intensifying on the eve of a crucial election.
The Washington Post’s fact-checkers published their latest compilation two days ago, tallying 6,420 false or misleading claims in 649 days in office. That works out to almost 10 falsehoods a day. The president went into overdrive at his latest mega-rally, achieving in minutes what it normally takes him a full day to do.
In Chattanooga, before a packed stadium of hooting supporters, he began an animated, 45-minute oration this way: “This is one of the most important elections of our time. This is a big one. It will decide whether we build on the extraordinary prosperity that we’ve achieved for our nation or whether we let the radical Democrats take control of Congress and take a giant wrecking ball to our economy and our future.” And then came the misinformation:
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“They want to raise your taxes by double and even by triple;”
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“They want to take away your health care [and] they want to impose socialism on our country;”
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“They want to erase America’s borders;”
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“Democrats want to invite caravan after caravan of illegal aliens to pour into our country;”
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“That’s an invasion of our country;”
(Here, the crowd in excess of 10,000 people in the McKenzie Arena at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga began chanting: “Build that wall, build that wall…”)
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“The Democrats want to abolish ICE and turn America into a giant sanctuary city for gang members and MS-13 killers.”
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“If Democrats gain power on Tuesday, they will try to raid your Medicare to fund socialism, you know that.”
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“The Democrat health care plan would obliterate Medicare and eliminate Medicare Advantage for more than half a million Tennessee seniors.”
9.“The Democrats’ plan to destroy health care also includes giving away your benefits to illegal immigrants, you know that.”
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“As we speak, Democrats are openly encouraging millions of illegal aliens to break our laws, violate our borders, and destroy our nation in so many ways, and they want to sign them up for free welfare, free health care, free education and, most importantly, the right to vote. They want them to vote. Come on in and vote. They love them voting.”
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“And Republicans will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions. Please remember that.”
None of those claims is hard to debunk—but the last one, about Republicans always protecting pre-existing conditions, speaks to a president and many other Republicans running for Congress who have simply become unmoored from the truth on health care, which polling shows is by far the number one issue among voters.
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