# Trump press conferences and lies
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [September 23, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359 "2020-09-23T23:40:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359/1 "2020-09-23T23:40:25Z")
I was watching part of one of Trump’s WH press conferences today and he was talking about how mail-in ballots are a “catastrophe”. As we know he is constantly lying and BS’ing.
I’m no expert on how these things are supposed to work but why didn’t some journalist demand proof or evidence from Trump? ISTM that Trump can just spew out lies and god knows what else and no-one calls him on it in a public forum.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2020, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359/2 "2020-09-23T23:58:10Z")
Trump’s reply to any request for evidence is always thrown back in the reporter’s face: “You’re the reporter, _you_ find the proof! And if you can’t find it, you’re just bad at your job.” It’s gotten to the point where the press doesn’t even bother and just writes, “Trump said - without evidence - that.,.”
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2020, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359/3 "2020-09-24T14:09:09Z")
He’s been asked before how he feels about lying so much and he just ignores them and turns to a question from a friendly reporter from Pravda.
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### Author:  [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2020, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359/4 "2020-09-24T14:22:49Z")
I think one of the innumerable and significant problems we face today is that the media is essentially divided into two camps: those whose reporting would have you believe that Trump can do no _right_ and those whose reporting would have you believe that Trump can do no _wrong_.
Personally, I’ve consumed as much media, from all parts of the spectrum, as I can for years. I tend to lean away from each administration (ie, more conservative sources under Democrats, more liberal sources under Republicans) to get more critical information and less PR.
But it’s _so_ bad right now that people who consume only right-wing media can, literally, be totally unaware of virtually any of the horror stories that most us _us_ know only too well.
F’rinstance: the innumerable documented lies
F’rinstance: the Ukraine/Mueller investigation
F’rinstance: anything and everything about COVID
I don’t tend to think that either side’s media lies to any meaningful degree, but what they _do_ report, what they _don’t_ report, and – obviously – the way they spin the story is so different as to make one’s head explode.
People who consume only conservative media under Trump are just willfully ignorant, IMHO.
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### Author:  [@Mickyfinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mickyfinn)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2020, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359/5 "2020-09-24T18:48:34Z")
Or the ever popular “you know…” or “everyone knows…”. Like the ‘Obamagate’ horseshit, “Oh, you know what I’m talking about!”. Um, no…we don’t, cause you just pulled that out of your orange ass.
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### Author:  [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2020, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359/6 "2020-09-25T00:50:29Z")
Don’t watch this crap. Always the same lies and strawman talking points out of his mouth. Or as posted above, when he tries to project his crimes and insecurities onto others as with Obamagate, doubles down on it when people see through the bullshit, and then the news cycle forgets about it.
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### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359/7 "2020-09-25T15:44:15Z")
Listening to him ramble is like watching an overflowing toilet. There is so much lying and mis-truth spilling out all at once it is impossible to focus on one thing. This is part of his communications strategy.
If he told one big lie at a time, like every other politician, those would be easier to be called-out and focused-on by the media.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2020, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359/8 "2020-09-25T15:59:57Z")
It’s been his tactic all along, just throw out shit for people to respond to while ignoring the real issues. His base just loves being told how unamerican everyone else is and rising up to hug the flag with him.
Why can’t Biden capitalize on this shit and call him out on it during the debate?
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### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2020, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359/9 "2020-09-25T16:08:44Z")
Well, because it would end up letting Trump ignore real issues, like you stated. Biden should just have a little buzzer in his pocket so that while Trump is talking he can tap the buzzer every time Trump lies, sort of like a game show: “We have done the best of any country in the world on the China virus response!” - “Bzzzzzt. I’m sorry Mr President, that is incorrect.”
More to the point, Biden should just call out lies by encouraging people to fact check things, but stay on the offensive with discussing real issues and what he plans to do about them. Trump has no plans so Biden should be able to gain ground that way, and not get sucked into the lie pit with Trump.
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### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359/10 "2020-09-25T16:36:51Z")
> [@velomont](#):
>
> ISTM that Trump can just spew out lies and god knows what else and no-one calls him on it in a public forum.
Yeah, and it’s not just that he doesn’t get called on his lies, but his followers then take it as gospel.
CNN did a piece recently asking people at a Trump rally about mail-in ballots. People were really getting worked up, so angry, based on fuckall data.
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> Trump’s reply to any request for evidence is always thrown back in the reporter’s face: “You’re the reporter, _you_ find the proof! And if you can’t find it, you’re just bad at your job.”
More often he just accuses the reporter of being corrupt. They know he’s right. They’re just pretending otherwise because “fake news”.
I don’t know why that would preclude Trump from citing evidence, but it’s a rhetorical trick that seems to work for some people.
> [@DavidNRockies](#):
>
> media is essentially divided into two camps: those whose reporting would have you believe that Trump can do no _right_ and those whose reporting would have you believe that Trump can do no _wrong_ .
I hate partisanship and right- and left-wing skewed media too.
Despite leaning Democrat, I did defend Bush from time to time.
Trump is a whole 'nother animal. Any journalism with any connection to objective reality has to point out all the terrible things this president has said and done. You can’t report the news without reporting that there’s a wicked and infantile man in the white house trying to tear up democracy to suit his personal aims. It’s happening in plain sight.
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2020, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359/11 "2020-09-27T12:27:16Z")
> [@snowthx](#):
>
> Listening to him ramble is like watching an overflowing toilet. There is so much lying and mis-truth spilling out all at once it is impossible to focus on one thing.
Very well put.
> [@snowthx](#):
>
> This is part of his communications strategy.
I’m not convinced he has any communication strategy. I’m not convinced he could pronounce ‘communication strategy’.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2020, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359/12 "2020-09-27T12:31:52Z")
> [@enipla](#):
>
> I’m not convinced he has any communication strategy. I’m not convinced he could pronounce ‘communication strategy’. -
However he pronounces it automatically becomes the correct way.
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### Author:  [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2020, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-press-conferences-and-lies/921359/13 "2020-09-27T12:55:50Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> However he pronounces it automatically becomes the correct way.
It’s pronounced just like it reads: COV-FE-FE.
Sound it out.