Tag: liar

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Postal Worker Admits He Lied About Mail-In Ballot Tampering

(stock image of a mail-in ballot)
A postal worker in Pennsylvania who claimed that a postmaster in Erie told post office employees to backdate ballots received after Election Day has reportedly admitted he lied. His claims have been spread by high ranking Republicans as evidence of “widespread voter fraud.” This was supposed to be the Republicans big “gotcha.” From the Washington Post:

A Pennsylvania postal worker whose claims have been cited by top Republicans as potential evidence of widespread voting irregularities admitted to U.S. Postal Service investigators that he fabricated the allegations, according to three officials briefed on the investigation and a statement from a House congressional committee.

Richard Hopkins’s claim that a postmaster in Erie, Pa., instructed postal workers to backdate ballots mailed after Election Day was cited by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) in a letter to the Justice Department calling for a federal investigation.

Attorney General William P. Barr subsequently authorized federal prosecutors to open probes into credible allegations of voting irregularities and fraud, a reversal of long-standing Justice Department policy.

But on Monday, Hopkins, 32, told investigators from the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General that the allegations were not true, and he signed an affidavit recanting his claims, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation.

The original allegations were reported last week by Project Veritas, an organization that has been caught spinning fiction into made-up ‘facts’ trying to demonize the mainstream media. After being hailed as a hero among Trump supporters, a GoFundMe campaign was launched that raised over $135K for Hopkins – until the campaign was yanked down today in light of his reversal. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee tweeted the revelations late Tuesday.

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Newsmax Host: Media Timed Biden Win For When Trump Was On Golf Course

Reporting from the corner of Cynicism and Bitter… A talking head at the far-right leaning streaming website Newsmax tried to insinuate all of the mainstream media (including Fox News Channel) colluded with the state of Pennsylvania to wait for Donald Trump to take his 284th trip to play golf before projecting former Vice President Joe Biden as the next president of the U.S.

“The timing on of all this, Emerald, certainly fascinates me. We talk a lot about media collusion with the Democratic Party and here we have the president just leaving the White House to go to his golf course to play a round of golf and he deserves to be able to do that.”

“We have the press conference that Rudy Giuliani is going to hold in Philadelphia happening. And at the very same time, all of all sudden, all of the networks, with the exception of Newsmax, decide that this is the time that they’re going to call the election. We are, here at Newsmax, not calling the election.”

Check out the creepy laugh when he says “He deserves to be able to do that…” Practically everyone with an interest in the election returns figured out the result would probably be announced today. Why would Trump even play golf today? And then, of course, there’s the fact that Trump lied to the American people four years ago and said there “wouldn’t be time for golf” if he was elected in 2016. It’s almost Shakespearean that Trump learned he lost the race on a golf course.

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Tucker Carlson: The Deep State Ate My Fake News Homework

Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson (screen capture)
During his Wednesday night show, Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson told his audience that his producers had acquired “incriminating documents” about Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, but the documents had “vanished” while being shipped from New York to Los Angeles. From The Independent:

In a bizarre segment on Wednesday night’s show, Carlson alleged that his team mailed the documents from New York to Los Angeles after receiving them from a “source” on Monday, but that the bundle never arrived.

Without providing any further details or evidence, Carlson said the “damning” documents had “vanished” on route, heavily implying foul play.

Carlson said a producer had shipped the documents to him from New York to Los Angeles via a “brand-name company”. When they didn’t arrive, the shipping company told Fox that their package had been opened and the documents had “disappeared”.  

Viewers questioned why Fox shipped the only copy of such “damning” material without making any kind of back-up, and the segment has since been a subject of ridicule on social media.

Within the last hour, a spokesman for UPS told The Daily Beast that they had located the mysterious package Carlson suggested had been deliberately misplaced or intercepted because it contained “damning” materials on the Biden family. “After an extensive search, we have found the contents of the package and are arranging for its return,” the spokesman said.

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Trump Promotes Conspiracy Theory That Osama bin Laden Is Alive

Donald Trump
Donald Trump has been retweeting a conspiracy theory that Osama Bin Laden was not assassinated in 2011 but it was his ‘body double’ that was killed. From The Daily Beast:

President Donald Trump backed a budding conspiracy theory on Tuesday that four Americans were killed in the 2012 Benghazi attack to cover up the blood-sacrifice of Navy SEALs and the “fact” that Osama Bin Laden is still alive, marking what is perhaps the president’s strangest brush yet with far-right conspiracy theories.

Trump’s promotion of the new Benghazi conspiracy theory, which is fast gaining traction on the far right, came in the form of a retweet of a QAnon believer pushing the claim.

The president’s backing helped push the tweet about Benghazi above 14,000 retweets. Trump retweeted another video about the conspiracy theory later on Tuesday night, marking the second time he had promoted the Benghazi claims on Twitter.

The bizarre theory, which is outre even by the standards of the right’s usual Benghazi claims, also alleges that Osama Bin Laden’s body-double, rather than the terrorist mastermind himself, was killed in 2011.

(screen capture)
One of the Navy SEALS who actually went on the mission to kill Bin Laden responded:

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Trump Alleges Ginsburg’s Dying Wish Was Penned By Democrats

L-R Donald Trump, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
According to NPR’s Nina Totenberg, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dictated this message to her granddaughter Clara Spera just days before her passing: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” This morning, Donald Trump phoned into Fox & Friends, and with no evidence of any kind, alleged that Ginsburg’s dying wish was written by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), or Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “I don’t know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff and Schumer and Pelosi?” said Trump. “I would be more inclined to the second. That came out of the wind, it sounds so beautiful. But that sounds like a Schumer deal, or maybe a Pelosi, or shifty Schiff. So that came out of the wind.” Schiff clapped back in a tweet: “Mr. President, this is low. Even for you. No, I didn’t write Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish to a nation she served so well, and spent her whole life making a more perfect union. But I am going to fight like hell to make it come true. No confirmation before inauguration.”

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Lindsey Graham: ‘Let’s Let The Next President Make That Nomination’

On the day after the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it’s interesting to revisit the words of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) from just a few years ago: “This is the last year of a lame-duck, and if Ted Cruz or Donald Trump get to be president, they’ve all asked us not to confirm or take up a selection by President Obama. So if a vacancy occurs in their last year, of their first term, guess what, you will use their words against them. You will use their words against them. “I want you to use my words against me. If there is a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said ‘let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination,’ and you could use my words against me and you’d be absolutely right.” The Washington Post reports that in 2018, when Graham was in line to take over the committee with jurisdiction over Supreme Court nominees, he said that ‘if an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term, and the primary process has started, we’ll wait till the next election.’” Graham is in a tight race for reelection himself this year – the most recent polls show him tied with his Democratic challenger, Jaime Harrison. How will his state react if he supports a vote on RGB’s replacement before the election?

Two other Republican Senators have signaled opposition to confirming a new justice so close to an election. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told The Hill in August of this year: “When Republicans held off Merrick Garland it was because nine months prior to the election was too close, we needed to let people decide. And I agreed to do that. If we now say that months prior to the election is okay when nine months was not, that is a double standard and I don’t believe we should do it. So I would not support it.” And Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), also in a tough reelection campaign, told the New York Times‘ Jonathan Martin earlier this month, she would not seat a Supreme Court justice in October. “I think that’s too close, I really do,” she said. She added she’d also oppose seating a justice in the lame-duck session if there’s a change in presidents.

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Fact-Checking Trump’s ABC News Townhall

(screen capture via ABC News)
NowThis News fact-checks Donald Trump’s ABC News town hall earlier this week where he took questions from undecided voters. During the session, Trump blamed Joe Biden for not implementing a national face-mask mandate (even though Biden isn’t president) and said he thinks he’s done a “great job” handling the COVID-19 pandemic as the U.S. approaches 200,000 coronavirus-related deaths. This is a terrific quick wrap-up of the event. Hit the play button below.

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Recorded Interviews Show Trump Deliberately Misled Americans About COVID-19

(cover image via Amazon)
Bob Woodward, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose reporting on the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon, has released excerpts from his upcoming book, Rage, which includes on-the-record interviews (there’s tape!) with Donald Trump from early December 2019 to July 2020. Woodward interviewed Trump 18 times on a wide range of topics. The interviews were recorded by Woodward with Trump’s permission, and CNN has obtained copies of some of the audiotapes. From CNN:

“This is deadly stuff,” Trump told Woodward on February 7.

In a series of interviews with Woodward, Trump revealed that he had a surprising level of detail about the threat of the virus earlier than previously known. “Pretty amazing,” Trump told Woodward, adding that the coronavirus was maybe five times “more deadly” than the flu.

Trump’s admissions are in stark contrast to his frequent public comments at the time insisting that the virus was “going to disappear” and “all work out fine.”

The book, using Trump’s own words, depicts a President who has betrayed the public trust and the most fundamental responsibilities of his office. In “Rage,” Trump says the job of a president is “to keep our country safe.” But in early February, Trump told Woodward he knew how deadly the virus was, and in March, admitted he kept that knowledge hidden from the public.

“I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told Woodward on March 19, even as he had declared a national emergency over the virus days earlier. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”

(screen captures via CNN)
Instead, Trump’s decisions allowed many Americans to doubt the severity of the virus and nearly 200,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. Even earlier, on January 28 the discussion turned to the coronavirus outbreak in China during a national security briefing with Trump. “This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,” national security adviser Robert O’Brien told Trump. “This is going to be the roughest thing you face.” The new book also includes some tough opinions from many of Trump’s former top national security officials on his presidency. Former Defense Secretary James Mattis is quoted as calling Trump “dangerous” and “unfit” to be commander in chief. Former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said he “continued to harbor the secret belief, one that had grown rather than lessened, although unsupported by intelligence proof, that Putin had something on Trump.” Woodward writes that Coats felt, “How else to explain the president’s behavior? Coats could see no other explanation.” You can hear some of Trump’s chat with Woodward in the tweet below, and much more on CNN here.

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Trump Retweets Lie About Armless ‘Veteran’ After It Was Debunked Years Ago

Donald Trump smirks during a press event

Donald Trump smirks during a press event
Donald Trump (photo: public domain/Flickr)
In an effort to dispute the stories about disparaging remarks allegedly made by Donald Trump about fallen military service members, radio personality Mark Simone shared a years-old photo of Donald Trump touching the face of a “severely wounded veteran.” The image has been shared often on social media, usually with a message referring to the man as a wounded veteran and sometimes inferring that he lost his arms in battle. But according to the fact-checking site Snopes the man, Henry “Bubba” Stevenson Jr., is not a “wounded veteran:”

Radio personality Mark Simone also shared this image in May 2017 with the caption: “Here’s a powerful picture that no news outlet will publish. It took place at a Trump rally when the President met a severely wounded veteran. This soldier lost both of his arms. The feeling of a handshake is lost to him. President Trump realized this, and touched his face so he could feel the human connection.”

This is a genuine photograph of Trump briefly touching the cheek of a supporter with two prosthetic arms. However, the accompanying backstory about the supporter being a veteran is inaccurate.

While Trump did touch Stevenson’s face, Stevenson is not a wounded veteran.

According to Online Chester, Stevenson was born without arms. His right limb stops just above his elbow and on his left side he has “only a nub below his shoulder.” A GoFundMe set up in 2014 to raise money for two bionic arms also stated that he “was born without arms.” This post is not an attack on Mr. Stevenson, But Simone tweeting the photo and claim again, years after being called out by Snopes, is intellectually disingenuous in an attempt to help Trump in the middle of a political firestorm.

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WH Press Sec: Trump Has ‘Great Record’ On LGBTQ Issues (Oh, My Sides…)

L-R Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany
During a recent press briefing at the White House, Donald Trump’s Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany dodged a question from Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson about Trump’s ban on transgender service members which was announced out of the blue via Twitter three years ago. The Trump policy requires the discharge of any current service member diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a characteristic of being transgender. Those service members are also not allowed any transition-related care. Additionally, anyone with a history of gender dysphoria is banned from enlisting unless they agree to serve as the sex assigned to them at birth. Johnson asked if Trump would reconsider the policy and mentioned that 116 members of Congress have urged the Donald to end the ban especially in light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which banned anti-LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination. The question led McEnany to abruptly pivot to the false claim that the president has a pro-LGBTQ+ record. “I haven’t talked to him about that specific policy, but this president is proud that in 2019 we launched a global initiative to end the criminalization of homosexuality throughout the world,” said McEnany reading from a prepared list of inaccurate claims. “He has a great record when it comes to the LGBT community. The Trump administration eased a ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men and he launched a plan to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.” Johnson tried to stay on topic by pointing out that while the ban is still in place, there are over 14K active military service members who identify as transgender, polls showing 70% of Americans support the rights of trans people to serve the country they love, and major medical associations saying there’s no problem with transgender people serving. But McEnany brushed those facts aside before moving on to another reporter. “I have no updates for you, but several of the events that you cited, like the Supreme Court ruling, I would refer you back to Justice Kavanaugh, who said, ‘We are judges, we’re not members of Congress. Instead of a hard-earned victory won through the Democratic process, today’s victory is brought about by judicial dictates.’ So we’ll always stand on the side of correct statutory interpretation.” https://twitter.com/WashBlade/status/1282754239324917761 Now, to anyone paying attention to Donald Trump and his administration here on Earth One, it’s clear that the Donald has a less-than-stellar record when it comes to the LGBTQ community. Here’s just a shortlist of topics where Trump has attempted to harm or diminish the LGBTQ community: First, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rolled back a provision in the Affordable Care Act that banned anti-LGBTQ discrimination in health care settings. Last November, HHS proposed removing regulatory provisions that explicitly prohibit organizations that receive HHS grant funding from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, and religion. In addition to transgender military service members, Trump has attempted to discharge HIV-positive military members. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has proposed allowing homeless shelters to discriminate against transgender people. Trump’s Justice Department has argued in favor of those seeking the right to discriminate against LGBTQ people in the workplace. (p.s. they lost…) Regarding the easing of restrictions on blood donations by gay men, when asked about the change in April Trump said he “didn’t know anything about that.” Additionally, Trump has publicly stated his opposition to The Equality Act that would make discrimination against LGBTQ people federal law. And then there are the slaps in the face like refusing to issue a Pride Month proclamation (which President Obama did all 8 years of his administration) as well as banning U.S. embassies from flying Pride flags during the month of June. And by the way, how is that ‘global initiative’ to end the criminalization of homosexuality going? We’ve heard no word about it since it was announced (source: Washington Blade)