Last Night’s Lies

1. President Trump, at a Tuesday night toen hall style appearance,  falsely claimed that “we were short on ventilators because the cupboards were bare when we took it over.” The Strategic National Stockpile, the government’s repository of medicines and medicinal products, contained more than $7 billion worth of supplies when Mr. Trump took office, including more than 16,000 ventilators.
2. Speaking at the ABC News town hall in Philadelphia, he repeated his characterization of restrictions placed on travel from China and Europe as “bans” that saved “thousands of lives.” The restrictions only applied to foreign nationals and included exceptions, ultimately allowing 40,000 people to travel from China to the United States from the end of January to April. Similar restrictions were placed on travel from Europe, after the virus was already widespread in New York City.
3. The president also misleadingly claimed that “I was so far ahead with my closing,” which he said occurred in January. In fact, states began in March to issue stay-at-home and social-distancing orders, and Mr. Trump resisted those efforts. One model showed that 36,000 fewer people would have died had those measures been in place one week earlier. Even after the federal government recommended social distancing on March 16, Mr. Trump continued to urge reopening.
4. He wrongly claimed that “crime is up 100 percent, 150 percent” in New York. Overall, crime has actually decreased 2 percent in New York compared to the same period last year, though murders have increased. And he misleadingly said that “the top 10 most unsafe cities are run by Democrats.” There is no evidence that crime is correlated with partisanship. Crime is generally higher in major metropolitan areas than rural areas, and more than three-quarters of major cities have Democratic mayors.
5. He claimed undue credit for calling in the National Guard to Minneapolis. It was the governor of Minnesota, not him, who activated the state’s National Guard.
6. The president falsely claimed “we’re not going to hurt preexisting conditions” while Democrats “will get rid of preexisting conditions.” His administration has asked the Supreme Court to strike down the health care law that includes protections for patients with pre-existing conditions, and in 2017 unsuccessfully attempted to repeal it. Democrats and their nominee Joseph R. Biden Jr. have consistently aimed to uphold that law.
7. Finally, he claimed that the coronavirus “goes away” even without a vaccine because “you’ll develop like a herd mentality.” Mr. Trump was likely referring to “herd immunity,” which occurs when the virus can no longer spread widely. Public health officials have warned that this could require 70 percent of the population to develop antibodies. Without a vaccine, this could mean an enormous death toll.

Only 7 lies in over ninety minutes does not approach the Trump record of four lies in a single 140 word tweet.  But Trump’s inability to even attempt to tell the truth to possible voters tells us about the character of the man many elected to be President.  Trump may have referred to military personal who lost their lives in the service of the country as “suckers” but the real suckers in America are the people who voted for this asshole!