The media loves to fact-check Trump. Every day there seems to be a new scandal about something Trump said that they believe in one way or another, is a lie. Often times, those fact-checkers ignore context and the full statement to extract the most outrageous comments to slam Trump.
Which makes the rest of this story, quite interesting.
Yesterday, on Twitter as “Hoax” began to trend, Twitter sent up a fact-check page for the trending topic, which stated that Trump had never called the coronavirus a hoax. Linked in the page were several tweets from fact-checkers at the AP, FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, and Snopes which state that Trump’s “hoax” comments were specifically linked to the democrat’s outrage at how he was handling the viral outbreak and not about the virus itself.
An #APFactCheck reviews Joe Biden's distortion of President Trump's words on virus "hoax."
MORE on the coronavirus:https://t.co/isK0mCEUfOhttps://t.co/pmZZEAMTG5
— AP Fact Check (@APFactCheck) September 18, 2020
"Hoax" is trending on Twitter, since President Trump tested COVID-19 positive and some tweets claim Trump once called the virus a hoax. Here's what we wrote about Trump's "new hoax" remarks. https://t.co/X2QB3ZNFza
— FactCheck.org (@factcheckdotorg) October 2, 2020
Trump said that Democrats’ criticism of his administration’s response to the coronavirus was a hoax. https://t.co/C7BWHrP03k
— snopes.com (@snopes) October 2, 2020
TV ads in April attacked President Donald Trump for using the word "hoax" in the context of the coronavirus. Trump has claimed he was referring to the Democrats’ criticism of his response to pandemic, rather than to COVID-19 itself. https://t.co/2oi4aP8rjA
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) October 2, 2020
Included in the Twitter fact-check page were previous articles written by news organizations at the time, citing that Trump’s words were indeed directed at the Democrats’ actions in relation to the criticism of his handling of the virus, rather than the virus itself.
Trump calls Democrats' criticism of his coronavirus response a "hoax" at rally in South Carolina https://t.co/6xk8QbgKkP pic.twitter.com/6KIVZtY6za
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 29, 2020
The Department of Health and Human Services secretary told @ABC that Pres. Donald Trump was referring to the "partisan sniping" when the president referred to the novel coronavirus as a Democrats' "new hoax" at a Friday rally. https://t.co/qPZoepzqJU
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) March 2, 2020
Even the PBS White House Correspondent said the hoax comment referred to Democrat criticism.
President Trump said the “hoax” he was referring to last night at his rally in South Carolina was Democrats criticizing his response to coronavirus.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) February 29, 2020
Despite this information, numerous media organization continue to push the “hoax” lies:
Trump’s Covid messaging:
JAN: It’s under control
FEB: It’s a hoax
M: Packed churches by Easter
APRIL: It’s going away
MAY: Time to open up
JUNE: Just embers
JULY: Time to open schools
AUG: Other countries are worse
SEPT: Vaccines coming soon!
OCT: *tweeting from the hospital*— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 3, 2020
Donald Trump's day so far:
– Says he has the "plague"
– Not a "hoax" anymore
– He's been on oxygen
– Dr. Conley says he's fine
– Mark Meadows says his condition is dire
– Can't get their stories straight
– Trump is going to prison
– If he lasts that long
– It's still only 2:15pm— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) October 3, 2020
COVID went from being a virus to something that would magically disappear to a hoax to a plague.
63 million people thought this man would make them great again.
— Wajahat "Wears a Mask Because of a Pandemic" Ali (@WajahatAli) October 3, 2020
trump was right after all- this hoax of a flu like virus hardly affects anyone. Right? #BidenHarris
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) October 3, 2020
It is certainly shocking that the fact-checkers went to the distance they did but now we are ending up with a strange hoax-ception, with it being a hoax that Trump said it was a hoax, and then the media continues to perpetuate the hoax of him calling it a hoax. Needless to say, it isn’t honest.
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