Last month, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) announced a new “Disinformation Task Force” to combat fake news amid the upcoming elections this fall. On Thursday, the group’s communications director spread fake news.
“Pelosi having a banner week… gets attacked by President Trump for RUNNING THE COUNTRY while he calls Coronavirus a hoax,” wrote the DCCC’s Cole Leiter who leads the committee’s communications team.
.@SpeakerPelosi Pelosi having a banner week…
-gets attacked by Republican operatives for loving 🍦
-gets attacked by President Trump for RUNNING THE COUNTRY while he calls Coronavirus a hoax.The only Q: Which @jenisicecreams pint will she enjoy today as she saves the country.
— Cole Leiter (@coleleiter) April 16, 2020
Trump however, made no such claim. In fact, at least five independent fact-checkers have rated Democratic accusations that Trump characterized the novel Wuhan coronavirus a “hoax” as false, including PolitiFact, Snopes, FactCheck.org, Check Your Fact, and even the Washington Post, which gave the claim its highest single false rating awarded by the paper of four “Pinocchios.”
The false assertions that Trump charged the coronavirus as a “hoax” surfaced from a February campaign stop where a true and honest reading of Trump’s remarks billed the Democrats’ politicization of the global pandemic as the hoax.
If you are pushing the narrative that Trump called coronavirus a “hoax,” you’re lying.
It’s pretty obvious what he’s saying here. https://t.co/RlSoJ8ZSb8
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) February 29, 2020
“Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus,” Trump complained at a South Carolina rally.
One of my people came up to me and said, “Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax that was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything. They tried it over and over. They’ve been doing it since you got in. It’s all turning, they lost, it’s all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax.”
Democrats however, have repeatedly manipulated Trump’s words from the rally without censorship from tech giants to frame the president as discounting the virus as nothing but a hoax.
Donald Trump issued a cease and desist letter to stop our ad from running because he doesn’t want Americans to know the truth about his failed leadership. Help keep it on the air by donating herehttps://t.co/ZeRIriA3Y8 pic.twitter.com/Jdh1GY9HHS
— Priorities USA (@prioritiesUSA) March 26, 2020
We can't sit by and lose this country to Donald Trump. Today, we take it back — together.
Go vote: https://t.co/Hy8C4n0lUk pic.twitter.com/0YgyJFr9YR
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 3, 2020
Twitter on the other hand, tagged an unedited video published by the Trump campaign as “misinformation” in early March.
