Thread by @brianbeutler

A perfect opportunity to test some of the ideas I wrote about here. It shouldn’t be a total non-story that literally everything Trump says in trying to appeal to voters is an egregious lie. us19.campaign-archive.com/?u=8855a23519a…

See, I think it’s an extremely important point, part and parcel of the larger story, which is that Trump’s appeal to military families is a lie and and he in fact disdains them.

More generally, I think it’s completely insane that Trump tells these demonstrably false lies about literally everything and it’s just treated as background noise, rather than treated with the alarm it deserves.

If in 2012 Obama had abruptly started telling seniors he was responsible for creating Medicare Part D, it would’ve been astonishing.

If he was in court trying to conceal years of tax returns from prosecutors, the “what is he hiding???” drumbeat would’ve been relentless.

I know, and have written over and over again, that Democrats feed this imbalance by not beating the drums themselves, the way Republicans would, but we as journalists don’t need permission from one of the parties to be astonished and fixed on something.

Set aside everything in Goldberg’s piece, for instance, and think of this: Trump is trying to attract votes from military veterans by telling them he signed a bill that created a benefit for them that a different president actually signed. What the hell?! That is ludicrous.

It says ~something~ about national political journalism that Trump told that one lie dozens and dozens of times before a reporter on the White House beat asked him about it (and he walked away).

In a report leading with Trump’s non-credible denial, the Times asserts that Trump has made “veterans care [a] pillar[] of his campaign,” without even a passing note that the main appeal on this score (that he “signed veterans‘ choice) is an outright lie. nytimes.com/2020/09/04/us/…

This is a really welcome challenge to the press from Biden, along the lines of this week’s newsletter, but hopefully just a start. Trump is a fraud, his whole campaign is built on defrauding the public.

Seems like there should be some accounting in the press for the fact that the incumbent president's re-election pitch is false in every particular.

Yes, this is false, but what’s truly remarkable is that every part of Trump’s pitch to voters is based on a lie about himself or Biden or both.

Every appeal to voters, across all facets of policy and culture, is a straight up lie.

The first part happens before the election, the second part happens after, because Trump is completely committed to the defrauding voters bit.

This, at least, is a long-standing, all-of-party Republican lie, not unique to Trump. But the pattern is unmistakable.

There’s one wrinkle to Trump’s budget lying. Smart bet is GOP leaders just let him steal money for 4 more years then try to extort a future Dem POTUS to gut Medicare, but if Trump wasn’t lying about this, he’d just be reviving his other false promise to leave entitlements alone.

Fauci gets it. Everything is a lie because the only thing that he cares about is re-election, and he has a dismal record and nothing to offer that’s both constructive and real.

Every single appeal to voters is a fabrication. Frequently the government manipulates evidence to make these lies seem true. cnn.com/2020/09/09/pol…

When Trump says something meant to convince people to vote for him, at least 99 times out of 100 it is a lie. latimes.com/politics/story…

Occasionally he’ll say something about, like, judges that isn’t totally fictional, but that’s about it.

A government-wide conspiracy to abet Russian interference in the election on Trump’s behalf, and deceive the public into thinking other governments are the real culprits, and working to help Biden. Lies all the way down.

It’s this ethic—say whatever you think you have to say to prevail or get out of a jam—applied to a national referendum on his presidency. That’s why every facet of the re-election message is dishonest.

Sounds like there may be documentary evidence here, too.

Another plea to voters, another straight up lie. How ‘bout that! Almost like there’s a pattern here...

It’s as though everything he tells voters about why they should return him to office is a lie.

The government, converted into a pro-MAGA propaganda syndicate, so Trump can lie to people as they make their voting decisions.

What Trump does when he’s trawling for votes is he lies.

More.

Not a single major Trump appeal to voters is truthful. All lies.

Everything Trump says in pursuit of votes is a lie.

Everything the incumbent president says in the hope of winning votes is a lie. Good to correct the individual lies, but that overarching seems like a big story on its own.

It should, again, be a bigger part of the NaRrAtIvE that everything Trump says in his quest for votes is a lie.

Apparently nobody cares, but to me, it is important not just to correct the outpouring of lies as they come but to reckon with the thematic point that nothing the incumbent president says when he’s appealing to the public for votes is true. apnews.com/ec85b88102464c…

A more productive way to cover this kind of thing would be as part of a larger CaMpAiGn NaRrAtIvE about how no part of Trump’s appeal to voters is true. I mean, as I understand it from my time in the biz, “the news” loves a good CaMpAiGn NaRrAtIvE.