Opinion

KNOWLES: Fact-Checking The Fact-Checkers

   DailyWire.com

Michael Knowles fact-checks the fact-checkers on Thursday’s episode of “The Michael Knowles Show.”

Politico had a great one. Politico’s State of the Union Fact Check: Trump said “One in three women is sexually assaulted on the long journey north. That’s partly true. Here’s the full story.” OK. Do you know why President Trump said one in three women are raped or sexually assaulted on the journey across that border? Now the reason that they say it’s only partially true is because the real number, according to a Doctors Without Borders study, shows that it’s only 31%. Oh, they got him now — President Trump that liar! That liar said that 33% of women are raped and sexually assaulted on the journey north. Really it’s only 31 — boom. Fact Check. Fact Check, Donald. Fake news, alternative facts.

By the way, what’s funny about this is that this is just one “Doctors Without Borders” study. There are other studies that show that the number is much, much higher. Between 60 and 80% of women are raped and sexually assaulted. That’s according to Amnesty International. That’s according to a Fusion survey, both of which were reported in The Huffington Post, a left-wing outlet. So actually, President Trump probably could have used those numbers and it would have been just fine. But how disingenuous, how dishonest, he said it was one in three — liar! It was only 31%. They’re just trying to nip it. Anything he said. And even if he doesn’t lie, even if he doesn’t say something that’s even slightly untrue, they’ll just pretend that it’s untrue.

If I say one in three. First of all — just to use the phrase “one in three” is to say I’m not using a precise percentage right now. If I said the number was 35%, he also probably would have said one in three. It’s just easier to say, it sounds better, it’s better rhetoric. If that number said 35%, I bet the president still would have said: “one in three women are raped or sexually assaulted crossing that border.” But of course then, in that case, Politico would not have fact-checked it because it would have been even more in the favor of President Trump’s argument.

CBS, I think, possibly has the most egregious of the fact checks here. They say President Trump claims nearly five million people have been lifted off of food stamps. But then what CBS points out is that, as of last September, the number of people off of food stamps since the beginning of Trump’s presidency was only 4.1 million. Now, of course, that was five months ago, and the number keeps increasing, but they say “data for the fourth quarter of 2018 has not yet been published. And that number had already been trending downward before Mr. Trump took office.” So OK. So, they’re saying the numbers trending downward. So the number of people off of food stamps is trending upward. You’re saying that five months ago it was four point one million. So now who knows what that number is? It’s probably significantly higher. You might say it’s nearly 5 million. And then the kicker is they’re doing the same fact check thing that NPR did.

“And that number had already been trending downward before Mr. Trump took office.” Oh yeah, he didn’t say that it wasn’t. When did President Trump ever say that the number wasn’t trending down or that it was trending upward? When? I never heard him say that. Millions and millions of people are off of food stamps. But the fact checkers are just saying: “I hate him and he’s a big meanie and I hate him.”

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