CNN Fact Checks Donald Trump Using His Own Words

Media Matters' David Brock Explains That In Every Aspect Of Trump’s Life “Compulsive Lying Is An Unavoidable Aspect Of It”

From the June 10 edition of CNN's CNN Tonight:

Video file

DON LEMON (HOST): David, I am going to start with you. Your organization Correct the Record analyzed 23 of the Washington Post's fact checks on Donald Trump. What did you find?

DAVID BROCK: Well, we found -- What we did was we took the most egregious we could find, and we actually set them to music. We set them to a Mozart Symphony No. 41, and it runs 41 minutes. And the point here is that every aspect that we looked at, of Donald Trump's life and his campaign, compulsive lying is an unavoidable aspect of it. We looked at the first public statement we could find that Donald Trump had ever made, back in 1973 where he said it was ridiculous that he would engage in housing discrimination, yet he settled a charge just to that nature four years before.

We looked at the first nine words that Donald Trump said when he declared his candidacy, where he said there were thousands of people in attendance and there were only 300. So, from 1973 to the time he announced his candidacy, it was lie after lie. And the important thing here is that he's lying about himself, the story he tells about himself, that he's a self made man, and a business genius. For example, Trump University is a lie that begat a fraud. And then on policy, he is lying to the American people on the promises he is making to, for example, reduce the debt by $19 trillion, when the Chamber of Commerce says he's going to explode the deficit and put us in recession.

[...]

LEMON: David, did the Washington Post do fact checks on Hillary Clinton, whether she's telling the truth or not?

BROCK: Sure, in fact the agency that Jeffrey just cited, Politifact, rated Hillary Clinton the most honest of all candidates they looked at, and Donald Trump was the most dishonest. So, I think it's a really poor excuse to try to say that all candidates do this, all candidates embellish and lie. What we have here is something -- it is a difference of not degree, but of kind.

It is the order of magnitude, the volume, the brazenness, and the other thing, you know, so let's say politicians do sometimes not tell the truth. When they're called out on it by something like the Washington Post fact checker, they usually stop. What our video shows is that Donald Trump compounds the problem time and again compulsively. He's caught in a lie and keeps telling it. That tells us something about character, tells us something about temperament, and just unfitness for office.

Previously:

What To Do When The Trump Campaign Is Gaslighting Your Network

Veteran Campaign Reporters: “The Stakes Are Too High” To Let Trump Get Away With Constant Lying

CNN's Stelter Pushes Media To Fact-Check Trump's Conspiracy Theories

Jake Tapper Makes Ben Carson Watch Trump's Racist Comments Before Asking Him About Them