Trump fogs up Russia investigation with non-scandals"Spygate" is a catchy, made-up term combining the air of subterfuge with the air of political scandal. But that's all it appears...
| |  | | Democracy Dies in Darkness | | | | | | | | | | The truth behind the rhetoric | | | | | | Trump fogs up Russia investigation with non-scandals "Spygate" is a catchy, made-up term combining the air of subterfuge with the air of political scandal. But that's all it appears to be: air. When he says "spygate," Trump is suggesting that an FBI informant, Stefan Halper, was spying on his 2016 campaign as part of a political hit job orchestrated by his enemies. But Halper actually was an informant trying "to determine what the Russians were up to," according to former director of national intelligence James Clapper. (Informants and spies use different methods.) To boot, Trump said Clapper admitted to the campaign spying, when in fact Clapper said the opposite. It's the latest example of Trump using a deceptive PR campaign to cast a cloud over the Russia investigation. Remember when Trump said "Obama had my wires tapped at the Trump Tower"? No evidence. Remember when Trump said "the Democrats colluded with Russia"? The claim falls apart under scrutiny. And so on and so forth. We drew up a list of the non-scandals Trump has promoted, presented side-by-side with a list of all the real fallout from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. |  | | Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this e-mail was forwarded to you, sign up here for the weekly newsletter. Hear something fact-checkable? Send it here, we'll check it out. | | A bipartisan merry-go-round of spin on school safety This all started when we heard Vice President Pence give out a fishy-seeming number for school-safety funding — $2 billion, he said, was included in a recent spending bill. We then found that Trump referred to "more than $2 billion to improve school safety" during a recent speech to the NRA. In the wake of yet another school shooting, this time in Santa Fe, Tex., we decided to take a look. The number is wrong. More than 60 percent of these funds is designated for well-rounded-education programs or technology, not school safety. We gave Four Pinocchios to Trump and Pence and thought we had put the issue to rest. But it turns out this spin was bipartisan. Nancy Pelosi gave out similar figures ($1.6 billion to $1.8 billion) during a CNN town hall after our fact-check was published. She indicated the decisions were up to the schools, but her comment was still worthy of Three Pinocchios. | | | Keeping up with fake news How are people pushing back on rumors, hoaxes and "alternative facts"? This week we learned that Roswell, Ga., is taking the fight against fake news into its own, taxpayer-funded hands. Check out the "Roswell Rumor Page," which debunks several rumors on the city's recycling practices and other topics. Speaking of fake news, one of the most gruesome examples is the campaign by InfoWars and Alex Jones to cast the Sandy Hook massacre as a hoax. Six of the victims' families are suing Jones for alleged defamation. | | Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. — Salvador Rizzo | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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