Thus the Washington Post reveals that the Republican candidate is waging a real war against these fact-checking procedures, requiring television channels that wish to interview him not to use them. Last August, Trump threatened to cancel an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists gathering because his statements were going to be fact-checked live. “They simply insisted that he would not go on stage if we checked the facts,” said Ken Lemon, president of the association. After lengthy discussions, Trump finally participated in the interview, during which he claimed that Kamala Harris “became a black person” to serve his presidential campaign. “It was a very eye-opening moment where we got to hear him answer questions, and we were shocked by some of the answers“, declares Ken Lemon. For its part, Trump’s team justified the delay in the candidate’s intervention by technical problems with the sound.
The Republican also refused to participate in the CBS show “60 Minutes,” which also conducted fact-checking during the interview. “A week ago, Trump reversed course. The campaign team put forward various explanations. First, she complained that we were going to fact-check the interview. We fact-check every article. Trump later said he needed an apology for his 2020 interview” said CBS correspondent Scott Pelley.
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The Trump team complained about these checks during the debates between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris as well as between the two running mates JD Vance and Tim Walz. During his debate with Kamala Harris on ABC News, Donald Trump claimed that Democrats allowed the execution of babies after birth. False information which was immediately pinned down by the moderator of the show, Linsey Davis. Other statements by the Republican were thus denied, provoking the anger of Donald Trump’s team. “Everyone who watched the debate on ABC agreed that it was a three-on-one fight with two moderators who wrongly ‘fact-checked’ President Trump repeatedly, but did not NOT fact-checked Kamala Harris ONCE, even though she told numerous lies on the debate stage The debate on ABC was widely considered one of the worst moderated debates in history, and yet President Trump. still won,” said Karoline Leavitt, Donald Trump’s spokesperson. “You have to lie for the facts to be verified, and only one person on that stage told lie after lie,” responded Kevin Munoz, Kamala Harris’ spokesperson.
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“These measures are the latest example of Trump’s resistance to being called to account for his lies, which have for years formed the basis of his political message,” writes the Washintong Post. The American daily refers in particular to Trump’s statements on migrants who eat dogs and cats.
According to Lucas Graves, professor of journalism and mass communications at the University of Wisconsin, this fight against fact checking has become a major issue for the Republican Party. “Within the right-wing political establishment, it is now considered completely legitimate – and completely legitimate to say publicly and openly – that one disapproves of fact checking. It is precisely because of Trump’s unusual relationship with the truth – even for a politician – that it is hardly surprising that he opposes it so volubly and forcefully“, he explains. Trump regularly resorts to fake news and erroneous figures. Thus, the Washington Post lists until the end of the Republican’s presidential mandate “30,573 false or misleading statements, an average of ‘approximately 21 false, erroneous or misleading statements per day’.
But according to an advisor close to Donald Trump, the majority of candidates would also be against this live fact checking system. “All candidates are opposed to fact-checking to varying degrees, but if you’re Trump, you know they’re always going to attack you more harshly.“Nevertheless, the Democratic candidate seems more willing to comply with the fact-checking exercise and has also participated in the CBS show “60 Minutes”.
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