CNN's Falsely Alleges "avalanche of repeat lies at first presidential debate"

- October 02, 2020
Image credit: NY Post

On October 1st, CNN published an article titled "Trump unleashes avalanche of repeat lies at first presidential debate" containing an "avalanche" of false claims made by CNN.

Cost of Insulin

President Donald Trump claimed his administration is cutting prices. CNN claimed this was "misleading", because many of Trump's plans are in a proposal phase and unclear as to when and how they will take affect.

The proposal phase is certainly an in-progress step of any plan. If he were planning to cut prices, he would have said "going to cut prices". If he had cut prices he would have said he "cut prices". The administration in in-progress so "cutting" is the appropriate verb. This is not misleading in any way and certainly much further along than any typical political promise.

This is a false claim by CNN.


Cows

CNN claims Trump lied when he said Democrats wanted to "take out the cows". This is a false claim best explained by CNN's exact words themselves which went:


The allegation appears to be based on a single sentence in a Frequently Asked Questions document posted by the office of Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. That sentence explained that proponents of the Green New Deal were proposing "net-zero" carbon emissions in 10 years, rather than proposing zero carbon emissions at all, "because we aren't sure that we'll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast. 

It wasn't clear how serious the "farting cows" comment was supposed to be. Regardless, the FAQ document, which was quickly deleted, was never endorsed by the other Democrats who signed on to the Green New Deal resolution.

 

Despite CNN's lack of understanding how serious this statement was, the fact that is was deleted, or the fact that other Democrats did not endorse the statement. It was, in fact, stated.

There is zero evidence on the contrary. The only possible conclusion one could make is that this is more probable than improbable. CNN cannot say that Trump lied about something that was in fact stated. 

This is a very blatant false claim. 


Hunter Biden

Trump stated that Hunter Biden was "dishonorably discharged". CNN did not say this was misleading or a lie, however, it is on the list under this headline so we can assume they think it was a lie.

CNN claims Hunter Biden was Administratively Discharged and stated that "An administrative discharge is standard procedure for failing a drug test."

This is sort of accurate in that it is one of 5 types of administrative discharges, however, what they failed to explain is that the standard discharge is called a Other Than Honorable Discharge which prevents future military services or benefits just as a Dishonorable Discharge would, just without the court marshall.  

These two discharges are bad and honorless. CNN is being far more misleading than Trump. 

Whereas they did not specifically call it misleading or a lie, since this is on this list, this is misleading. 


Biden's Class Standing

This is another claim by CNN that Trump lied that is best debunked by CNN's own words:


Within the first half hour of the debate, Biden called Trump a liar and Trump pushed back by claiming Biden graduated last in his class. 

Trump couched this statement when he made it again later in the debate, adding that Biden was at or near the bottom. "You graduated either the lowest or almost the lowest in your class," Trump said. "Don't ever use the word smart with me." 

Facts First: Biden did not graduate law school last in his class. Records show he was 76th out of 85 students at Syracuse University's College of Law.

 

76 out of 85 in in the bottom 10 and would absolutely meet the definition of "almost lowest".

Claiming Trump lied is simply a false claim, evidenced even by CNN's own words.


Mail-in Voter Fraud

CNN claimed Trump lied in regards to concerns over mail-in voter fraud claiming that there is no widespread mail-in voter fraud, however Trump did not claim the fraud would be "widespread", and then said there were "isolated incidents", which would appear to support Trump's claim.

Democratic House member Tulsi Gabbard tweeted this September 18th, 2020 :

CNN claiming this as a Trump lie is inconsistent with both party opinions, they themselves have admitted fraud exists, and there is an active bill in regards to reform. 

This is obviously a false claim by CNN.

Voter Security

CNN claimed Trump lied because he used an incident to support the mail-in voter concerns to which CNN said:

It's true that there was an incident with a small number of discarded ballots in Pennsylvania, but it's baseless for Trump to cite this as an example of "voter fraud" and of a "rigged" election. Also, he got the number wrong: There were nine discarded ballots, of which seven were Trump votes. 

This is a false claim by CNN because this is not the only premise of Trump's claim, there have been concerns on both sides. Furthermore, using evidence of voter fraud to example voter fraud is not a baseless claim nor is misstating a number by 2, a lie. Notably, this has been has been stated to be 9 by other media outlets and as such, is possibly not even a misstatement. 

Campaign Spying

Trump alleged that "they", which CNN assumes was the Obama administration, were spying on his campaign to which CNN's said:

There is no evidence Biden or Obama had any personal role in the FBI surveillance of Trump campaign advisers, which came as part of the FBI's Russia investigation.

There is a mountain of evidence of wrongdoing as admitted by CNN, however CNN claims there is no evidence the Obama administration had anything to do with it.  This is simply false, there is quite a bit of evidence of Obama and Biden one of which is a hand-written note by former FBI agent Peter Strzok from early Jan. 2017 confirms knowledge and direction of the investigation of Michael Flynn by former Obama and Biden. 

This is not only evidence of this, but court documented evidence.

This is a false claim by CNN.

Payments to Hunter Biden

CNN claims this is a lie and that there is no evidence of any payment.

However, all available evidence states that a company, Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC and Rosemont Seneca Thornton, LLC, both co-founded by Hunter Biden and branches of the Rosemont Seneca group.

Payments cannot be made public from FinCEN SAR reports as they are confidential.

Regardless, this is a false claim by CNN

Corona Virus and Masks

CNN claimed that Trump saying that Dr. Fauci changed his mind was untrue and then states Dr. Fauci did change his mind, but that there needed to be additional context. Which isn't a lie by Trump.

False claim by CNN insinuating this is a lie.  

Corona Virus Travel Ban

CNN claims that Biden did not attack Trump as Trump claimed. 

The day after the travel ban was announced Biden tweeted "We are in the midst of a crisis with the coronavirus. We need to lead the way with science — not Donald Trump’s record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering. He is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency.”"

CNN claims this was not directly related to the travel ban, however, Trump didn't say it was. Trump said after the travel ban, Biden called him a xenophobe, which as CNN stated, he clearly did.

Moreover, Biden used the word xenophobia again while slamming Trump's Europe travel ban and opposing all travel bans related to COVID-19.

This can be hear in Biden's own precise words in this video:


Violence Vs. Protest

CNN claims Trump lied about Biden excusing riots as violence.

Biden said nothing for several months to denounce violence or promote peaceful protesting. When he finally did address the issue (some have alleged this was due to polls highlighting the issue), his initial comments were only in support of peaceful protesting, saying nothing to address the violence. 

This is clearly a false claim by CNN. 

Politics and Violence

CNN claimed Trump is wrong for thinking Kellyanne Conway did not say "riots and chaos and violence help his cause". 

CNN cannot know if Trump did or did not think that? Furthermore, she in fact, did not say those words as admitted by CNN themselves. 

False claim by CNN

New York City Crime

CNN claims Trump was misleading about crime increasing in New York. They base this on the fact that despite the numbers rising, that crime is down from recent years. 

Trump did not specify a timeframe. This is a false claim and the facts support Trumps statement whereas the numbers have indeed seen a sharp rise recently.

Summary

The rest of the claims were either not claiming Trump lied, were Biden related, or stated an accurate claim of which there were a few legitimate claims.

The false claims were the exceeding majority. 12 false claims by CNN

Claim: "CNN's Falsely Alleges "avalanche of repeat lies at first presidential debate"

Fact Check Verdict:  12 FALSE CLAIMS 

Claimant:  CNN

File:CNN.svg - Wikimedia Commons

Additional Claimants: Tara Subramaniam, Marshall Cohen. Kelly Mena, Paul P. Murphy, Daniel Dale, Jeremy Herbm, Caroline Kelly, Joan Biskupic, Devan Cole, Tami Luhby, Curt Devine, Jen Christensen, Anneken Tappe, Katie Lobosco,  Holmes Lybrand, and Andrew Kaczynski.