As Mark Sumner pointed out in the APR, the New York Times (after what can charitably be called a horrendous performance covering Hillary Clinton, and the campaign as a whole) has joined in on fact-checking The Donald. Just to simplify their task, they only tracked tRump’s ongoing fib assault for one week. It didn't make things simpler:
The New York Times closely tracked Mr. Trump’s public statements from Sept. 15-21, and assembled a list of his 31 biggest whoppers, many of them uttered repeatedly. This total excludes dozens more: Untruths that appeared to be mere hyperbole or humor, or delivered purely for effect, or what could generously be called rounding errors. Mr. Trump’s campaign, which dismissed this compilation as “silly,” offered responses on every point, but in none of the following instances did the responses support his assertions.
Some of those “instances” are prime cuts from The Donald’s Greatest Hits — proven applause lines that get the White (Male) Walkers pumped up... and, by extension, get tRump pumped up. A few are brand new, though:
18Mrs. Clinton had “the power and the duty” to stop the release of unauthorized immigrants whose home countries would not accept their deportation after they were released from prison.NUMEROUS SPEECHES, INCLUDING IN COLORADO, SEPT. 17, AND FLORIDA, SEPT. 19.The secretary of state does not have the power to detain convicted criminals after they have served their sentences, and has little power to make foreign countries accept deportees.19Mrs. Clinton has not criticized jihadists and foreign governments that oppress and kill women, gay people and non-Muslims. “Has Hillary Clinton ever called people who support these practices deplorable and irredeemable? No.”SPEECH IN FLORIDA, SEPT. 19.She has denounced jihadists and foreign countries on the same grounds, if not necessarily using the same words.20“Do people notice Hillary is copying my airplane rallies — she puts the plane behind her like I have been doing from the beginning.”TWITTER, SEPT. 20.He did not invent the tarmac rally or the campaign-plane backdrop.
It was pointed out early in the General Election process that Trump rallies were predominantly being held in solid-red areas of the country where his core support lives, rather than in swing states where he might be able to win new supporters. There’s a simple reason for this: Donald J. Trump is a power junkie.
He gets power from the applause. He gets power from the whooping and hollering. He gets power from his supporters following his orders (spoken and unspoken) to attack anyone who even looks remotely like a protestor, or even just a non-Trump person — which usually means people of color, or women, regardless of age. He got power in the primaries leading his followers in the Trump Loyalty Pledge, usually conducted while giving what can only be interpreted as a 21st-century Nazi salute. And he gets unbelievable power from those supporters who actually embrace the term “Deplorables” like it’s the title of some new Sylvester Stallone shoot-em-up.
We have never seen this kind of sickness on a national scale in this country before. Has there always been racism, and misogyny, and violence against “the other”? No question about it. But I think it’s safe to say that it’s never been normalized like it has been in 2016. That’s why voting Third Party (or, worse, not voting at all) is an act of the highest selfishness. That’s why I’m voting Hillary — not just because she’s the best prepared candidate for the job, or because I’d really love to stick it to an MSM that believes ratings are more important than truth, but because it’s the only way this pumpkin-skinned toddler T Rex can be stopped from destroying this country.
How you vote is your call, and your right. But we’ve said it before and heard it before: Elections have consequences. Think hard about the consequences before you pull the lever, push the button, or make your checkmark.