CNN’s designated fact-checker Daniel Dale called out the “parade of dishonesty” he observed during the Republican National Convention’s first night and dismissed any attempted claims of false equivalence by pointedly declaring that the DNC “was not like this.”
As the initial installment of the RNC wound down late on Monday night, CNN anchor Jake Tapper brought in Dale to review the two-and-a-half hours of party programming. Dale’s verdict was damning.
“Jake, that was a parade of dishonesty. We had false claims and misleading claims and major strategic omissions on the coronavirus and other matters,” Dale said, pulling no punches. “I think it veered at times into the realm of disinformation even more than mere dishonesty. And people say ‘They all lie. What about the Democrats?’ Look, I sat in the same spot listening closely to the Democratic convention. It just was not like this. I think it’s important to note it’s not equal and their four nights combined did not have the quantity of dishonesty of this one, Republican night. We need to say this isn’t the same.”
“That’s right,” Tapper affirmed. “You pointed out the times that misstatements or lies were made at the Democratic convention. You are saying they are just a lot more at the Republican convention. Give us some examples of what you saw tonight
“We had Donald Trump Jr. saying Joe Biden described rioting as peaceful protests. In fact, Biden explicitly condemned rioting and looting,” Dale noted. “A video had the president claiming he kept every single promise he made. He certainly kept some, but not even close to all of them. Mexico hasn’t paid for the wall. Obamacare isn’t repealed. We haven’t had four percent economic growth per year, that’s just wrong. We had multiple speakers from Congressmen Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan touting economic records that have been obliterated from the pandemic. They cited the lowest rate of unemployment in 50 years. Well, we are now at 10.2%, higher than any time since the Great Recession.”
“We heard a number of accusations about Joe Biden that aren’t true, that he wants to dismantle, defund the police. He’s explicitly repeatedly rejected that idea,” Dale pointed out, echoing a brutal take-down on this same claim from Fox News’ Chris Wallace last month. “That he ‘wants to abolish the suburbs.’ This is just nonsense about an anti-segregation rule.”
“And, Jake, I think the biggest revisionist history was Trump, unlike various Democrats, did not downplay the coronavirus pandemic,” Dale said, hitting the issue that has the president 20 points underwater in his
Watch the video above, via CNN.