In an article titled ‘Fact-checked: Republican national convention and Trump’s speech‘ a Guardian supposed ‘journalist’ claims to be: “Unpacking false claims made by former President and other speakers as he formally accepted Republican nomination.”
There are a couple of problems with the Guardian’s ‘fact-check’. Firstly, all politicians lie. Pretty much everything the Tories promised when Boris Johnson won his 80-seat majority was a pack of lies – getting Brexit done, reducing immigration by protecting our borders etc. etc. Almost everything Starmer promised in the lead-up to his recent win – reducing immigration by “smashing the evil people-smuggling gangs”, reducing energy costs by replacing cheap and reliable gas power stations with ludicrously-expensive and mostly-useless wind turbines and solar farms, growing the British economy while asphyxiating British companies with the world’s highest energy prices and crushing new labour regulations, and so on – were lies.
Now let’s look at a couple of specific ‘fact-checks’ made by the Guardian:
Trump claims the U.S. has seen the worst inflation ever under Joe Biden
During his speech, Trump claimed that the country has had the worst inflation ever under the Biden administration.
Here’s how the Guardian supposedly debunks Trump’s claim about high inflation under Biden:
This claim is misleading. Biden was in office for record-high inflation in June 2022, when it stood at 9.1% – the highest since 1981. But inflation has also since come down in the past two years.
As far as I can see, the Guardian actually admits that at 9.1% inflation was at a record level under Biden even though it did fall from the record high 9.1%. So, Trump was right.
Now let’s look at another ‘fact-check’ made by the Guardian:
Trump displayed a chart he says shows record-low illegal immigration
Trump pointed to a chart – the one he said he was looking at while a gunman fired shots at the stage during his Pennsylvania rally last Saturday and that he says saved his life – to show that illegal immigration was at record lows in 2021 during his Presidency.
Here’s how the Guardian disputed Trump’s claim:
The chart reportedly comes from a graphic created by the office of Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson’s office, and purports to show monthly encounters with migrants on the U.S.’s south-west border. The claim is misleading. According to Politifact, an arrow on the chart pointing to a low point in encounters is falsely labeled “Trump leaves office”. In fact, this low point was recorded in 2020 at the height of Covid lockdowns. Later, encounters rose. Trump left office in 2021.
First problem is the Guardian claim that “Trump left office in 2021”. In the U.S., the new President is sworn in on either January 20th or 21st. So effectively Trump ceased to be President at the end of 2020. The Guardian is slightly muddying the waters by claiming “Trump left office in 2021” and was therefore partly responsible for the massive rise in immigration in 2021.
The second problem is that the Guardian doesn’t give any figures of annual immigration into the U.S. by year to disprove Trump’s claim oof record-low immigration. So, here’s a chart of ‘Southern Border Apprehensions’:
As you’ll see, there was a massive increase once Biden took office in January 2021. Oops! Looks like the Guardian is lying and Trump is telling the truth.
We all know that Trump often deviates from what’s on the teleprompter and launches into long digressions with a tendency to massive exaggeration. After all, he’s a salesman, not a politician. But I get the feeling that the Guardian‘s supposed ‘fact-check’ is even less truthful than Trump’s claims.
You can have a look at the other ‘fact-checks’ in the Guardian article. But it seems as if the Guardian‘s supposed ‘fact-check’ follows similar high standards of journalistic excellence as the totally discredited BBC Verify.
Many readers will be familiar with the Latin phrase: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? This is usually translated as “Who will guard the guards themselves?” or “Who will watch the watchmen?” Perhaps a modern translation could be something like: “Who will guard us against the garbage spouted by the Guardian?”
David Craig is the author of There is No Climate Crisis, available as an e-book or paperback from Amazon.
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