Lead Up To Trump’s Tuesday Night Address Filled With Lies So Far, Schumer, Pelosi Demand Equal Time

Tonight’s the night that we find out whether Donald Trump intends to introduce yet another deranged subplot into the ongoing soap opera/gong show that is his administration, and declare a national emergency in order to solve the “national security and humanitarian crisis” that he assures us exists at the border. Since the lead up to tonight’s broadcast has contained whoppers such as Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ 4,000 terrorists crossing the border being in fact only six, there is not a lot of confidence that tonight’s address will contain a lot of truth. Ostensibly, the networks debated whether to air Trump’s broadcast at all, and then once they decided to do so, are now greatly concerned about how to fact check it. CNN:

Trump’s Monday request for networks to air his speech touched on a number of debates that have been raging in journalism since his ascension to the Oval Office. Among them: Should his fact-free speeches be aired live? What kind of fact-checking methods should networks employ?

There has been a recent debate in journalism circles about whether networks should air Trump’s words in real-time. Several media critics, for instance, told CNN last week that networks should not rush to air Trump’s remarks made during pool sprays and briefings, given how much misinformation he spreads.

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“Some advice — demand to see the text in advance and if it is not truthful either don’t air it or fact check it live on lower third,” tweeted Joe Lockhart, the former White House press secretary under President Bill Clinton. “And cut away if he goes off text and starts lying.”

Meanwhile, Democrats have demanded equal time, and their request was framed rather bluntly.

“Now that the television networks have decided to air the President’s address, which if his past statements are any indication will be full of malice and misinformation, Democrats must immediately be given equal airtime,” Pelosi and Schumer said.

The second biggest lie, after Sanders’ terrorist count, is Trump’s statement Friday in the Rose Garden that former presidents have come to him privately to inform him that the wall should have been built during their administration.

“This should have been done by all the presidents that preceded me, and they all know it,” Trump told reporters. “Some of them have told me that we should have done it, so we’re not playing games. We have to do it.”

The only problem is that all four living presidents have been contacted and each one says it was not him.

“He did not,” Angel Ureña, a spokesperson for Bill Clinton, told BuzzFeed News in an email. “In fact, they’ve not talked since the inauguration.”

Clarification from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter:

"I have not discussed the border wall with President Trump, and do not support him on the issue.” — Jimmy Carter

— The Carter Center (@CarterCenter) January 7, 2019

An Obama spokesperson said that he did not support the wall and likewise a George W. Bush spokesperson said that the two men had not discussed it. So, either Trump is lying, or, he must be talking about dead presidents, Nixon or Hoover, possibly. Or maybe it was Reagan. Yeah, that’s it, Reagan wanted to tear one wall down and build another.

Meanwhile, Mike Pence has gone on three morning shows lying his ass off, pushing the now-debunked 4,000 terrorists figure and he’s been called out for it by Hallie Jackson who says, “It’s one of the most headline-grabbing misleading claims that members of this administration has made, and Vice President Mike Pence knows that.”

Trump’s lies are up to 7,600 and counting and after tonight, I predict, you can add at least a couple of dozen more.  Then he’s off to the border on Thursday to throw paper towels, or whatever.