'What changed?' Jake Tapper's fact check of Trump spox about who didn't kill Gaddafi collides with 2011 reporting

Doug P. | 11:16 AM on January 11, 2020

As we told you yesterday, there were many blue check politicians and reporters attempting to fact check the following tweet from principal Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley:

Soleimani was, in fact, planning "imminent attacks." While Democrats and the media quibble over its definition, quick point: When Obama killed bin Laden, al-Awlaki and Gaddafi, without Congressional approval, there were NO "imminent attacks" and Democrats did not ask or care.

— Hogan Gidley (@hogangidley45) January 10, 2020

CNN’s Jake Tapper was among journos who went into immediate fact-check mode:

Gaddafi wasn’t killed by the US https://t.co/y87kUXOCoi

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 10, 2020

It might have been best to leave Gidley’s claim about Gaddafi alone, but journalism in the Trump era doesn’t allow that.

Things not to do: don’t be a journalist and an activist at the same time

— Harushyamagara (@TheophileHarus) January 11, 2020

That’s good advice because when Barack was the U.S. president after Gaddafi was killed, Tapper quoted an Obama staffer saying this:

Official:"OBL, Awlaki, and Gadhafi Have All Met Their Demise In Some Fashion Because of Decisions the President Made" http://t.co/4ygy3cDn

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 20, 2011

Wait, no reminder that “Gaddafi wasn’t killed by the U.S.” back then? Shocker.

In 2011, CNN reported it as follows:

https://t.co/q3TjmK2XDW "U.S., NATO and French officials said transitional government fighters captured Gadhafi's convoy after French warplanes and a U.S. drone forced it to a halt on the way out of Sirte."

— Chadwick Redmayne (@RichardMHeim) January 10, 2020