As Twitchy told you, Donald Trump used his press event with the Italian president to show off his vast foreign policy knowledge, which basically consisted of parroting Turkish government talking points. Trump said a lot of terrible and stupid things, so you’d think there’d be no need to misquote him.
And you’d apparently be wrong.
"It's not our problem," Trump says in Oval Office of Turkey's invasion into Syria. He adds that the Kurds are "not angels." Also, he says this: "They've got a lot of sand over there…. There's a lot of sand they can play with."
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) October 16, 2019
“It’s not our problem”?
Is there video of this? https://t.co/c324OiLhV0
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) October 16, 2019
As a matter of fact, there isn’t. Because Trump didn’t actually say it.
Apparently he did not say it. He said "It's not our border."
— Susan Ferrechio (@susanferrechio) October 16, 2019
This tweet has 2,500 RTs, and is not true – Trump did not say “it’s not our problem.” He said “it’s not our border”: https://t.co/TNi0lDAlzo https://t.co/usNSulSLH4
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) October 16, 2019
WaPo’s Josh Dawsey wasn’t the only one who ran with the inaccurate quote. NBC did as well:
CORRECTION: A previous tweet misquoted President Trump saying Turkey's invasion into northern Syria “is not our problem.”
He said, “They have a problem at a border — it's not our border,” as well as “it’s not between Turkey and the US," according to White House transcript. pic.twitter.com/TH0SXOcj6s
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 16, 2019
CORRECTION: A previous tweet misquoted President Trump saying Turkey's invasion into northern Syria “is not our problem.”
He said, “They have a problem at a border — it's not our border,” as well as “it’s not between Turkey and the US," according to White House transcript. pic.twitter.com/GXKjQkZ0aU
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 16, 2019
Oh well. It was only one word. It’s not as if that one word completely changes the sentence or anything.
And that’s why I didn’t believe it when I saw it.
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) October 16, 2019
Nice going. ?
— mallen (@mallen2010) October 16, 2019
And you wonder why people use the term “fake news” so often…
— Hard Pass (@HardPass4) October 16, 2019
Can you asshats get anything right?
— Dominus (@Your_Dominus) October 16, 2019
Would you believe there’s more misquoting where that came from? In addition to all the stuff about Syria and the Kurds, Trump also spoke about the U.S.’s relationship with Italy:
—> Trump is slurring badly, couldn't pronounce "reception." Then said US-Italy ties go back to ancient Rome.
— Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) October 16, 2019
Back to ancient Rome, huh? Wow, that is dumb!
Oh yes. There's a very strong tie between Nero and Trump.
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) October 16, 2019
Yes, we gave air support for the invasion of Carthage.
— YeOldeHistoryTeacher (@cliffb714) October 16, 2019
George Washington and Ceasar were BFFs. Pontius Pilate and Lincoln hung out at the Coliseum.
— Mandy M2S (@MandyM2S) October 16, 2019
Hope those clever jokes made Noga Tarnopolsky’s BS paraphrasing worth it.
He didn't say this, he said that the U.S. and Italy have a shared political and cultural heritage going back thousands of years. Which is true. https://t.co/KFVYpUrgC0
— Halloween Name Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) October 16, 2019
Amusingly, the White House posted the actual remarks, but people who were primed by the fake report are still in the replies mocking him for something he didn't say. pic.twitter.com/WMa76DDc7c
— Halloween Name Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) October 16, 2019
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we’ll say it again: Donald Trump is a veritable bottomless pit of malapropisms and garbage takes. When the media resort to making stuff up to make Trump look bad, they ultimately hurt their own credibility.
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