One of the most common new hobbies over the past four years has been for critics of President Trump to retweet his old tweets that directly contradict something he’s said or done on any given day. There’s always a tweet, right? Last month, the Biden campaign used a 10-second clip of President Trump during a rally speech saying, “If I lose to him, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I will never speak to you again . . . . You’ll never see me again.”
Now the Biden campaign has crafted another masterpiece using the President’s own words in new and exciting ways. Over the weekend, the Trump campaign released a new ad praising his handling of the pandemic crisis, which included a short clip of leading infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci saying, “I can’t imagine . . . anybody doing more.” A day later, CNN reported that not only did Dr. Fauci not consent to being used in the ad, but that his words were completely taken out of context. Fauci told the network, “In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials.”
In other words, there was a lot happening in that ellipsis!
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh responded to the accusation by saying the video is from a nationally broadcast television interview in which Dr. Fauci was praising the work of the Trump Administration. “The words spoken are accurate, and directly from Dr. Fauci’s mouth,” said Murtaugh.
Given the gulf in perception versus reality here, the Biden campaign decided that responding with mere facts would be futile. The result is, again, one if its best ads yet.
Donald Trump is running TV ads taking Dr. Fauci out of context and without his permission.
So, here’s a message from the President in his own words. pic.twitter.com/WCYbIfrQLR
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 12, 2020
Turns out the best defense against Trump BS, might just be more Trump BS.
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