In a Friday morning joint press conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, President Barack Obama refuted the “vision of violence and chaos” that Donald Trump offered in his speech at the Republican National Convention.
During his speech, Trump argued that crime rates in the United States have increased under Obama’s tenure, saying that “decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by this administration’s rollback of criminal enforcement.”
In fact, FBI statistics indicate that this is untrue. Violent crime rates in the United States have been on the decline since the 1990s and have generally decreased under Obama.
Asked by Fox News’ Kevin Corke for a reaction to Trump’s comments, Obama said that the GOP nominee’s fear-mongering claims “just don’t jive (sic) with the facts.”
“When it comes to crime, the violent crime rate in America has been lowered during my presidency and any time in the last three, four decades,” Obama went on. “The fact of the matter is that the murder rate today, the violence rate today, is far lower than it was when Ronald Reagan was president, and lower than when I took office.”
He referenced recent shootings in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Minnesota, as well as the fatal shooting of five law enforcement officers in Dallas.
“We’ve just gone through a tragic period,” Obama acknowledged. “But the fact is that the rate of intentional killings of police officers is also significantly lower than it was when Ronald Reagan was president. Now those are facts. That’s data.”
Absolutely true, but irrelevant, because the great unwashed of this country would rather believe the blatherings of a draft dodging coward and asshole loser than facts.
“Facts are Stupid Things”. Ronald Reagan
It is a real quote. He was trying to repeat John Adams’ statement about facts being stubborn things and mis-remembered.
Oh stewardess, I speak jive!
(apologies to June Cleaver!)
…and this is why Democrats lose when they should have an overwhelming majority at pretty much all times.
What Trump is doing is LYING. He is not saying things that don’t jibe with the facts. HE IS LYING.
“Jibe with the facts” is weak kneed politician speak.
LYING is a statement of fact.
So what you are saying is; we should lie louder and more?