Trump’s first question at his Philadelphia town hall dealt with the federal response to the coronavirus, with the questioner saying he was a Trump voter in 2016, but the voter lost faith after, he claimed, Trump eased up on the coronavirus.
Trump claimed again that the US leads the world in fighting the coronavirus, and he continued various other lies, this time including the concept of “excess mortality,” a calculation that cannot be done until well after the fact.
Trump was asked about mask-wearing, and he claimed he does it frequently, particular “in hospitals.” Trump claimed that “many people say masks aren’t good.” George Stephanopoulos asked who those many people are, to which Trump replied, “Waiters.”
Trump said he had a waiter “just yesterday” who touched his mask and then served Trump’s dinner plate. Apparently, this was enough number of waiters to convince Trump masks are bad.
Trump also asked why Democrats didn’t implement a mandatory mask policy, unaware that he’s the president, not “Democrats.”
“How could you downplay a pandemic that is known to disproportionately harm low-income families and minority communities?”
Trump claimed that he didn’t, in fact, downplay the coronavirus, saying “Well, I didn’t downplay it. I actually, in many ways, I up-played it in terms of action.” Trump touted his travel bans, saying to the Black woman, “So that was called action, not with the mouth, but in actual fact. … Whether you call it talent or luck, it was very important, so we saved a lot of lives when we did this.”
Somehow, Trump pivot to touting his “job numbers” and having “the greatest economy in the history of the world.”
Stephanopoulos noted that statisticians and scientists have said the US acted too late, to which Trump responded, “George, I was so far ahead with my closing–and I’ll give you an example.” He said Biden and Pelosi fought the ban.
Stephanopoulos countered, “You said it was going to disappear.”
Trump stammered, “Wha–? Well, it *is* going to disappear. It’s going to disappear. No, I still say that. It’s going to disappear.”
Trump claimed that Winston Churchill was not “necessarily honest” in telling people to be calm during the London Blitz by saying “It’ll be okay.”
After Trump repeatedly said, “It’s going to go away,” Stephanopoulos incredulously asked, “It’s going to go away with the vaccine?”
Trump: “Sure, over a period of time. Sure. With time. And you’ll develop, you’ll develop, like, a herd mentality.” [Editor’s note: “Herd mentality” is a phrase equivalent to “Group stupidity;” it’s not a good thing.] It’s gonna be, it’s gonna be ‘herd developed’ and that’s gonna happen.”
Stephanopoulos pointed out Dr. Fauci disagrees with that theory. Trump said, “Well, I mean, but a lot of people do disag– do agree with me. You look at Scott Atlas. You look at some of the other doctors that are highly–from Stanford.” [Fact Check: Scott Atlas is a neuroradiologist and former Fox “News” personality who was with the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Atlas is not a public health expert or a virologist. When Trump refers to “Stanford University,” he means the Hoover Institution.]
Trump continued: “I think we did it exactly right. We closed it up, now we’re opening.” [Fact Check: There has never been a federal policy to close up the economy. All those were done through a patchwork of state policies.]
Question: “In light of the ongoing [racial justice protests and killings of Black people], do you feel racial injustices are occurring in this nation, and if so what can be done to address them.”
Trump never answers the question about racial injustice in the nation, but instead pivoted to supporting police and how much police unions have endorsed him. Trump conflated the justice system with policing, citing “no cash bail” and said we have to give police their “mojo.”
Stephanopoulos pushed Trump on if racial injustice was a systemic problem. Again, Trump talked about increasing police power.
Asked by Stephanopoulos how you stop police from shooting Black people at three times the rate of shooting whites, Trump responded, “I can only say this: that police in this country have done, generally, a great job. There are crimes, there are problems, and there are chokers. They choke under pressure. [Editor’s Note: Trump doesn’t understand that George Floyd was killed, literally, by a choker.]”
Stephanopoulos interrupted and again asked, “So you don’t think there’s a problem with systemic racism?” Trump responded, “Well, I think there’s problems.”
Trump went on to talking about the New York City police department–who he said endorsed him: “Y’know the New York City Police endorsed me, and I love them.” [Fact Check: The NYPD did NOT endorse Trump. One of its unions did.] Trump said he saw people dumping water on the heads of police officers during recent demonstrations, saying, “And frankly those people shoulda, those cops shoulda turned around and really done something,” implying they should have undertaken violence against the protesters because they got wet.
A Black Philadelphia minister asked, “When has America been great for African-Americans in the ghetto of America? Are you aware of how tone-deaf that comes off to the African-American community?”
Trump claims that his campaign has “tremendous African-American support, if you look polls.” [Fact check: Trump only got 8% of the Black vote in 2016, and he seems to be at that level now, according to polls.]
Trump touted the job number and economy before the pandemic, saying “The best jobs they ever had. Highest income they ever had.” [Editor’s Note: It’s striking that Trump talks about Black Americans as “they” as if they aren’t part of the United States.]
“If you go back six or seven months from now, that was the best single moment of African-American people in this country, I think, I would say,” Trump said. [Fact Check: I’m *pretty sure* the end of slavery, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the election of the first African-American president was greater than January 2020.]
Despite Trump’s repeated claims that “they’ve been doing better” under the Trump Administration, the minister shook his head as Stephanopoulos pointed out that Black families still make half of what white families earn, even when adjusting for income. Trump said “I can only look at the past,” and continued to tout his record.
A questioner said she was worried about the “second or third wave of unemployment,” asking “What is your plan to aid these workers who may not lose their jobs today but in the months to come?”
Trump: “Well, as you know we did paycheck, but we’re doing a lot of other things, but what I want to do is see additional stimulus and we’re trying to get it and we may. We’re just, just before I came here we had some pretty good talks with the Democrats. [Fact Check: According to Trump’s public schedule, just before leaving for Philadelphia for the town hall, Trump was in a lunch with the Prime Minister of the State of Israel, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates and the Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain. No negotiations with Democrats were on his schedule for today.]
Stephanopoulos asked why not call a meeting with Speaker Pelosi and hammer out details. Trump responded, “Because they know exactly where I stand. They know exactly where I stand. When the time is right, I’ll do that.” [Editor’s Note: “When the time is right…?”]
Trump then went on a rant that Democrats only want a bail out of “Democrat-run” states and cities, where Democrats don’t want to do anything about crime and… “sanctuary cities.” When Stephanopoulos pointed out that he refers to Democrat-run states, not “American states,” Trump said “I’m the president for everyone,” but failed to present a solution.
Trump claimed he wanted to do more for people because the coronavirus was China’s fault. “It wasn’t their fault. It wasn’t [the questioner’s] fault. It wasn’t anybody’s fault,” again, trying to avoid blame for the failure to respond.
Question from a Black woman with a serious pre-existing condition. “Should pre-existing conditions, which Obamacare brought to fruition be removed–” [Trump interrupted, “No,” to which the woman responded, “Please stop and let me finish my question, sir.” A split screen seconds later showed Trump gazing at the floor with a bored look on his face.]–“should that be removed, within a 36 to 72 hour period without my medication, I will be dead. And I want to know what it is that you’re gonna do to assure that people like me who work hard, we do everything we’re supposed to do can stay insured. It’s not my fault that I was born with this disease. It’s not my fault that I’m a Black woman and in the medical community I’m minimized and not taken seriously.”
Trump’s response: “I hope you are taken seriously. I hope you are. And we are not going to hurt anything having to do with pre-existing conditions. We are not going to hurt pre-existing conditions.” [Fact check: Trump is sponsoring a lawsuit in federal court in Texas to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions.]
Trump claims that “Medicare for All” would get rid of pre-existing conditions. [Fact Check: That’s a lie.] “We’re going to be doing a health care plan, very strongly, and protect people with pre-existing conditions.” [Fact Check: On July 19th, Trump told Fox “News” host Chris Wallace that he would be introducing his health care plan “in two weeks.” That was three months ago. He has yet to introduce a health care plan.]
Stephanopoulos listed the advantages the ACA gave consumers and noted Trump has been bragging that he would strike it down. Smugly, Trump said, “Nooooo… so we could do new heath care.” Stephanopoulos noted that Trump had told him last summer that he would have a plan in two weeks. He also noted Trump’s promised to Wallace.
Trump claimed, breathlessly, “I have it all ready. I have it all ready. It doesn’t matter. I have it all ready, and it’s a much better plan for you and it is a much better plan. When you say Obamacare, I got rid of the individual mandate which is the worst part of Obamacare. [Editor’s Note: see above.]”
Trump also tried to claim Biden wants socialized medicine; that’s flatly untrue.
Question: “At times, some have called your behavior not presidential. What, if anything, would you do differently if re-elected to create a more unified message where all sides can take responsibility for their actions and come together to make positive change?”
Trump doesn’t address anything about unifying the country.
Stephanopoulos noted that for all of Trump’s bloviating about the stock market and the “V-shaped” recovery, economists are referring to this as a “K-shaped” recovery because the ones at the top are doing better, while others continue to suffer.
“George, stocks are owned by everybody,” Trump said. [Fact Check: only 50% of Americans directly or indirectly own stocks.]
Question: Referring to the statements reported in The Atlantic in which Trump called soldiers “suckers” and “losers,” a woman asked “How do you expect to win back the support of our military, their families, their friends and military supporters.”
“It’s easy,” Trump bragged, “because I never made those statements. They never came from me.” Trump claimed the story about him missing the World War I ceremony was made up.
Stephanopoulos pressed Trump on the statements of former military leaders like Kelly and Mattis who were critical of Trump. Trump’s response: “These are people I let go. These are disgruntled former employees, to put it in a nice way, in a term people would understand.”
Question: “How can we balance commonsense police reform without sacrificing public safety?”
Trump claimed that South Carolina Senator Tim Scott put together a bipartisan plan on police reform. [Fact Check: this is untrue. Democrats were not consulted on the Scott plan.] Other than that, Trump didn’t answer the question except to say he wants stronger police.
“We have to give the police back that, that strength that they had a short while ago,” Trump declared. “And that they have in republican cities, frankly, and states. [Editor’s Note: There’s no such thing as a republican city. There are American cities, some of which have republican mayors.] But you take a look. This is a Democrat problem. George, I know you’re a Democrat, but this is largely a Democrat prob– Take a look at the list. [Editor’s Note: What list?] Every Democrat city, almost, not all but a lot of ’em [Editor’s Note: “a lot of ’em” is very, very different that “every Democrat city.”] certainly in the top 25, certainly in the top 50, almost every city is run by the Democrats.”
Stephanopoulos cited Trump’s 2016 campaign promise that he was going to “restore law and order,” to which Trump replied, “And I have, except in Democrat-run cities.” [Fact Check: That means he hasn’t.]
Question: From a new citizen whose mother died last month from breast cancer that metastasized, the woman read the question her mother composed for the town hall: “What will you do, what would you change, to make more people like me and like her, to become citizens and vote?”
Trump: “So, we are doing something with immigration that I think is going to be something very strong, because we want people to come into our country, people like you and like your mother.” [Fact Check: This is a lie. The Trump Administration has cut back on legal immigration into the United States, and they’ve drastically limited the number of refugees coming to the US.]
Trump continued: “And that just shows how vicious the COVID is, when you have a heart problem or another type of a problem.” [Fact Check: The woman said her mother died of cancer. She didn’t say she had COVID.]
Trump: “But we want people to come into our country. We want them to come in, a lot of people, but we want them in through a legal system… [Fact Check: See above.] …through a system that, uh, they love our country, they work to come into our country, uh, a merit system. And we’re working on something very hard right now, and uh, and in a very short time we’re going to be announcing it.” [Editor’s Note: At least he didn’t say, “I’ll present it in two weeks.”]
Question: “What has been the most difficult part of your presidency, and what have you learned from it?”
Trump referred to the COVID–“the China virus as I call it, because it comes from China, and I think that’s a much more accurate term.” He then referenced the previous questioner, whose mother died of cancer.
Stephanopoulos asked, “What did you learn from it?”
Trump: “I learned that life is very fragile. I knew people that were powerful people, strong people, good people, and they got knocked out by this and died. Six people. It was five until about two weeks ago, and now it’s six.” [Editor’s Note: his phraseology is very close to his claims about people who, he claimed, had debunked The Atlantic story: “It was 25 until yesterday and now it’s 26.”]
Saying that he doesn’t think he could have done anything to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Trump said, “We made a lot of people look good that shouldn’t have looked good,” claiming that local officials screwed up the response.
Editor’s note: Trump never expressed sadness or regret for the nearly 200,000 lives lost, or said that he wished he could’ve done more to stop the death and suffering. It was only about his “now six” friends who died.
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