A host on Fox Business insisted on Friday that President Donald Trump has never lied, and the internet strongly disagrees.
Host Stuart Varney on Friday was interviewing Republican Joe Walsh, who recently launched a challenge to Donald Trump for the party’s nomination in 2020, when the topic of Trump’s truthfulness came up. As Mediaite noted, Walsh challenged the Trump-friendly host about the frequent false and misleading statements from the president, but Varney insisted that Donald Trump had never actually lied.
When Varney grew upset at Walsh and asked him to give an example of a time that Donald Trump has lied, Walsh referred to a recent CNN report citing top White House sources who said that Trump made up a story about China calling to ask for negotiations on Trump’s trade war.
Varney thought that the false statement that Donald Trump told the American public didn’t qualify as a lie, however.
“That’s not a lie,” Varney said. “Let’s not get technical.”
Many people seemed to strongly disagree. As video of the exchange gained viral attention on social media, many mocked Stuart Varney for appearing to give cover to a man who the The Washington Post found has told more than 12,000 false or misleading statements through his first two-and-a-half years in office.
This is now the second time this week that a defender has made the claim that Donald Trump has never lied to the American people. As Talking Points Memo noted, Trump campaign official Kayleigh McEnany claimed during the contentious interview with CNN host Chris Cuomo that Donald Trump has never lied to America.
“No, I don’t think this President has lied,” McEnany said, insisting that it is the media that is lying.
Cuomo grew angry at the claim and ended up cutting the interview short when McEnany insisted on her claim that Donald Trump has never lied. It was just a few hours after McEnany’s appearance that the CNN report cited White House aides who admitted that Trump was not being truthful he claimed he had gotten a phone call from China asking for negotiations. The claim was immediately refuted by the Chinese government, which said that no one had given Trump a call.
The unnamed aides then told CNN that Trump was not telling the truth when he said China had called him.
“Instead, two officials said Trump was eager to project optimism that might boost markets, and conflated comments from China’s vice premier with direct communication from the Chinese,” the report noted.
Walsh: Do you believe this president lies?
Fox Business’ Stuart Varney: No. He exaggerates and spins.
Walsh: Do you believe he’s ever told the American people a lie?
Varney: No (h/t @EricKleefeld ) pic.twitter.com/NYEaaNN2IS
— Lis Power (@LisPower1) August 30, 2019
Donald Trump has defended himself against claims that he is lying, insisting instead it is the “fake news” media that lies about him.
