CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale believes it is impossible to compare the “dishonesty” of President Donald Trump to any Democrat who is seeking the party’s presidential nomination.
“We need to be clear and direct about the fact that there is no equivalence between the frequency of the dishonesty from the president and from anyone in the Democratic field,” said Dale, according to Politico.
Dale came to CNN in June after being the Washington bureau chief for the Toronto Star, where he accused Trump of making “false claims” on a weekly basis. Just weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Dale wrote a front-page story that insisted the race between Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “It’s not close: Hillary Clinton the overwhelming favourite to win presidency,” read the headline. (RELATED: Washington Post’s Fact-Checker Inflates Trump’s Falsehoods)
In the story, not op ed, that followed, Dale alleged:
“America’s presidential election is dramatic. It is not close.
There are two weeks of shouting to go, but know this: Hillary Clinton is overwhelmingly likely to win. Donald Trump’s chances are tiny.”
Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walks off stage as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump smiles after the third U.S. presidential debate at the Thomas & Mack Center on October 19, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Dale continued, “The race is so lopsided that Clinton is at 262 electoral votes, just eight shy of victory, counting only the states where she leads by five or more points. Add the 10 electoral votes of Minnesota, where she leads by four and no Republican has won since 1972, and Clinton is elected even before the votes are counted in Ohio, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Iowa and Arizona.”
After Trump was elected in 2016, he began fact checking Trump on a regular basis.
In April 2017, the reporter commented on Trump’s 100-Day speech in a headline that read: “The 19 strangest things Donald Trump said in his 100-days interview.” (RELATED: NPR, Politico Issue Dubious Fact Checks On Trump’s SOTU Address)
In September 2018, the bureau chief noted, “U.S. President Donald Trump has broken his own dishonesty record for the third consecutive month. Trump made 321 false claims in August. That shattered his previous record of 280, in July, which had beaten his previous record of 268, in June.”
In January 2019, Dale said, “Three years and a government shutdown later, it is still not clear how much U.S. President Donald Trump cares about building a giant wall on the Mexican border. What is clear is that he believes he benefits politically when he acts like he does. His immigration instincts propelled him to the presidency. They may now be leading him astray.”
Dale even broke down Trump’s false claims per minute after his March 2019 CPAC speech:
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) annual meeting at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S., March 2, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
“Donald Trump made 60 false claims in his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, shattering his old record for false claims in a single speech.
“At 2 hours and 2 minutes, Trump’s speech to CPAC was also by far the longest of his presidency. If you’re counting false claims per minute, Star editor Ed Tubb notes, Trump made almost an identical amount to CPAC, 0.49 per minute, as he did in the Pennsylvania rally speech in August at which he set his old record of 36, 0.46 per minute.”
Dale contended as well in January 2019 that “Trump’s first year was the most dishonest in history. His second was nearly three times worse.”