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Vox.com’s Aaron Rupar is one of the left-wing website’s more prominent tweeters, frequently posting video snippets from President Trump’s speeches, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s press briefings, etc. in which he takes what they say out of context.
What’s especially bad about the way Rupar operates is that his bogus descriptions of what’s said in the clips are often retweeted uncritically by mainstream media journalists and Democratic politicians alike, who don’t bother to actually watch the videos or ask about context.
This is how fake news often spreads and goes viral. I’ve documented several instances here, of Rupar getting away with this cheap, dishonest tactic. But on Monday, Rupar posted a video and interpretation of a Trump quote that was so mangled and deceitful that even CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale took time out of his 24-7 Trump-bashing to call him out: //
Daniel Dale
@ddale8
For people retweeting without watching the full clip: this quote was not a Trump corruption admission. It was him being defensive about Biden outraising him - saying he COULD easily raise tons of money if he wanted to call up CEOs and make corrupt bargains, but he won’t do that. //
Daniel Dale
@ddale8
For those asking (@waltshaub), here's the full transcript of Trump's remarks about Exxon and fundraising. Again, the clip that's circulating has a misleading caption; Trump's point was that it compromises a president to make personal fundraising calls to big CEOs, so he won't.