AP FACT CHECK: Trump vs. Trump on virus; Biden missteps
WASHINGTON (AP) — Explaining his deceptive assurances about the pandemic, President Donald Trump suggested he was doing what Winston Churchill had done, soothing the public in a time of danger. That's not how it went down in World War II.
Churchill did not tell Britons that Nazi Germany was “under control ” or that, "like a miracle, it will disappear,” to cite Trump's words on the virus.
The British prime minister spread fear, as well as resolve, as he summoned Britons to national purpose against the “hideous apparatus of aggression” enslaving swaths of Europe and soon to be “turned upon us.”
Trump's statements about the pandemic have been rife with misinformation from the start. But journalist Bob Woodward's new book, “Rage,” reveals Trump admitting to using distortion as a tactic as he underplayed the threat of COVID-19 to Americans and young people in particular, while knowing better. The president said his purpose was to avoid panic.
Details from the book and its recorded interviews with Trump dropped during a week of intense politicking as the campaign for the Nov. 3 election entered its homestretch.
As the rhetoric flew, both Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden exaggerated their influence in reviving the auto industry. In a mix-up, Biden vastly overstated military COVID-19 deaths. Trump thoroughly misrepresented Biden's positions.
BLOOD, SWEAT, TEARS
TRUMP on Churchill during the German bombing of London: “He always spoke with calmness. He said, ‘We have to show calmness.'" — remarks to Michigan supporters Thursday.
TRUMP: “As the British government advised the British people in the face of World War II, ‘Keep calm and carry on.’ That’s what I did.'" — Michigan remarks.
THE FACTS: Historians take sharp issue with that.
.
..
