Earlier this week, during a campaign stop in Burlington, Iowa, Joe Biden attacked Donald Trump by twisting his words and outright lying about things Trump has said.
“Days before the midterm he fomented fears of a caravan headed to the United States and created hysteria when he said, ‘Look, look at what’s marching up. This is an invasion.’” Biden said before adding, “He asserted that immigrants would, quote, ‘carve you up with a knife.’” Afterward, he deliberately mischaracterized Trump’s recent statements on the state of the city of Baltimore.
PolitiFact, a well-known, left-leaning fact-checking site, decided to address the portion of Biden’s statement where he claimed Trump said “that immigrants would, quote, ‘carve you up with a knife.’” In short, PolitiFact admits that Trump did not say that at all.
At an October 2018 rally in Texas, Trump attacked then-U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke, who is now running for U.S. president.
“O’Rourke voted against the border wall,” Trump said. “He voted against Kate’s law. And he voted for Obama amnesty. O’Rourke even voted to shield MS-13 gang members from deportation. He doesn’t want to deport them. He says they’re people. They’re people. They carve you up with a knife, but they’re people.”
MS-13 is a violent transnational gang with members primarily in Central America and the United States. Trump’s words were clearly aimed at gang members, not all immigrants.
The Biden campaign did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment. Nevertheless, they rated the claim as false.
Democrats and the media have been twisting Trump’s words for years now, so it’s not surprising Biden resorted to lying about Trump’s comments, but it is nice to see left-leaning fact-checkers calling him out for his lies.
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Matt Margolis is the author of Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama’s Legacy and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
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