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A new Trump campaign ad implies Anthony S. Fauci praised the president, when he was really referring to the workload of the coronavirus task force instead.

“I can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more.”

— Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, misleadingly quoted in a Trump campaign ad released Oct. 10

Throughout 2020, the Trump campaign has offered a master class in how to snip and cut video in misleading ways. This new Trump ad is no exception.

The ad highlights the president’s bout with covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. The deaths of more than 200,000 Americans from the disease have been a huge setback to the president’s election campaign. This ad tries to argue that he took forceful action against the coronavirus, despite his constant efforts to play down the pandemic in public.

After the ad asserts, “President Trump tackled the virus head on as leaders should,” it follows with a clip of Fauci appearing to endorse that claim: “I can't imagine that anybody could be doing more.”

There is a certain irony in the Trump campaign using Fauci as a validation, as the president frequently is quite critical of the infectious-disease expert. But the biggest problem is that Fauci was not talking about Trump at all. In the March interview, Fauci was discussing the workload of the coronavirus task force. Here is the full context for his quote. The section used in the ad is highlighted in bold.
“I have been devoting almost full time on this — almost full time. I’m down at the White House virtually every day with the task force. I’m connected by phone throughout the day and into the night and when I say night, I’m talking twelve, one, two in the morning. I’m not the only one. There’s a whole group of us that are doing that. It’s every single day. So I can’t imagine that that under any circumstances that anybody could be doing more. I mean, obviously, we’re fighting a formidable enemy — this virus. This virus is a serious issue here.”

In other words, the ad misleadingly clips Fauci’s comment and takes it out of context, especially because it sets it up with voice-over narration designed to make viewers believe the popular Fauci is praising Trump.

According to The Fact Checker’s Guide to Manipulated Video, this is an example of Missing Context — Isolation. That’s when a brief clip creates a false narrative that does not reflect the event as it occurred. The little snip in the middle of Fauci’s comment indicates that the Trump campaign clearly wanted viewers to believe Fauci was talking about Trump.

But he was not.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. But Fauci issued the following statement to CNN: “In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials."

The violence comes from the Left.

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The violence comes from the Left.

. You left out the Right. And the anarchists. And the anti-choice forced birthers. And the soccer hooligans. And the crazed cops. Nearly all humans have a propensity to commit violence under the right conditions. It's really stupid to hold counter-rallies to provoke and confront people with opposing political views and think that incidents of violence won't occur. FFS, people are showing up at competing rallies carrying pepper spray, firearms, clubs, and knives — gee, what could possibly go wrong?

That's simplistic

It's really stupid to hold counter-rallies to provoke and confront people with opposing political views and think that incidents of violence won't occur

Trump campaign twists Fauci comment to suggest praise of the president

The media and government have way too much power.

By allowing media and government to maintain so much power, we have allowed a situation to be created where hysteria and dependency justify their existence and more fear and hysteria ensure its continuation.

The moral of the story is to think for yourself and to prepare for all eventualities while still allowing yourself to live your life and not just spend it trying to avoid death.

Lastly, maybe health “authorities” shouldn’t have so much “authority” after all.

How unsurprising. Before the previous election was held, John McCain, Richard Burr and Ted Cruz said that a Supreme Court with just 8 members was fine and that if Hillary won the election, they would work to stop her seating any new SC member.

My better half and I consider Trump a "Clear and Present Danger"

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My better half and I consider Trump a "Clear and Present Danger"

Yes, he invaded unsuspecting nations, and funded terror organisations; oh, hang on, that was Obama, Clinton, and Biden.

What do you fear from your Commander-in-Chief?

They never seem to find anything but Trump's personality and completely ignore his achievements.

If you think that, you have paid no attention to anyone's discourse but trump's for the last four years. What you consider his "accomplishments" are the things the majority of people voted against him doing. No healthcare plan, attempts to gut or abolish obamacare, withdrawal from the paris accords, abrogation of the working nuclear constraints on iran, abolishing daca, rejection of climate change, 213,000 deaths from nonexistent pandemic response, avoidance of paying his share of federal taes, creation of a new swamp of lobbyists and special interests who pay him fancy bribes-in-acctuality to use his facilities, stacking the courts with far right activist judges, abuse of his power as pres to further his own interests rather than the country's, are just a few of the things we are disgusted with him doing. He well deserves the title of america's worst president. We don't like him precisely because his phony "accomplishments" aren't.