Who is the real purveyor of Fake News? That question is the crux of the real battle between mainstream media and the White House. Or, to be specific, between Trump and his chief foil in the Fake News name-calling fight: CNN. CNN seems up for the fight. Chris Cillizza at CNN dissected the latest Trump tweet on domestic politics and found that most of the assertions — and Trump is good at packing multiple assertions in small packages — weren’t true. Trump’s “alternative facts” approach isn’t new. After all, Kellyanne Conway spoke openly about it, but a big question remains: does looseness with the facts still serve his purposes in the new office. Here’s the tweet:
Great win in Kansas last night for Ron Estes, easily winning the Congressional race against the Dems, who spent heavily & predicted victory!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2017
Cillizza says Trump is wrong about Democrats predicting victory in Kansas. Trump carried the district in November by 27 points and it’s long been a Republican-held, so Dems wouldn’t predict victory. Of course, they hoped… Cillizza also says the Dems didn’t spend “heavily.” Cillizza contends: “The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the organization tasked with winning House seats, didn’t spend a dime in Kansas’ 4th district.” Not in question is Estes’ win. That part is true.
