Spencer Platt / Getty ImagesFormer Vice President Joe Biden, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, speaks at an event on Feb. 5, 2020, in Somersworth, New Hampshire. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
President Donald Trump is using presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s words against him.
Trump’s campaign has launched what it called an “investigative website” called thetruthoverfacts.com.
“Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. announced the launch of ‘Truth Over Facts,’ an investigative website aimed at uncovering the truth behind Joe Biden’s never-ending, seemingly incomprehensible statements during his third, plodding campaign for president,” the Trump campaign said in a news release.
The title of the site is taken from a Biden flub during an Iowa campaign event last year.
“Everybody knows who Donald Trump is. Even his supporters know who he is,” Biden said then, according to the Washington Examiner. “We got to let him know who we are. We choose unity over division. We choose science over fiction. We choose truth over facts.”
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Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh was the host of a kickoff video on the satirical site, which is styled to give the visual vibe of a crime documentary while delivering a breezy tongue-in-cheek mockery of Biden’s many miscues.
The initial video includes Biden’s reference to former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill when asked a question about his age as the oldest American president, if elected, by the end of his term.
The video later goes on to include a clip of Biden mangling the wording of the Declaration of Independence and using the words “the thing” to describe the founding document’s discussion of human liberty.
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The mockery raised some eyebrows as critics in the media attacked the site as incompatible with what they thought it should be.
CNBC White House reporter Christina Wilkie was aghast.
Inbox: Trump Campaign Announces Launch of ‘Truth Over Facts’ Investigative Website
So I guess the war on facts has a name now. pic.twitter.com/GQBMx7Q1O5
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) May 18, 2020
Ezra Klein of Vox also slammed the site.
If you’d written a satire of the Trump administration where they launched a campaign called “Truth Over Facts” it would’ve been dismissed as heavyhanded and unfair.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) May 18, 2020
Dan Pfeiffer, who hosts the liberal podcast “Pod Save America” and is a former adviser to President Barack Obama, ridiculed the effort.
On one hand, this is funny: The Trump campaign is too stupid to name a propaganda site without embarrassing themselves.
On the other hand, the propaganda is so blatant that Trump has declared war on facts (a very visible enemy). https://t.co/sxV7I2s3by
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) May 18, 2020
Washington Examiner writer Emily Larsen said some folks just missed the joke.
Joe Biden said “truth over facts” in an Iowa State Fair speech stumble. This became a meme on the right. But when the Trump campaign spun this into an obvious parody “investigative website” that referenced the gaffe, I don’t think a lot of people got it… pic.twitter.com/G5nZ1vOeRh
— Emily Larsen (@emilyelarsen) May 18, 2020
“The American people deserve to know the truth behind Joe Biden’s delirious and nonsensical claims on the campaign trail,” Murtaugh said of the new website in a statement.
“When he’s mangling the text of the Declaration of Independence or calling someone a ‘lying, dog-faced pony soldier,’ is he really speaking a language that only he and a select group of others understand? This campaign for president cannot be allowed to continue for one more minute until we try to unlock the secrets behind Joe Biden’s incomprehensible babbling.”
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