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Presidential Debate: Mitt Romney Lied 24 Times

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Mitt Romney lied 24 times during last night’s presidential debate, his third and final opportunity to share his “vision” with the American people. Unfortunately for Mitt Romney, his supposed vision was actually President Obama‘s at times. Romney flip flopped on several key foreign policy matters, the largest (as I tweeted at the time) that he supports a date of withdraw from Afghanistan — the exact decision he lambasted President Obama for.

READ: Obama Skewers Romney: ‘We Also Have Fewer Horses And Bayonets’ (Graphic And Video)

By comparison, Romney lied 27 times during his first presidential debate, and 31 times during his second.

As ususal, Igor Volsky at Think Progress did an excellent job tracking Mitt’s Romnesia. Here’s a selection of the most egregious and important lies Mitt Romney told at the presidential debate, via Think Progress:

3) “Former chief of the — Joint Chiefs of Staff said that — Admiral Mullen said that our debt is the biggest national security threat we face. This — we have weakened our economy. We need a strong economy. We need to have as well a strong military.” If Romney is worried about the national debt, why does he want to increase military spending from 3.5 percent of GDP to 4 percent? This amounts to a $2.1 trillion increase over a ten year period that the military says it does not need and Romney has no plan to pay for it.

5) “And when it comes to our economy here at home, I know what it takes to create 12 million new jobs and rising take-home pay.” The Washington Post’s in-house fact checker tore Romney’sclaim that he will create 12 million jobs to shreds. The Post wrote that the “‘new math’” in Romney’s plan “doesn’t add up.” In awarding the claim four Pinocchios — the most untrue possible rating, the Post expressed incredulity at the fact Romney would personally stand behind such a flawed, baseless claim.

6) “[W]e are going to have North American energy independence. We’re going to do it by taking full advantage of oil, coal, gas, nuclear and our renewables.” Romney would actually eliminate the fuel efficiency standards that are moving the United States towards energy independence, even though his campaign plan relies on these rules to meet his goals.

12) “[W]e’ll take [Medicaid] for the poor and we give it to the states to run because states run these programs more efficiently.” A Congressional Budget Office analysis of Paul Ryan’s proposal to block grant Medicaid found that if federal spending for Medicaid decreased, “states would face significant challenges in achieving sufficient cost savings through efficiencies to mitigate the loss of federal funding.” As a result, enrollees could “face more limited access to care,” higher out-of-pocket costs, and “providers could face more uncompensated care as beneficiaries lost coverage for certain benefits or lost coverage altogether.”

14) “And then the president began what I have called an apology tour, of going to various nations in the Middle East and criticizing America. I think they looked at that and saw weakness.” Obama never embarked on an “apology tour.”

23) “I was in a state where my legislature was 87 percent Democrat. I learned how to get along on the other side of the aisle.” Given Romney’s 844 vetoes as governor, Massachusetts legislators dispute this claim. As the New York Times has noted, “The big-ticket items that Mr. Romney proposed when he entered office in January 2003 went largely unrealized, and some that were achieved turned out to have a comparatively minor impact.”

 

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Why Dick Cheney Will Be Voting for Kamala Harris, According to Liz Cheney

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September 6, 2024

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Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney will cast his ballot in November for the current Democratic Vice President, Kamala Harris, according to his daughter, Republican former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney.

Dick Cheney, now 83, is also a former U.S. Secretary of Defense, U.S. Congressman, White House Chief of Staff, and the first-ever White House Deputy Chief of Staff. (To put that in perspective, that was exactly 50 years ago. There are currently now three Deputy Chiefs of Staff.) He is from a generation ago and possibly not well-known to many Americans. A hard-core Republican, during his time in the public eye and behind the scenes in the White House as President George W. Bush’s Vice President, Cheney was reviled by many Democrats, especially for his role in what the Bush administration would come to call “the Global War on Terrorism.”

But Friday, at the annual Texas Tribune Festival, The Atlantic’s Mark Lebovitz interviewed the former Vice President’s daughter (full video), who also served as Vice Chair for the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

“Dick Cheney, your father, a beloved figure among Democrats for many, many years,” Lebovitz said, joking (video below). “Do you, if you know, who he will be supporting or who will be voting for? Do you care to share with us who he will be voting for?”

READ MORE: ‘Traitor’ Trump Trashed for Response to DOJ Kremlin Cash and Russia Disinfo Indictments

“Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” Liz Cheney replied, to howls and cheers from the audience. She had endorsed Harris for President earlier this week, and became one of hundreds of prominent Republicans who publicly have said they will not just not vote for  Donald Trump, but will vote for Harris for President.

“If you think about the moment we’re in, and you think about how serious this moment is, my dad believes — and he said publicly — there has never been an individual in our country who is as grave a threat to our democracy as Donald Trump is,” Cheney explained, as The Texas Tribune reported.

Two years ago Liz Cheney posted video of her father endorsing her bid for re-election, and denouncing Donald Trump.

She continued her remarks on Friday, explaining that, “obviously Vice President Harris and I have had and have policy disagreements on some issues, but I have been really impressed watching, for example, the Democratic Convention, listening to her speech at that convention, learning about her life story, learning about, you know, the story of her success, and the the extent to which it’s an American story and and I think we all have to walk ourselves back from this abyss that we’ve looked over in our politics and and work together to build a better future for this country.”

The former Congresswoman lost her seat over her opposition to Donald Trump and her participation and leadership on the January 6 Committee. On Friday she went even further in announcing her endorsements.

“One of the most important things we need to do as a country as we begin to rebuild our politics is we need to elect serious people,” Cheney continued. “Here in Texas, you guys do have a tremendous, serious candidate running for U.S. Senate.”

READ MORE: ‘Incoherent Gibberish’: Experts Trash Trump’s ‘Incomprehensible’ Answer to Policy Question

“It’s not Ted Cruz,” she said, announcing her support for Texas Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by the GOP Senator.

“Imagine telling yourself in the early oughts that Dick Cheney would one day endorse the Democratic candidate for president because the GOP’s 2024 nominee poses an existential threat to American democracy,” remarked Democratic strategist DJ Koessler. “The stakes in this election are truly historic.”

Political scientist David Darmofal commented, Kamala Harris’s “coalition now extends from AOC to Dick Cheney. She’s a uniter, not a divider.”

Watch Cheney’s remarks below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Something’s in Play Here’ Says Ex-Trump NatSec Official on DOJ Russian Disinfo Indictment

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‘Traitor’ Trump Trashed for Response to DOJ Kremlin Cash and Russia Disinfo Indictments

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September 6, 2024

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Donald Trump’s latest attack on American rule of law and the U.S. Dept. of Justice is facing condemnation. The GOP presidential nominee and convicted felon awaiting sentencing, while speaking at a courthouse press conference on his efforts to appeal a $5 million judgment in a New York sexual abuse and defamation civil case, called the DOJ’s bombshell indictments in the Kremlin cash and Russian disinformation case a “scam.”

“It’s always the same,” observed foreign policy, national security, and political affairs analyst and commentator David Rothkopf. “Defend Putin. Defend Russia. Defend corruption. Accuse those who are enforcing the law of being engaged in a scam. Why does he sound this way? Because he is a traitor and a criminal.”

Trump told reporters Friday, “This is a long and complicated web and story, but it all goes back to the DOJ and Kamala and sleepy Joe and all the rest of them.”

“We have a whole rigged election system,” he declared, as he often does, promoting his “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen while appearing to be paving the ground for the same response should he lose in November.

READ MORE: ‘Incoherent Gibberish’: Experts Trash Trump’s ‘Incomprehensible’ Answer to Policy Question

“Nobody’s ever seen anything like what’s happening now. I understand yesterday, they’re bringing up Russia, Russia, Russia again, that they’ve done for years. Never found anything,” Trump falsely claimed. “But they should be looking at China, China, China, Iran, Iran, Iran, lots of other places.”

“I haven’t spoken to anybody from Russia in years. They know that, but it’s a scam,” he claimed. “But, it all goes back to the DOJ because we had a trial today. It’s an appeal of a ridiculous –.”

Trump was referring to this week’s indictments that reveal a U.S. media outlet that platformed several far-right pro-Trump influencers was funded with millions of dollars from Russia in a scheme to help Trump.

“The allegations,” NBC News reported on the indictments, “came as part of a wide-ranging move by the Departments of Justice, State and Treasury to target what the Biden administration says are Russian government-sponsored attempts to manipulate U.S. public opinion ahead of the November election.” In a separate report NBC News calls the influencers, “paid messengers for Russian propaganda.”

The Atlantic’s David Frum, a former White House speechwriter for Republican President George W. Bush, responded to Trump’s remarks, saying: “The only topic on which Trump never flip flops.”

READ MORE: ‘Something’s in Play Here’ Says Ex-Trump NatSec Official on DOJ Russian Disinfo Indictment

The liberal super PAC American Bridge responded to Trump’s comments by pointing to an Associated Press article and writing: “YESTERDAY Trump’s former senior campaign aide was charged for accepting $1 million to spew Kremlin talking points.”

Podcaster Fred Wellman remarked: “I’m a bit of a news hound and I didn’t see anyone saying that Trump had been talking to Russia yesterday. He is incapable of not blurting out confessions.”

Watch Trump’s remarks below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Can’t Even Find a Complete Sentence’: Trump’s ‘Gobbldygook’ Childcare ‘Solution’ Slammed

 

 

 

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‘Incoherent Gibberish’: Experts Trash Trump’s ‘Incomprehensible’ Answer to Policy Question

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September 6, 2024

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The fallout continues over Donald Trump’s remarks during what was billed as a “major economic speech” Thursday, now with business and economics experts blasting the ex-president’s “incoherent” answer when asked at The Economic Club of New York to explain what he would do to lower childcare costs for parents.

“Word Salad was served at the Economic Club of New York this afternoon. Despite the audience knowing it was a plate full of empty calories that may cause food poisoning… they ate it up,” MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle remarked on social media. An NBC News senior business analyst, Ruhle worked in the finance industry for 14 years.

“Calling Trump’s remarks at the NY Economics Club incoherent gibberish is not a biased attack. It is a completely rational observation. He did not speak in coherent or complete sentences. And when he did, proposals like (tarriffs – childcare) do not make sense,” Ruhle added on X overnight.

RELATED: ‘Can’t Even Find a Complete Sentence’: Trump’s ‘Gobbldygook’ Childcare ‘Solution’ Slammed

“The 11th Hour,” the MSNBC show Ruhle hosts, called Trump’s remarks “economically illiterate.”

Ruhle was far from the only expert to blast Trump’s comments.

Reshma Saujani is the founder of the nonprofits Moms First and Girls Who Code. her bio says she “has spent more than a decade building movements to fight for women and girls’ economic empowerment, working to close the gender gap in the tech sector, and most recently advocating for policies to support moms impacted by the pandemic.”

Saujani is also the person on stage who asked Trump the childcare question.

“Incomprehensible at best,” is how she later characterized his response, “at worst, outrageously offensive to the millions of families drowning in costs.”

READ MORE: ‘Something’s in Play Here’ Says Ex-Trump NatSec Official on DOJ Russian Disinfo Indictment

Professor of economics and public policy Justin Wolfers, who often has appeared on MSNBC and CNN, posted a transcript of Trump’s remarks but deleted what policy issue he was actually discussing.

“With the context of his entire answer, can you guess what that issue is?” he asked.

Wolfers adds: “This policy analysis yields two substantive claims that relate to the topic:
1. “childcare is childcare” (fact check: true)
2. childcare is inexpensive relatively to his proposed tariffs (fact check: clearly false for many families with kids)”

New York Times financial columnist and CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin on MSNBC Friday said Trump’s remarks “seemed incoherent,” while warning that “the Republicans and the Trump machine have become really good at trying to bully people into submission, to some degree. To believe something that they don’t even believe because they’re seeing with their lying eyes and they’re unwilling to recognize what’s in front of them.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

RELATED: ‘Absolutely Bombing’: Trump Makes Pre-Inauguration Ukraine War Vow in Economic Club Speech

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