Failed presidential candidate Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA) faced a firestorm of criticism this week after he posted a video blaming the deaths of 90,000 Americans on "Trump's incompetence." The video, made by Democrat boosting Eleven Films and produced by Swalwell's Remedy PAC, shows carefully edited clips of the president responding to the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus throughout the first month of the pandemic.
BREAKING: We've lost 90,000 lives to Trump's incompetence.
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) May 20, 2020
They can't vote. Will you?#VoteForYourLife https://t.co/IzrgcmAnhG pic.twitter.com/p5lhHQi8Yk
The video, of course, fails to mention the many Democrats, such as NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, encouraging Americans to go out and live life like normal even after thousands of cases of COVID-19 infections had been confirmed in the United States.
Titled "29 Days," the video also uses footage of President Trump at a February rally in Charleston, South Carolina seeming to say that the Wuhan virus pandemic was "a hoax."
"Coronavirus, this is their new hoax," Trump appears to say in the 90-second film shared by Swalwell. But that sound bite, which cuts out enormous amounts of context, failed to reflect the president's actual remarks. The clip was also used by several Democrats and several liberal media outlets such as POLITICO and NBC News in March before it was debunked as untrue by many sources, including left-leaning fact checker, Snopes.
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What's True
During a Feb. 28, 2020, campaign rally in South Carolina, President Donald Trump likened the Democrats' criticism of his administration's response to the new coronavirus outbreak to their efforts to impeach him, saying "this is their new hoax." During the speech he also seemed to downplay the severity of the outbreak, comparing it to the common flu.
What's False
Despite creating some confusion with his remarks, Trump did not call the coronavirus itself a hoax.
Critics of Swalwell quickly noted that he had shared a video clip that included something that had been debunked thoroughly but Swalwell didn't budge from his position. Instead, the four-term congressman from the San Francisco Bay Area suggested that Trump not be allowed to say that COVID-19 was a hoax in response to an assertion that he posted false and misleading material.
I know, right! It has @realDonaldTrump calling #coronavirus a “hoax.” Why is he allowed to do that? I’m with you. https://t.co/PDnBrsbiY2
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) May 21, 2020
This is a lie.
— Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) May 21, 2020
And easy-to-disprove lie.
A well-documented, well-known, embarrassing lie.
By your own standard, *you* should be removed from Twitter.
Crazy though that free speech *allows* you do to so without consequence. ????? https://t.co/G4k4vtb3rZ
Others went on to note Swalwell's own hypocrisy over mask-wearing amid the pandemic, sharing a March tweet in which the congressman told his 200,000-plus followers not to wear a protective mask.
Funny, this was in March. https://t.co/hhVnSs2r8U
— Aldous Huxley's Ghost™ (@AF632) May 20, 2020
Huh. Soooo ... about those 95k deaths? https://t.co/RunO3D1iyB
— The??FOO (@PolitiBunny) May 21, 2020
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