Just The Facts Ma'am

If you're old like me you may recall Jack Webb's portrayal of detective Joe Friday  in the television series Dragnet.  His famous line:  Just the Facts, ma'am made those episodes a cult favorite.

As a general rule I don't watch Sunday morning television; but I did last week.  Not to watch Dragnet but to watch the Kristen Welker Meet The Press interview of former president Trump.  While watching, it was Joe Friday's famous line that came to mind.  I'm not making this up.  

A link to the entire interview is included in this post and I've summarized a handful of Trump's distortions, hyperbole and disinformation for your erudition and entertainment.

Immigration and border control

I saw some statistics, and it said in 2019, there were no terrorists.  They caught no terrorists.  And now this year, it's a record number like they've never seen before.

While US Border Control agents are interdicting more individuals on the terrorist watchlist; as of July for fiscal 2023 the total is 216.  For the fiscal year 2022 the count was 165.  When Trump was president the number was at its highest - 280 during fiscal year 2019.  

Millions of illegal immigrants are coming into our country, flooding our cities, flooding the countryside.  I think the number is going to be 15 million people by the time you end this by the end of the year.  I think the real number is going to be 15 million people.

Border Control has interdicted and turned away more than 2.5 million people during the 2023 fiscal year.  For fiscal year 2022 apprehensions topped 2.7 million.  This number is likely imperfect inasmuch as some migrants make multiple attempts to cross.  And not every attempt is successfully interdicted and turned back.  In any event, Trump's figure exceeds the total estimated number of undocumented individuals who have arrived here under the combined tenure of presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden.  That figure is estimated to now total 11.4 million.

Withdrawal From Afghanistan

We gave $85 billion worth of equipment to the Taliban.

No, we didn't.  The DOD estimated that the Afghans had in their possession about $7.1 billion of US-funded military stuff when it fell to the Taliban. Since the war began in 2001 over those years of occupation the US spent an estimated $83 billion training and equipping the Afghan military and security forces. It is possible Trump was confused.

2020 Election Denial

If this were ever before a court, we would win so easy.  There is so much evidence that the election was rigged.

Nope.  This is The Big Lie.  Trump and his supporters brought more than fifty lawsuits to overturn the results of the 2020 election; none of them succeeded. 

The Wall

I built almost five hundred miles of border wall.

Only about 80 miles of new barrier was constructed during Trump's term of office.  This included 47 miles of primary fencing and 33 miles of secondary fence.  Mexico did not contribute a single peso to build it.  It is estimated that it would require an investment of $25 billion for a Great Wall. 

Record Deficits

We had the greatest economy in history, and then we got hit with COVID.  And we had to keep this, this beautiful; thing going.  We had to do things that were very severe.  We had to let some money come out.

Nope.  Before (and after) the pandemic struck in 2020 the national debt increased each year of Trump's presidency.  We were never even close to paying down a single dollar of our debt before Congress authorized trillions of dollars of COVID relief.  Yes, the relief checks with Trump's signature on them.

Cost of Bacon

Things are not going right now very well for the consumer.  Bacon is up five times.  Food is up horribly worse than energy.

Yes, food has risen in price.  In 2022 the price of bacon temporarily spiked about +30%.  Nevertheless, the price of sliced bacon has risen by 2% since its peak under Trump.

Capitol Riot

These people on January 6, some of them never even went into the building and they're being given sentences of many years. 

Ringleaders like Enrique Tarrio (Proud Boys) and Stewart Rhodes (Oath Keepers) did not enter the Capitol  but received significant sentences as they were convicted of seditious conspiracy.  Seditious conspiracy is serious-bad stuff.

Those who committed violent acts also received significant sentences.  Others received the equivalent of a parking ticket for trespassing with everything else in-between.  Details here.

I have a suspicion if I and my posse dressed-up in ballistic kit and assaulted the Door County Government Center, breaking-down doors and smashing windows, followed by attacking responding sheriff deputies with bear spray, axe handles and pike poles we'd be shot dead on the spot.  Any survivors would be chilling-out in prison following a swift trial by jury.  My CC instructor had sage advice:  If someone hosts a riot - run the opposite direction.

Murdering Infants

The radical people on this are really the Democrats that say after five months, six months, seven months, eight months, nine months and even after birth, you are allowed to terminate the baby.  You have a New York or California governor who said after the baby is born, you will make a determination, and if you want, you will kill that baby.  

It's hard to unpack this; however some Democrats do support broad access to abortion without regard to gestational age.  The bottom line is that only one percent of all abortions are performed after twenty-one weeks.  Infanticide is a crime and Trump is untruthful.   Either way, if the GOP is convinced that this subject is the path to winning a general election; I say, Bon Chance!

Russia's Ukraine War

They don't report about the war anymore.  You don't find much reporting.  That means that Ukraine's losing.  OK?  I see very little reporting from NBC, your network.  I see very little reporting from NBC, ABC, from CBS, from anyone about the war. 

Nonsense.  As a matter of fact it is difficult to avoid a fire hose of daily news about Russian aggression against Ukraine. If you Google: "volume of coverage of Ukraine war 2023" you will get about 16,600,000 results in .43 seconds.

Conclusion

In the interests of keeping these posts digestible that's just ten items.  My personal fave is the bacon.  Who knew?  Feel free to fact-check these and other tidbits from the full interview.  I have to say that having watched Welker's inaugural interview my initial impression was that she failed.  The interview came across as inadequate.

Upon further reflection over the past week I've modified my conclusion.  Arguably, is there any need to interview Trump?  What new enlightenment and illumination would be revealed?  Quite predictably any news outlet will record a mix of grievances about how unfairly he is being treated, curious absurdities and misinformation, lame equivocations and outright falsities.  Seriously, any effort to fact-check him live is akin to nailing jello to the wall.  This is how Donald Trump rolls.

Candidly, since he lost the election I've sorta missed the kooky Trumpian word salad of sophistry and jive.  If he wins reelection I suppose I'll be immoderately entertained.  In the White House spotlight possibly even over-served.  And there will be fresh subject matter to talk about here on a regular basis.

Sunday's broadcast...