Reality check: Trump is pushing fake news on the migrant caravan
- Mike Allen, author of Axios AM
In one of the most blatant and misleading attempts ever to scare American voters days before an election, President Trump is warning in speeches, tweets, interviews and ads that scary, deadly migrants are about to storm our southern border.
Reality check: Almost none of what he warns is demonstrably true, at least in terms of scale and scope of threat.
Shepard Smith of Fox News said it best this week when he looked into the camera and assured America: "There is no invasion. No one's coming to get you. There's nothing at all to worry about. ... We're America. We can handle it."
Trump surprised the Pentagon yesterday by saying the number of troops deployed to the border could reach 15,000. That's ...
- Roughly the same number of troops the U.S. has in Afghanistan.
- Three times the number we have in Iraq.
- And double the number of people thought to be in the caravan. (AP)
What’s next: Watch for the caravan warnings to fade the day after the election — and the attacks on the GOP establishment, the media and Robert Mueller to escalate big time, sources close to Trump tell us.
- If Democrats win the House, the caravan the White House fears most is one carrying subpoenas the administration can’t ignore.
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