'Amazing ability to deflect all blame': Rapid-fire CNN fact-check busts Trump’s Oval Office claims

24 April

CNN Anchor Brianna Keilar notes inconsistencies in Trump’s claims (YouTube screengrab)

A CNN panel on Thursday broke away from President Donald Trump’s hosting of Norway’s prime minister at the White House to insert a rapid-fire fact check. As camera’s swiveled from Trump and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, CNN anchor Brianna Keilar pointed out several inconsistencies in Trump’s claims.

“[Trump] talked about grocery prices being down. He's done this repeatedly. That is false. Average grocery prices in March were up 0.49 percent since February, 0.49 percent. Maybe you say that's not a whole lot, but that's actually the biggest month-to-month jump since October of 2022,” Keilar said. “And he also blamed presidents who are sitting when [bad] trade deals were made, which well positions him to speak to himself about the one that he negotiated that he is taking issue with.”

Keilar was also quick to correct Trump’s argument that Russia “is not trying to take the whole country” in its invasion of Ukraine. “We should note that Vladimir Putin tried certainly to take a large part of it and had to withdraw troops not just from Kyiv, but from a number of other oblasts (territories) because of the resistance Ukraine put up.”

Former Treasury Department Deputy Assistant Sec. Aaron Klein, a guest panelist, noted Trump’s talent for taking no responsibility for bad news.

“So, Trump has an amazing ability to deflect all blame onto whoever came before him,” Klein told the panel. “You saw him say that the war wouldn't have started ‘If I were here.’ He promised he was going to solve lots of problems on Day 1, including this war, right? We're almost at one Day 100, and he acknowledges things could get even worse. So, the situation here is he's blaming the prior trade deals, including his own deals, and then just not mentioning their names.”

“So, it's all other presidents, right? He has a lot,” Klein continued. “This is his second term. He had four years to change anything, and what he's doing very cleverly is blaming the past because Americans want change. Americans are not happy with lots of elements of this economy, particularly the global trade framework that both parties put forward over multiple decades.”

Watch the video below, or by clicking here.

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