US President Donald Trump Hypes Bid to Stem Monument Vandalism

In the meantime, over the weekend, Trump cited powers he if truth be told does not have as he advised he had imposed 10-year jail sentences for vandalism of monuments. The president didn’t — and can’t —- unilaterally alternate such regulations.

So it went during the last week as The us’s reckoning with illness and racism navigated a fog of falsehoods and distortions from the president. A sampling:

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MEMORIALS

TRUMP: “Since enforcing an important 10 yr jail sentence on those who Vandalize Monuments, Statues and so forth., with many of us being arrested everywhere our Nation, the Vandalism has totally stopped.” — tweet Sunday.

TRUMP: “I’ve additionally made transparent that any rioters destructive federal assets and defacing our monuments will face critical and long felony consequences. Ten years.” — remarks Tuesday in Phoenix.

THE FACTS: He has no such authority. A president isn’t a pass judgement on.

Trump signed an govt order Friday to give protection to monuments, memorials and statues, calling at the lawyer basic to prosecute to the fullest extent of the legislation any individual or staff that destroys or vandalizes a monument, memorial or statue.

The order principally instructs the lawyer basic to put in force regulations that exist already. Trump does no longer if truth be told impose sentences.

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TRUMP: “I’ve licensed the Federal Executive to arrest someone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or different such Federal assets within the U.S. with as much as 10 years in jail in step with the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act, or such different regulations that can be pertinent. … This motion is taken efficient straight away, however can also be used retroactively for destruction or vandalism already led to. There might be no exceptions!” — tweets Tuesday.

THE FACTS: This motion taken “straight away” and “retroactively” is simply phrases. It has no impact.

The Veterans’ Memorial Preservation Act, handed via Congress in 2003, already authorizes fines or jail for as much as 10 years for the destruction of veterans’ memorials on public assets.

The legislation covers “any construction, plaque, statue, or different monument on public assets commemorating the provider of any individual or individuals within the defense force of america.”

So all prosecutors were given from Trump is a reminder of felony authority they already had.

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TRUMP: “They even vandalized — that’s proper — the Lincoln Memorial. The Lincoln Memorial.” — remarks at Phoenix rally Wednesday, prompting boos from the target audience.

THE FACTS: No person broken the memorial housing the statue of Lincoln in protests that opened up close to it. A web based photograph seeming to turn the Lincoln statue and a memorial wall blanketed via graffiti used to be faux.

The truth: Any person spray painted “y’all no longer drained but?” via the ground of the stairs to the memorial Might 30 and the Nationwide Park Carrier wiped clean it up.

“The one vandalism on the Lincoln Memorial used to be graffiti on the backside of the stairs at side road degree, a long way clear of the statue,” stated nationwide parks spokesman Mike Litterst.

He stated vandalism on the Lincoln Memorial is odd however no longer unprecedented. “Most probably maximum notable used to be in 2013 when somebody splashed inexperienced paint at the statue,” he stated in an e mail. “And it used to be vandalized two times in 2017, as soon as in February with black magic marker and once more in August with crimson spray paint on some of the columns.”

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JUST KIDDING?

TRUMP: “You understand checking out is a double-edged sword. … Right here’s the dangerous section. Whilst you check to that extent, you’re going to to find extra other people, to find extra instances. So I stated to my other people, ‘Gradual the checking out down please.‘” — Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally June 20.

THE FACT: First, it’s no longer true that he ordered checking out slowed. The federal government’s best public well being officers testified one after the other to Congress that Trump instructed them no such factor.

White Space press secretary Kayleigh McEnany stated the remark used to be “made in jest” and different senior aides in a similar fashion brushed it off as no longer severe. Trump didn’t play alongside. “I don’t child,” he stated Tuesday when requested concerning the statement.

Then he reversed himself, telling Fox Information on Thursday “Occasionally I jokingly say, or paradoxically say, if we didn’t do assessments we might glance nice.” However preserving again on checking out is “no longer the precise factor to do.”

Trump’ broader level — “If you happen to don’t check, you don’t have any instances,” he additionally stated — flips science on its head. No person disputes the truth that checking out for the virus is vital to controlling it. Trying out is just one measure of the pandemic. It is usually measured via hospitalization and dying, which proceed despite the fact that government have been to near their eyes to spreading illness.

COVID-19 has killed about 125,000 other people within the U.S. Infections are a long way upper than are identified as a result of many that get the illness and cross it on don’t seem to be examined.

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VOTING FRAUD

TRUMP: “There’s super proof of fraud every time you could have mail-in ballots.” — remarks Tuesday at Phoenix rally.

THE FACTS: No, there is not.

Vote casting fraud if truth be told is unusual and Trump’s makes an attempt to turn another way have fallen flat. However, he persists within the statement, in what may also be noticed as a pretext to discredit effects if he loses in November.

Trump appointed a fee after the 2016 election to unravel his principle that vote casting fraud is rampant. The panel disbanded with out generating any findings.

Some election research have reported a better occurrence of mail-in vote casting fraud when put next with in-person vote casting, however the general chance is all however imperceptible. The Brennan Middle for Justice stated in 2017 the danger of vote casting fraud is zero.00004% to zero.0009%.

When Trump made equivalent assertions final month, Twitter took the atypical step of attaching fact-checking notices.

Richard L. Hasen, an elections skilled on the College of California, Irvine Faculty of Regulation, lately wrote in an op-ed that “issues are extraordinarily uncommon within the 5 states that depend totally on vote-by-mail, together with the closely Republican state of Utah.”

Trump himself voted via mail within the Florida Republican number one in March. A half-dozen senior advisers to the president have additionally voted via mail, consistent with election data bought via The Related Press.

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VIRUS RISK

TRUMP: “The selection of ChinaVirus instances is going up, as a result of GREAT TESTING, whilst the selection of deaths (mortality charge), is going method down.” — tweet Thursday.

THE FACTS: No, larger checking out does no longer absolutely account for the upward thrust in instances. Persons are additionally infecting each and every different greater than ahead of as social distancing regulations recede and “neighborhood unfold” selections up.

“One of the crucial issues is a rise in neighborhood unfold, and that’s one thing that I’m in reality fairly fascinated by,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s best infectious illness skilled, testified Tuesday.

As for Trump’s level about mortality coming down, Fauci stated that’s not a related measure of what’s going down within the second with infections. “Deaths at all times lag significantly at the back of instances,” he stated. “It’s possible you might even see the deaths going up.”

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Facilities for Illness Regulate and Prevention, testified that “a number of communities are seeing larger instances pushed via a couple of elements, together with larger checking out, outbreaks, and proof of neighborhood transmission.”

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TRUMP at the pandemic: “It’s fading away, it’s going to vanish away.” — Fox Information interview June 17.

THE FACTS: It isn’t fading and no longer about to.

Coronavirus infections in step with day within the U.S. surged to an all-time top of 40,000 on the finish of the week, eclipsing the former top of 36,400 on April 24 all over some of the deadliest stretches within the disaster. Newly reported instances in step with day have risen on moderate about 60 % during the last two weeks, consistent with an Related Press research.

Previous within the week, Fauci instructed Congress the U.S. is “nonetheless in the course of the primary wave” and the crucial is to “get this outbreak beneath keep an eye on over the following couple of months.” He stated the New York Town house, as soon as an epicenter, has completed particularly neatly however “in different spaces of the rustic we’re now seeing a anxious surge of infections.”

The following couple of weeks “are going to be crucial in our talent to deal with the ones surgings that we’re seeing in Florida, in Texas, in Arizona and different states,” Fauci stated. “They’re no longer the one ones which might be having an issue.”

Fauci added: “Indisputably there might be coronavirus infections within the fall and wintry weather for the reason that virus isn’t going to vanish.”

Mentioned Redfield: “As we get to the autumn, we’re going to have influenza and COVID on the similar time.”

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TESTING

TRUMP: “We’ve were given the best checking out program any place on this planet.” — remarks Tuesday.

TRUMP: “We’ve completed too excellent a task.” — interview on June 22.

THE FACTS: The U.S. is nowhere close to the extent of checking out had to stem the virus, consistent with his personal well being mavens.

Redfield testified that well being officers are nonetheless running to noticeably building up checking out capability, calling such enlargement a “crucial underpinning of our reaction.”

The U.S. these days is accomplishing about 500,000 to 600,000 assessments an afternoon. Many public well being mavens say the U.S. must be checking out just about two times as many of us day by day to keep an eye on the unfold of the virus. Having a look to the autumn, some mavens have referred to as for four million or extra assessments day by day, whilst a gaggle assembled via Harvard College estimated that 20 million an afternoon can be had to stay the virus in test.

Redfield stated the U.S. used to be aiming to spice up checking out to a few million day by day via “pooling” a couple of other people’s samples, one way this is nonetheless beneath evaluation via the FDA. He wired the desire for expanded surveillance as a result of some individuals who get inflamed won’t display signs.

“We nonetheless have a long way to head,” Redfield stated.

The U.S. stumbled early within the pandemic reaction because the CDC struggled to increase its personal check for the coronavirus in January, later finding issues in its kits despatched to state and county public well being labs in early February.

It took the CDC greater than two weeks to get a hold of a repair to the check kits, resulting in delays in diagnoses thru February, a crucial month when the virus took root within the U.S.