'Peddle misinformation': Analyst says Trump flunked 3 presidential tests in single day

President-elect Donald Trump "flunked three important tests" on New Year's Day that should have been no-brainers for any leader of the free world, argued MSNBC analyst Steve Benen.

Benen, editor for the official blog of The Rachel Maddow Show, said Trump's social media post about "migrant crime" shortly after a U.S.-born citizen drove his pickup truck into a New Orleans' crowd was written "from a position of ignorance".

Early Wednesday morning after the horrific incident that killed 15 people and injured dozens of others, Trump wrote, "When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before."

"The first sentence was wrong on multiple levels," Benen wrote, adding, "Trump seemed to be referring to a debate that occurred only in his imagination: There was no grand discussion about whether foreign-born criminals were more dangerous than native-born criminals. He appears to have simply made this up.

"What’s more, given the context, the president-elect apparently wanted the public to believe that the suspect in the New Orleans attack was an immigrant. He wasn’t."

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At a Thursday press conference the FBI reiterated that suspect Shamsud Din Jabbar "was born in the United States".

Benen continued, "The second sentence was just as wrong," calling Trump's notion about crime levels "plainly absurd.""

"Not only has the murder rate sharply improved in recent years, but crime rates in general fell after Trump exited the White House four years ago," Benen wrote.

Benen argued that by peddling this "misinformation," Trump flunked three presidential tests:

"First, he flunked a test of accuracy, pushing misinformation within hours of a deadly attack. Second, he flunked a test of decency, trying to exploit the attack to advance an ugly and misguided agenda. And third, Trump flunked a test of credibility, reminding everyone anew that when tragedy strikes, Americans just can’t count on the incoming president for reliable and trustworthy information," Benen wrote.

Benen concluded, "Trump could’ve waited to issue a statement until he knew what he was talking about. He instead chose — again — to peddle misinformation from a position of ignorance, indifferent to the facts."

He added, "It's going to be a long four years."

Read the article here via MSNBC.com.