A Washington Post and CNN fact-check are calling a new ad from the GOP an indication of the lies to come.
The ad, which got "four Pinocchios" from Washington Post fact-checkers, strategically edits video and audio to fit the Republican narrative.
CNN first highlighted some of the deceptive images, and others subsequently found additional elements that deceive viewers. The analysis noted that photos from the 2020 campaign were used to pretend they were taken during the Biden administration. The ad then uses 2020 footage from Black Lives Matter protests, again while Donald Trump was president, to attack President Joe Biden on crime. It's the same tactic Trump used in his campaign, in which he blamed protest violence on Biden, who wasn't even in office and had no power at the time.
The Post analysis points to a story from Fox News on Oct. 20 titled "Grocery store shoppers sound off on surging prices." If you search for the actual article you see a man-on-the-street series of videos, none of which even mention Biden. The closest anyone gets to talking about a president is one man who blamed Trump for refusing to deal with COVID, destabilizing markets and leading to inflation problems due to the supply chain.
The next clip mashes videos of the fall of Kabul in Aug. 2021 compared to Black Lives Matter signs on fire from Aug. 2020, also when Trump was still president. The Post explained it's from "a widely debunked rumor blaming Black Lives Matter activists for setting the fire that led to the sign's destruction."
The voiceover claims Democrats can't protect the streets or the world, showing an Aug. 18 clip of MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Aug. 15 interview of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
"When strung together, the ad's intended impact can be felt. However, in both cases, the audio is sliced in a misleading way," said the fact-check.
In the case of Scarborough, he was giving an example of what he would write for Republicans in an ad. Ironically, they cut it and used it for an ad, but pretended it was Scarborough's actual thoughts instead of just stealing the messaging idea.
In the case of Tapper's video, the words were a direct line of questioning, the Post explained, talking about Afghanistan, which had nothing to do with the subject of the ad.
Tapper's full quote was: "Secretary Blinken, as you know, the Taliban has closed in on Kabul. We're evacuating the embassy, burning documents. Biden increased troops. Deploying to the country twice in just three days just to rescue those there. This is not just about the overall idea of leaving Afghanistan. This is about leaving hastily, and ineptly. Secretary Blinken, how did President Biden get this so wrong?"
He wasn't talking about crime, policing or protests.
The Post fact-check ends by saying that Biden never supported the protests, in fact, he always spoke out against the violence.
"It's clearly deceptive to throw sensational images from the Trump days into this mix," assessed CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale.
The Post warns that videos like this will become more prevalent as brazen Republicans transition from "the big lie" to campaign deception. If they're still lying about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol what else will they lie about?
