'Huge lie': Trump's 'life-saving' chart subjected to fact-check from infuriated Dem
The immigration chart Republicans credit with saving former President Donald Trump's life was subjected to a thorough fact check in the House of Representatives.
The chart in question was being displayed by Trump at the rally in Pennsylvania back in July that saw an assassin nearly miss shooting the president in the head, and many analysts have said that shots may have fatally struck the former president were it not for the chart's presence.
But as House Democrats argued on Wednesday, the chart also happens to be misleading.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) slapped a big red arrow on the immigration data chart to which Trump pointed on July 13.
"Republicans (including Trump) love to trot out this chart," said House Homeland Security Democrats on X. "But it has a huge lie."
As Garcia explained during a hearing on the Biden Administration's border policies, the chart mischaracterized the situation at the border when Trump left office.
"One of the most glaring inaccuracies it displays is it appears to claim Trump left office sometime in April 2020, when encounters at the border were significantly low, with arrows pointing to that low point and labeling it as the 'lowest illegal immigration in recorded history,'" ABC News reported.
"However, Trump didn't leave office until January 2021 and, as his altered chart shows, encounters were rising in the months after April 2020, through the November presidential election during his presidency. The claim that April saw the lowest rates of immigration is also false; in fact, it wasn't even the lowest point of the Trump administration."
On Wednesday, Garcia slapped his arrow on the Jan. 2021 date.
"You can see that the actual immigration, and what was happening with border crossings, was already going up by the time Donald Trump left office," Garcia said.
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Garcia also called out an inaccurate statement made by Trump's running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), who is currently facing backlash over false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, had been eating pets.
"Vance also claimed there has been a rise in infectious diseases, even though the county health commissioner said, 'If you look at all reportable communicable diseases together for the year-ending 2023, you will see we are at the lowest rate since 2016,'" Garcia said. "I'm a cat owner and immigrant — I take the safety and security of our pets very seriously — but this notion that Haitian immigrants are eating pets is not only xenophobic, but has caused real harm to the people of Springfield."
One of Trump's most loyal supporters leapt to defend him on social media Wednesday.
"Americans are suffering from an invasion on our Southern border every single day, and this chart highlights just how bad it’s gotten," wrote Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on X. "But that’s not why this is my favorite chart. It’s my favorite chart because it’s the very same one that saved President Trump’s life."