President Donald Trump’s campaign announced on Monday it was launching an “investigative website aimed at uncovering the truth behind Joe Biden’s never-ending, seemingly incomprehensible statements during his third, plodding campaign for president.”
- “The website takes a closer look at Biden’s words and phrasing and brings in ‘experts’ to discern if there is hidden meaning behind the muddled declarations that most normal people would miss,” the campaign said in a statement.
Joe Biden said "truth over facts" in an Iowa State Fair speech stumble. This became a meme on the right. But when the Trump campaign spun this into an obvious parody "investigative website" that referenced the gaffe, I don't think a lot of people got it... pic.twitter.com/G5nZ1vOeRh
— Emily Larsen (@emilyelarsen) May 18, 2020
- A report in The Hill on the new website's launch did not mention that "Truth Over Facts" is an allusion to Biden’s gaffe.
- The Wrap's coverage similarly omitted the name's connection to Biden, asserting that the "'truth over facts' branding is in line with messaging from Trump and his administration."
- Molly Jong-Fast, an editor-at-large for The Daily Beast, reacted by calling the new site “Orwellian.”
- “This is remarkably similar in name to a leading Chinese Communist Party slogan, 'Seeking Truth From Facts,'” tweeted Washington Post Global Opinions columnist Isaac Stone Fish.
- CNBC reporter Christina Wilkie quipped that the “war on facts has a name now.”
- An astonished Ezra Klein, founder of Vox, said “If you'd written a satire of the Trump administration where they launched a campaign called ‘Truth Over Facts’ it would've been dismissed as heavyhanded and unfair.”
Joe Biden, gaffe machine: Speaking to supporters in August, Biden told an Iowa State Fair crowd, “We choose truth over facts.”
How is that not Orwellian? https://t.co/rumuJkPHqw
— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) May 18, 2020