Brian Richards | How to Fact Check

Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor
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On Jan. 3, Gary Horton trotted out one of the biggest falsehoods used against President Donald Trump. There are 38,433 verified lies used against President Trump. This seems to be the most popular one.

In his column he once again trotted out the lie that Trump said there were good people on both sides in Charlottesville. He is trying to imply that Trump thought the Nazis, real ones not the 75 million who voted for him in 2020, were fine people. This has turned into one of the easiest debunked hoaxes in history. So to Gary and his fans, here is the actual quote by President Trump:

“Excuse me, they didn’t put themselves down as neo-Nazis, and you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group – excuse me, excuse me, I saw the same pictures you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.”

At a later press conference, President Trump was even more explicit: “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.”

I’m of the opinion that Gary is aware of the above statements and chooses to perpetuate the hoax anyway. He does so perhaps because he believes that if you tell a lie enough times, it becomes fact. Perhaps he doesn’t think his audience is intellectually curious enough to explore the truth? Perhaps, and this is the most likely reason, he and his followers never expose themselves to media or writings that have endlessly debunked this nonsense. Whatever the reason, it’s dishonest and it’s underhanded and it does nothing to strengthen our republic. 

You may not like Trump, which I can easily understand. But to link him to Nazis does a disservice to the tens of millions murdered by the Nazis, including 6 million Jews. It’s intellectually lazy and insulting and it’s a proven lie. Do better, Gary!

Brian Richards

Stevenson Ranch

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