NPR FALSELY ACCUSES DON JR OF LYING IN SENATE TESTIMONY
NPR published a report Friday asserting that Donald Trump Jr.’s testimony to the Senate about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow were inconsistent with Michael Cohen’s claims about the same project in his plea deal Thursday.
A transcript from Trump Jr.’s Sept. 7, 2017 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee shows that he claimed the Trump Organization ceased pursuing a deal to build Trump Tower in Moscow in by the end of 2014, NPR reported.
The news organization quoted Trump Jr. as saying that the project “faded away” by “the end of ’14.”
“But not in 2015 or 2016?” Trump Jr. was asked.
“Certainly not ’16,” the president’s son replied. “There was never a definitive end to it. It just died of deal fatigue.”
NPR asserted that the testimony would pose a problem for Trump Jr. since attorney Cohen said in his plea agreement with the special counsel’s office that he continued negotiating the building through June 2016. He also said he briefed President Donald Trump and his children that year before the deal fell through.
NPR issued a lengthy editor’s note to the article five hours after publication but did not retract the piece.
As The Federalist’s Sean Davis noted on Twitter, NPR left out parts of Trump Jr.’s testimony where the real estate executive acknowledged that Trump Tower Moscow was being discussed into 2016.
(The Daily Caller)
Donald Trump Jr Responds To NPR Finally Retracting False Story About Him
In another example of why Americans increasingly distrust the establishment media to present factually sound, unbiased news, NPR published a report Friday claiming that Donald Trump Jr.'s testimony to Congress conflicted with the current claims of Michael Cohen about the "Moscow Trump Tower" deal discussions taking place in 2016.
After a number of reporters from various outlets called out NPR for reporting what was a verifiably false claim, the network finally issued a correction and deleted its original tweet -- but not before the false report had permeated social media and made its way to CNN.
Among the reporters who caught NPR peddling the falsehood were the Washington Post's Phillip Bump and the Federalist's Sean Davis and Mollie Hemingway, whose posts were highlighted by Twitchy, among others.
"This NPR story appears to be wrong. It notes that Trump Jr. told a Senate committee that a deal in Moscow died of 'deal fatigue' by 2014," Bump explained. "But that was a deal with the Agalarovs. He was also asked if a deal was in the works in 2015/2016 and said yes."
"This entire story is a lie," wrote Davis. "Trump, Jr. was explicitly asked whether the Trump Organization was pursuing a plan to develop a Trump Tower in Moscow in 2016. His answer: 'Yes.' He even offered to give the 2015 LOI signed by Trump to Judiciary investigators."
"This story is completely wrong, as shown in attached link using the actual testimony," tweeted Hemingway. "Shocking that this was published given its lack of truth. It needs to be retracted." ....
After the pushback reached critical mass, NPR finally issued a correction....
NPR also deleted its original post and issued a new one....
But since it took about five hours for NPR to make any changes, by that time the story had already been promoted by several outlets, including CNN, which invited on analyst Susan Hennessey to repeat NPR's false claim.
(The Daily Wire)
