Fox and Friends dutifully amplified the lie Rep. Matt Gaetz spread by Twitter -- an unverified video claiming Democrats and/or George Soros paid Hondurans to form a caravan to cross our southern border illegally.
Republicans learned a lot from their friendly Russian bots in 2016, and are now spreading misinformation and lies without a hint of regret and at a rapid pace as the midterms approach.
In the opening segment, Steve Doocy promoted Rep. Gaetz's lies and Trump's doubling down on them.
STEVE DOOCY: The President of the United States referred to the caravan at wide-ranging events out in Montana in Missoula. He said he suspects Democrats could be behind the caravan and while he didn't cite any evidence it is thought he was referring to a video that Matt Gaetz Congressman from Florida who tweeted out earlier, apparently showed migrants being handed down in Honduras it was believed, they don't know where it was, being handed cash and Mr. Gaetz yesterday called for an investigation whether U.S. backed NGO's, or George Soros were behind the caravan. So, you know, obviously, it's a political thing to the White House."
Republican lies are always started without "any evidence" but why would that stop Steve Doocy from basically "verifying it's all true" as long as they name-check George Soros?
Fox and Friends then made sure to replay a Trump compilation clip from the Montana rally calling Democrats the party of crime, leaders of voter fraud and doubling down on the phony meme that Soros paid off the Honduran "zombie horde" caravan to attack America.
Trump said, "Come election day, Americans will remember Kavanaugh -- the caravan, law and order and common sense. But a lot of money has been passing through, people to come up and try to get to the border by election day."
"As you know, I am willing to send the military to defend our southern border, if necessary. The crazy Democrats refuse to support any form of border security legislation. They also figure everybody coming in is going to vote Democrat, you know. Hey, they are not so stupid when you think about it, right? Democrats have become the party of crime. The choice could not be more clear. Democrats produce mobs. Republicans produce jobs."
Doocy remarked, "There he's rhyming."
Then Doocy made believe he was trying to clarify his earlier remarks.
Doocy said, "Just to be clear about the Matt Gaetz video that he tweeted out and then the president tweeted out, it was suggested earlier that it was shot in Honduras, but now they don't know exactly where it's from."
"Mr. Gaetz said I got it from a Honduras official and so that's why I thought it was from there. They don't know exactly what the nature of it is. Nonetheless, Mr. Gaetz is calling for an investigation, " he said.
Did Rep. Gaetz ask this "Honduran official" where he got the video from to verify what's in the video and where it was actually taken? Of course not.
Splinter wrote a great piece that completely debunks Rep. Gaetz' moronic and fraudulent claims. Of course, Gaetz is calling for a taxpayer-funded Congressional "investigation" -- Benghazi part infinity.
Assardo used the name of the shop visible in the video and the identifying watchtower-like structure near it to track down the shop itself on Facebook and Google Earth.
Turns out, the shop isn’t in Honduras, it’s in Chiquimula, Guatemala, a small city on the CA-10 highway. Assardo then tweeted that he spoke to locals:
I managed to speak with residents of the area who told me that merchants in the sector gathered money and gave it to people #CaravanaDeMigrantes. With this it is confirmed that the [information] published by @RepMattGaetz is vague and biased.
This is how disinformation is disseminated.
After their story ran, Rep. Gaetz refused to take back his despicable claims.
As Splinter notes, "He did not walk back any comments as to whether or not this was a plan by George Soros or the Democrats, and not an act of goodwill by strangers."
With no proof at all, Fox News did their Trumpy duty and smeared the Democrats and George Soros without a shred of evidence.
As usual.
Rep. Matt Gaetz should be censored in Congress and then voted out for promoting this lie.
