Ed Henry, Fox News’ “chief national correspondent,” blatantly lied when he said on the air that “miles and miles” of new border wall are being built. They are not. But that didn’t stop the Trump campaign from tweeting Henry’s lie as truth.
Media Matters explains:
On September 19, Henry talked to the Fox & Friends co-hosts about his trip to the border wall, where he interviewed Trump. He reported that his visit was “fantastic” and chided the Democrats who appear on the show and say “the president is not telling the truth” when Trump says there’s new wall being built. Henry continued, “I’m here to say the president is right and they are wrong, and that’s not an opinion, that’s from my reporting with my own two eyes. … There is, in fact, miles and miles of new wall being built.”
Not so. This is a Trump lie that Henry shamelessly reiterated. PolitiFact wrote on August 30, 2019:
Before Trump became president, 654 miles of the nearly 2,000-mile U.S. Mexico border had primary barriers. As of today, that hasn’t increased.
To date, the administration has replaced about 60 miles of dilapidated barriers with new fencing. And a major component of Trump’s pledge — that Mexico would pay for the wall — hasn’t been part of the equation. U.S. taxpayers have paid the cost.
As Media Matters also noted, the Trump campaign amplified the lie:
Wow! Report from Fox News confirms Democrats are WRONG:
"I was there...there is, in fact, miles and miles of new wall being built. And it’s working." pic.twitter.com/OFAYs1R1R4— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 19, 2019
Funny, Henry didn’t ask Trump why Mexico isn’t paying for the wall.
Henry issued a lengthy statement to Mediaite defending his claim by saying, basically, that the replacement of the existing fencing makes it new. But as Mediaite's Aidan McLaughlin noted, "Trump’s campaign promise, it shouldn’t have to be pointed out, was to build new miles of wall on the southern border — not 'renovate' existing walls and fences."
Republished with permission from NewsHounds
