On Monday, President Trump went after The New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay on Twitter after she posted a blatantly false story about him supposedly telling state governors to try and get respirators, ventilators, and equipment for themselves.
Gay wrote, “Trump told governors this morning they are on their own: ‘Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment — try getting it yourselves,’ Mr. Trump told the governors during the conference call, a recording of which was shared with The New York Times.”
Trump responded to the blatantly fake news by retweeting a post with a Washington Examiner fact check piece about the comment. Trump wrote, “The ‘Times’ is a disgrace to journalism!”
What the President really said was “We will be backing you, but try getting it yourselves.” He added, “Point of sales, much better, much more direct if you can get it yourself.”
“This is nowhere near what Gay’s tweet suggested the president had said to the governors. There is no other way to characterize her tweet than to call it ‘fake news.’ It is intentionally false information, disseminated broadly on social media with the explicit intent of misleading people. The only real difference between Gay’s tweet and the sort of stuff the Russians pumped onto social media during the 2016 presidential election is that Gay is an American citizen,” writes the Examiner.