Donald Trump may lie about a lot of things and, sadly, so many of the falsehoods are brushed aside as Trump being Trump. But this latest Sharpie scandal (watch above from MSNBC) shouldn’t be ignored.
Sharpie-gate reminds me of another moment in American history…… Actually, I take it back. Can't quite think of anything like it.
— Julian Zelizer (@julianzelizer) September 5, 2019
The president displaying an altered hurricane tracking map with a handwritten black line extending Dorian’s ‘cone of probability’ into Alabama. That is wrong on several fronts. The Washington Post writes:
Altering official government weather forecasts isn’t just a cause for concern — it’s illegal. Per 18 U.S. Code 2074, which addresses false weather reports: “Whoever knowingly issues or publishes any counterfeit weather forecast or warning of weather conditions falsely representing such forecast or warning to have been issued or published by the Weather Bureau, United States Signal Service, or other branch of the Government service, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ninety days, or both.”
And even with that “false weather report” hanging over his head, Trump continued to send out a series of tweets today falsely claiming he was right about Alabama. We haven’t seen one tweet, though, today about the people in the Bahamas. You know, the ones who were hit by the storm.
"Millions of people have evacuated their homes, thousands will return to find their home gone, and the death toll remains to be seen. But the biggest casualty, judging from Donald Trump’s tweets, is his precious reputation."https://t.co/ucPV76h53Q
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) September 5, 2019
CNN’s Brian Stelter explains why all this matters saying:
The president spread false info during an emergency situation three times in one day. Then insisted he was right when he was corrected. And he’s still swearing he was right and suggesting news outlets should apologize to him. I believe this example of Trump’s reality distortion field is so egregious that it will be recorded in history books.
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg adds, “No matter how you cut it, this is an unbelievably sad state of affairs for our country… this is humiliating, this is an embarrassing moment in our country.”
"I feel sorry for the President," Pete Buttigieg says on President Trump appearing to show an altered Hurricane Dorian trajectory map. “It makes you feel a kind of pity for everybody involved” https://t.co/jB9dijv8yU pic.twitter.com/ENma54ygE9
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 5, 2019
And here’s what a Republican challenging Trump for the nomination in 2020 wrote.
Unlike @realDonaldTrump, if elected I will NEVER redraw a National Weather Service map to cover up my own dumb mistake.https://t.co/NS9oEouRye
— Gov. Bill Weld (@GovBillWeld) September 4, 2019