Daniel Dale is the Washington Bureau Chief and White House correspondent for the Toronto Star—Canada's largest newspaper. Dale also is an expert on the false statements of President Donald Trump.
How does Dale know so much about Trump's lack of truthfulness?
The Toronto Star decided the President's numerous "false claims" would be a major story of the Trump administration and gave Dale the job of monitoring Trump's statements. But why call them false claims instead of lies?
The Toronto Star states:
"The short answer is that we can’t be sure that each and every one was intentional. In some cases, he may have been confused or ignorant. What we know, objectively, is that he was not telling the truth."
Dale noted Trump's false claims seemed to be increasing as we got closer to the 2018 midterms. After reviewing October 5 to November 6, Dale found a new record was set by Trump with 815 false claims in a month.
According to coverage in the Toronto Star:
"In the 31 days leading up to the midterm elections on Nov. 6, Trump went on a lying spree like we have never seen before even from him—an outrageous barrage of serial dishonesty in which he obliterated all of his old records."
Dale shared the information on Twitter as well.
Dale broke down the numbers.
He added a hat tip to his number cruncher, Ed Tubb.
Dale clarified that Trump's increase in lies was not just because he spoke more.
The lies per word ratio also increased leading up to the midterm elections.
"But it was not only quantity. Trump packed his rally speeches with big new lies, repeatedly reciting wildly inaccurate claims about migrants, Democrats’ views on immigration and health care, and his own record. Unlike many of his lies, lots of these ones were written into the text of his speeches."
Dale then added the featured topics of the President's midterm lying spree.
Dale concluded his analysis stating:
"Trump is now up to 3,749 false claims for the first 661 days of his presidency, an average of 4.4 per day."
People wondered if the President's health might be deteriorating.
Others quibbled over semantics. They felt the Toronto Star and Daniel Dale should call Trump's false claims "lies."
Whether the President continues with his heightened level of false claims, or lies, now that the midterms are over remains to be seen. But Daniel Dale will be watching.
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