AP’s Dishonest Trump ‘Fact Check’ Gets Slammed by Former Dem
The establishment media spreading lies about President Donald Trump is nothing new.
Witnessing those outlets get called out by former Democratic staffers, however, is truly a beautiful sight to behold.
Giancarlo Sopo, a former aide to former Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia of Florida, called out The Associated Press for publishing a blatantly dishonest story on Tuesday.
The article was titled “Trump says suicides will increase ‘by the thousands’ if economy stays closed — experts say he’s wrong,” clearly disregarding a mountain of scientific evidence to the contrary.
Trump made these comments while explaining the necessity of weighing the cost of the ongoing pandemic against the potential economic catastrophe that could ensue if the nationwide quarantine continues for months on end.
“We’re — we’re going to win the battle, but we also have — you know, you have tremendous responsibility. We have jobs, we have — people get tremendous anxiety and depression, and you have suicides over things like this when you have terrible economies,” Trump said in a Tuesday coronavirus briefing, according to a White House transcript of his remarks.
The AP’s attempted refutation of these claims was exposed by the former Democratic staffer.
Sopo released his cutting comments in a Twitter thread on Thursday.
The @AP should retract this “fact-check.”
The title claims “experts” disagree with President Trump on rising suicides during recessions.
But that’s not what the article says.
1) It’s one “expert.”
2) She’s unsure.
3) The story notes suicides went up during the Depression. pic.twitter.com/bJydyeMoKl
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) March 26, 2020
“The @AP should retract this ‘fact-check,'” Sopo wrote.
“The title claims ‘experts’ disagree with President Trump on rising suicides during recessions. But that’s not what the article says.”
The former Democrat went on to point out that only one expert had been cited in the article. And according to Sopo, she did not disagree with Trump but only said that she was unsure of his claims.
Sopo proceeded to share a number of studies that supported Trump’s assertion.
It’s dangerous for the media to deny the suicide/unemployment relationship to dunk on Trump.
The research is clear:
“Being unemployed was associated with a twofold to threefold increased relative risk of death by suicide, compared with being employed.”https://t.co/Hs3EfeUzCh pic.twitter.com/IUiYqEUDuE
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) March 26, 2020
From the CDC:
“The overall suicide rate rises and falls in connection with the economy, according to a [CDC] study (….) The study found the strongest association between business cycles and suicide among people in prime working ages”https://t.co/qXPPDFCSlS pic.twitter.com/C6U38I5lir
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) March 26, 2020
Three studies conducted by the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the Journal of Economic Psychology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, respectively, all supported the notion that economic downturn is correlated with increasing suicide rates.
Sopo’s takedown of the misleading article comes with a fair bit of credibility given his history as a member of the left-wing party.
He explained his decision to leave the Democratic party during a 2018 interview with The Blaze founder Glenn Beck.
“Now it’s become a club for the professionally offended and the socialists,” Sopo told Beck.
“I don’t want anything to do with that.”
The left-wing media’s continued insistence on defaming Trump regardless of the truth is alienating numerous supporters like Sopo.
We couldn’t be happier to have them on our side, especially when they’re willing to call out the establishment media’s lies.
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