Obama, Hillary, and the media have all bemoaned the effect of “fake news” on the election. But as this cartoon illustrates, the Obama administration has been the biggest perpetrator of spreading fake news in America.
Let us recount all the fake news featured in the cartoon.
1. “Obamacare lets you keep your current doctor and insurance plan.”
This one was a doozy that lasted most of Obama’s presidency – he actually started saying it while on the campaign trail. “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” was such a big whopper it was even named liberal Politifact’s 2013 Lie of the Year. The phrase repeatedly was used to sell the public – and the media – on Obamacare, but in private, Obama already knew it was a lie and his health law would cause most individual plans to be cancelled. In 2013, at least 4.7 million people lost their health plans due to Obamacare. Obama lied for his own gain and the media bought the fake news hook, line, and sinker.
2. “ISIS is the Jayvee team.”
In January 2014, Obama was quoted dismissing ISIS, saying, “The analogy we use around here sometimes and is accurate is if a Jayvee team puts on Laker uniforms, that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant.” Obviously, ISIS has turned into a terrorist dream team.
Obama wanted to spread the fake news that ISIS is not a real threat because he didn’t want to admit that pulling out of Iraq the way he did was a global disaster of epic proportions, and led directly to the rise of ISIS. The administration even altered intelligence reports to downplay the threat of ISIS. “The reports were changed by CENTCOM higher-ups to adhere to the administration’s public line that the U.S. is winning the battle against ISIS,” according to the Daily Beast.
3. “The unemployment rate has declined under Obama.”
Obama is crowing that the current “official” unemployment rate (U-3) is 4.6 percent but he doesn’t want you to know the truth. The real unemployment rate (U-6) is 9.3 percent. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, U-3 is the total unemployed as a percent of the civilian labor force, while the U-6 is the total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part-time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force. The U-6 gives us a much better picture of joblessness. But, who knows if these numbers are real? They could be far worse – the administration has been caught manipulating unemployment data to affect elections in the past! Of course the media bought the fake news Obama was selling and ran with it.
The real news is, under Obama, a record number of people are not in the labor force and we are only slightly above the record low labor force participation rate.
4. “Benghazi was caused by an offensive video.”
Here’s another case of Obama spreading fake news to save his reelection. As we all know, just weeks before the 2012 election there was a terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including our ambassador, Christopher Stevens. Obama downplayed it, saying, “If four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal,” knowingly and falsely blamed a YouTube video for the “spontaneous protests,” and refused to call it a terrorist attack for several days. A Benghazi survivor even says Obama and Hillary watched a video of the attack on the consulate live and thus saw live proof it was a terror attack, despite their claims it was too early to know. UN Ambassador Susan Rice infamously went on 5 Sunday morning news shows at the White House’s urging to spread the YouTube video lie. Obama blames fake news for swinging the 2016 election, but the fake news he spread to swing the 2012 election was far, far worse.
5. “Hillary Clinton has the presidential election all locked up.”
President Obama repeatedly said Donald Trump would not win the presidency. And, while those of us on The Political Insider knew better, everyone in the mainstream media was hyping that narrative. The predictions that Hillary would win easily were so pernicious that even Donald Trump admitted believing them before he realized how phony the polls were. For days and weeks after the election, everyone in the media and on the left (but I repeat myself) kept asking themselves, “How could the polls have been so wrong?!” This was probably the best fake news of the bunch, because they only hurt themselves and it made liberals have an epic meltdown on election night that was a pure joy to watch.
The good news: The Obama propaganda machine will finally be shuttered on January 20, 2017!
What do you think – who is the worst fake news offender? Tell us in the comments below!
