Pelosi's Daughter Tweets Fake Quote To Smear Trump Official
As far as fake news goes, it doesn’t get much worse.
The weekend’s arrest of hedge fund financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on child sex trafficking charges set off a political earthquake in New York and Washington, thanks to the high-profile names of some of the officials possibly involved.
But for Christine Pelosi, the scandal wasn’t scandalous enough.
The daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, showing that a fondness for truth is not exactly a family trait in the Democratic dynasty, posted a tweet Wednesday that included a completely manufactured quote attributed to Trump administration Labor Secretary Alex Acosta.
Acosta was the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida when Epstein — suspected of sexually abusing multiple girls — entered a plea bargain in 2008 that got him minimal jail time and convictions on only one count each of solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of prostitution with a minor.
The plea deal has been criticized ever since, including in books by activist Conchita Sarnoff (“Trafficking”) and novelist James Patterson (“Filthy Rich.”)
That’s plenty of notoriety. And considering Nancy Pelosi has been using the scandal to call for Acosta’s resignation since Monday, it might seem like the Democrats had enough ammunition for their latest spurious effort to attack President Donald Trump.
But Christine Pelosi had to take it a step further, tweeting an alleged quote from Acosta explaining authorities’ handling of the case that made him look like a caricature of villainy.
“Mr. Epstein was a very wealthy and important person, his friends even more so, and these girls — much as we sympathized with them — just weren’t either of those things,” Acosta was quoted as saying.
But as The Federalist’s Chrissy Clark reported Wednesday, the quote was a fabrication of former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum, who tweeted it out “sarcastically.”
Apparently ignoring the first rule of Twitter news, which is to look for the link with any post that’s commenting on a news event, Pelosi simply took the quote and ran with it.
Somewhat to his credit, Frum owned up to his action:
sorry – that sardonic comment should not have been phrased in a way that looked like a quotation, deleted.
— David Frum (@davidfrum) July 10, 2019
Although she deleted the tweet, the House speaker’s daughter never took responsibility for spreading fake news.
In fact, she vowed Wednesday to find video of the quote in question.
Truth and meanwhile I’m getting the video so pulled tweet until I can clip the video. Approx 11:50 am PT.
— Christine Pelosi (@sfpelosi) July 10, 2019
Well, considering the guy who posted the original tweet with the quote has admitted it was a fake, it’s likely to be some time before Christine Pelosi comes up with the video.
This isn’t Christine Pelosi’s first rodeo when it comes to the Epstein scandal. She also posted a tweet Sunday acknowledging there was likely to be some high-level embarrassment for Democrats coming out of it.
Or, as Pelosi put it, “It is quite likely that some of our faves are implicated but we must follow the facts and let the chips fall where they may – whether on Republicans or Democrats.”
This Epstein case is horrific and the young women deserve justice. It is quite likely that some of our faves are implicated but we must follow the facts and let the chips fall where they may – whether on Republicans or Democrats. #WeSaidEnough #MeToo https://t.co/2mvskwQwW1
— Christine Pelosi (@sfpelosi) July 7, 2019
It’s hard to picture any conservative writing about “faves” when talking about individuals who might be linked to the sexual abuse of children, but liberals like Pelosi apparently live on a different moral plane.
And when it comes to bashing a Trump appointee like Alex Acosta, for dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, anything goes.
But it doesn’t get much faker than this.
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