The White House, tweeting as an American institution, not Trump’s personal account or campaign, posted social media disinformation to make people think leftists were stockpiling rocks to commit terrorist attacks in the United States.
Trump and aides denied that authorities in Washington used tear gas against protesters, who fled from chemical clouds that looked like tear gas, stung eyes like it and met the dictionary definition of it.
The video contained multiple clips showing brick or stone for construction projects and the like, not for a nefarious plot. One clip captured rocks encased in wire frames. Those are actually a protective barrier outside Chabad of Sherman Oaks, a synagogue on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles, to stop vehicles from ramming the building.
Tear gas is anything that makes you cry,” said Dr. Lynn Goldman, dean of the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, speaking of chemicals used in crowd dispersal. “Pepper spray is a tear gas. But there are all kinds of other ones, too.”
TRUMP: “Washington, D.C., was the safest place on earth last night!” — tweet and Facebook post Tuesday.
THE FACTS: Obviously untrue.
The crackdown on peaceful as well as violent protesters, the injuries to police who were attacked, the fortifications around the White House, the phalanx lining the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and the threat of looting and vandalism in neighborhoods well away from the militarized scene all spoke to the dangers of the night.
On Monday night and other nights, Washington was not the safest place on Earth. The White House may have been the safest place in Washington.
Navy Vet
Article URL : https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/ap-fact-check-trumps-alternate-reality-in-time-of-anguish