R&I – FS
(CNN)President Donald Trump keeps falsely declaring that various states run by Democratic governors are “closed” or “shut down.”
On Monday, when he made three speeches in Pennsylvania, Trump added an extra detail to his usual inaccurate criticism of pandemic restrictions imposed by Gov. Tom Wolf. He suggested that Wolf is preventing state residents from attending church.
Trump’s claims were all part of his concerted effort to win the votes of Christians by suggesting — while running against churchgoing Catholic Joe Biden — that Democrats oppose religion and God.
“The only thing you can do in Pennsylvania is a protest,” Trump said in his first speech of the day, in Allentown. “You can’t go to church. You can’t pray to your God. You can’t be with your pastors, your priests, your rabbis. You can’t be — none of that. You can’t do anything.”
He repeated the claim that “in Pennsylvania, you can’t go to church” at his third Monday speech in the state, in Martinsburg.
Facts First: This is entirely false. Pennsylvania’s government is not banning residents from going to church. In fact, Wolf has not prohibited in-person religious gatherings at any point during the pandemic.
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Carl Sagan
Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/27/politics/trump-false-claim-pennsylvania-cant-go-to-church-fact-check/index.html