Trumped Up SOTU Includes San Diego Falsehood

I watched some of the President’s State of the Union address with the sound off/captions on. I just couldn’t subject anybody else to the barrage of baloney coming through the screen.

Needless to say, fact checkers had a busy night on Tuesday, thanks to the third-longest State of the Union address ever given before congress. (Bill Clinton holds spots 1 & 2).

The President’s remarks included an oft-refuted yarn about San Diego, namely that construction of a border wall saved the city from hordes of humans intent on making America brown again.

Not just obsessed with building a wall, he wants to paint the San Diego portion. From CNN:

President Trump attended a meeting with surrogates ahead of tonight's State of the Union address.

One of Trump's advisers, who also attended the meeting, said the President was so passionate about his desire for a barrier at the southern border, he even discussed the idea of painting the stretch of fencing where it meets the Pacific Ocean in San Diego.

Trump, according to the adviser, said he doesn't like the way it looks, noting there is some graffiti on that section of the border fencing. Trump complained that a general informed him that painting that portion of the wall may not be possible as it could cause environmental harm.

The source had said Trump didn't like the graffiti that was showing up on that section of the wall.

KUSI News, not wanting to alienate its low information viewers, promoted the President’s words on social media unchallenged.

They included a pre-SOTU interview with County GOP Chair Tony Krvaric and showed video of people described as Democrats at the Bread and Salt gallery throwing footwear at the screen as the President spoke on immigration.

https://twitter.com/KUSINews/status/1092978776839925761

As I said above, these claims about the San Diego portion of the wall have been debunked repeatedly.

Via Factcheck.org:

Trump falsely said a “strong security wall” along San Diego’s border with Mexico “almost completely ended illegal crossings.” A government report said the fence “by itself, did not have a discernible impact.”

NY TIMES

https://twitter.com/AynRandPaulRyan/status/1092982063068700672

People actually living in border cities, including business leaders, don’t want more wall. Here's the VP of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.

https://twitter.com/Paola_SDRCC/status/1092991601205334016

The backstory on how the wall came to be Trump’s mantra tells us just how ridiculous it all it is.

Via the New York Times:

Before it became the chief sticking point in a government shutdown drama that threatens to consume his presidency at a critical moment, President Trump’s promise to build a wall on the southwestern border was a memory trick for an undisciplined candidate.

As Mr. Trump began exploring a presidential run in 2014, his political advisers landed on the idea of a border wall as a mnemonic device of sorts, a way to make sure their candidate — who hated reading from a script but loved boasting about himself and his talents as a builder — would remember to talk about getting tough on immigration, which was to be a signature issue in his nascent campaign.

“How do we get him to continue to talk about immigration?” Sam Nunberg, one of Mr. Trump’s early political advisers, recalled telling Roger J. Stone Jr., another adviser. “We’re going to get him to talk about he’s going to build a wall.”

Talk Mr. Trump did, and the line drew rapturous cheers from conservative audiences, thrilling the candidate and soon becoming a staple of campaign speeches. Chants of “Build the wall!” echoed through arenas throughout the country.

Finally, I approve of this message from San Diego Indivisible   

https://twitter.com/SDIndivisible/status/1092978633407311872