It really doesn’t make his father’s phony attacks on the media any more credible when Donald Trump Jr. — anxiously awaiting Robert Mueller’s sword of Damocles in the form of a much-anticipated indictment — retweets demonstrably fake news simply because it fits the fictional Republican narrative of voter fraud as the cause of their massive losses in the midterms.
Yet that’s exactly what the eldest loser of the genetic lottery that resulted in President Trump’s progeny did today in retweeting an already disproven 2012 article from NBC claiming that over 200,000 ineligible voters participated in the Florida elections and pretending that it was about the current hair’s breadth contests for both Senator and Governor being re-tabulated right now in Florida.
Apparently, the tweet containing the thoroughly debunked story was originally excavated from wherever old fake news goes to die by David Wohl, the father of Jacob Wohl, who is now best known for his hilariously incompetent attempt to frame Special Counsel Robert Mueller on sexual harassment charges, according to a detailed tracing of the origins of Don Jr.’s retweet by The Daily Dot.
Florida has become a Banana Republic right in our own back yard. https://t.co/6KeUeBx2bE via @nbc6
— David Wohl (@DavidWohl) November 11, 2018
While the senior Mr. Wohl’s comment may contain an element of truth, at least in regard to the attempts by President Trump to emulate the dictator of a banana republic in his autocratic and undemocratic behavior, he apparently failed to read anything beyond the headline, since the article he linked to very clearly contains the following correction from NBC before the main text of the article even begins:
“The initial list of 180,000 names was whittled to 2,625, according to the Florida Department of State. The state then checked a federal database and stated it found 207 noncitizens on the rolls (not necessarily voting but on the rolls). That list was sent to county election supervisors to check and it also turned out to contain errors. An Aug. 1, 2012, state elections document showed only 85 noncitizens were ultimately removed from the rolls out of a total of about 12 million voters at that time.”
That a difference of 199,915 non-existent illegal voters was calculated between the claim that Wohl sent out to be retweeted by a number of other noted right-wing conspiracy theorists and the actual number found by Florida election officials seemed to matter little to David Wohl, Donald Trump Jr., or the other people who forwarded his inflammatory missive to their gullible followers.
Still, in the nearly 15 hours between when Wohl sent out his original tweet and when the president’s eldest cub blasted it out to his own rabid followers, one would think that someone would have bothered to actually read the attached article.
Luckily, some people who saw Don Jr.’s tweet did bother to look further and took to Twitter to point out the mixture of mendacity and sloth that the presidential scion needed to encapsulate to forward such an obviously untrue fable.
Not 2 bright are u? 2012 story – Initial list of 180,000 names whittled to 2,625. State checked a federal database and found 207 noncitizens on the rolls. That list contained errors. 8/1/12, state elections document showed 85 noncitizens ultimately removed out of 12 MM voter
— Michael Dulberg (@MikeDulberg) November 12, 2018
the face Diaper Don makes when he criticizes fake news, only to post fake news pic.twitter.com/kuVu4mHf3m
— Born Miserable (@bornmiserable) November 12, 2018
6-yr-old article, which made clear that people referred to were here legally but not allowed to vote. An editor's update: An Aug. 1, 2012, state elections docs showed only 85 noncitizens ultimately removed from rolls out of a total of 12 million voters at that time. FAKE NEWS!
— Bruce Martin (@unlikebeejay) November 12, 2018
Reading and math are hard
— Jeff Piroozshad (@JeffMop) November 12, 2018
The story was from 2012. It's now 2018.
The original 200,000 supposedly on the rolls is now 85.
Which coincidentally matches mini-me's IQ.— Pitt Griffin (@pittgriffin) November 12, 2018
I know facts don’t matter in your family but they do to the majority of Americans. Please don’t go away mad just go away. #FactsMatter
— Shane Deitert (@SDeitertNews) November 12, 2018
That’s just a small sampling of the responses, but you get the idea.
Meanwhile, Trump and his Republican minions are simultaneously complaining about non-existent voter fraud while trying to disenfranchise every Florida voter who voted by the perfectly legal method of a mail-in ballot, including all the Florida service members currently overseas.
One has to wonder why the Trump’s, father and son, even bother complaining about “fake news” when it’s so obvious that they care nothing about the truth, spreading their own misinformation while focusing exclusively on winning.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
Original reporting by David Gilmour at The Daily Dot.
