‘Again… I Don’t Know How Many Times I’ve Said This’: CNN’s Trump Fact-Checker Seemingly Tiring of Job

TAPPER: “— bring in CNN’s Daniel Dale, our resident fact checker who will lay down some facts here, spit some hard facts about based on what we just heard from Donald Trump, that might not comport with the truth, Mr. Dale.”

Dale: “They might not.”

TAPPER: “What do you got for me?”

Dale: “Jake, it’s a tradition now in these appearances I do after these post-court hearings for me to note that former President Trump said this is a Biden trial or this is a Biden indictment or Biden is the one who brought this case. I come out here and note correctly that that’s not true. It’s completely baseless. Again, for the, I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, this was a case brought by a locally elected prosecutor, Alvin Bragg. There is precisely zero evidence that President Biden has had any personal role in bringing the case. Former President Trump keeps invoking former DoJ official Matthew Colangelo, who went to work for DA Bragg’s office. There is no basis for any suggestion that President Biden personally put him there, ordered him there, etc. And then we have this laundry list of other claims. So, former President Trump, you know, said he should be campaigning in various states. Perhaps he would have been, we can’t, you know, check that hypothetical. But our Kristen Holmes keeps noting that even on the off days that former President Trump has, he tends to not be scheduling campaign events. He tends to be at Mar-a-Lago on the golf course, so the idea that he’d be out campaigning every day he’s in court, I think is dubious at best. Then he repeated a claim about another case. The Judge Engoron case where he says, he keeps saying Judge Engoron turned down the Appellate Division, refused to honor the decision of the appeals court in the civil fraud case involving Trump, his sons and his company. That’s not what happened. Engoron interpreted an appeals court decision in a way that former President Trump didn’t like, did not reject it. And then I’ll just note that at the same time former President Trump said that Judge Merchan presiding over this case is rushing this case through, and then that someone said to him, I’ve never sat this long in court before. So, he’s simultaneously complaining, like literally almost in the same breath the judge is going, making this go too fast and also is making it go too slow. It’s not really a fact check, but just wanted to note it, Jake.”

TAPPER: “Well, it’s like saying that President Biden is a doddering, senile old fool who was also at the same time a criminal mastermind operating all of these different trials. I mean —“

Dale: “Fair.”

TAPPER: “Pick a lane.”

Dale: “Pick a lane. It’s a pick a lane.”

TAPPER: “Yeah. Alright. Daniel Dale, thanks so much.”