A few days ago, Donald Trump - a man who avoided military service by lying about his medical history, lied about the voting record of my representative in Congress, Conor Lamb. Trump also called Lamb, a retired Marine Corps Major, "an American Fraud." Trump also spelled Lamb's name (both, actually - first and last) wrong.
This was part of an endorsement of Lamb's presumptive opponent, retired Army Captain Sean Parnell.
After some very bad press for Parnell Chris Potter, the politics/government editor for WESA-FM tweeted this:
The conntroversy (see what I did there?) over Trump's Memorial Day "Connor Lamm" tweet continues for another day, with a statement this A.M. from GOP candidate Sean Parnell, who Trump is trying to help. pic.twitter.com/dDoyupOqMy
— Chris Potter (@CPotterPgh) May 27, 2020
Here's the text of Parnell's statement:
In a Monday tweet, President Trump turned up the heat on Congressman Conor Lamb tweeting, "Sean Parnell is an American Hero. Conor Lamb has proven to be an American fraud, and a puppet for Crazy Nancy Pelosi. He said he would NOT vote for her for Speaker, and did. Will kill 2A. Voted to impeach (on nothing). A TOTAL & COMPLETE Sean Parnell Endorsement!" On Tuesday he deleted and and posted a new tweet with the correct spelling of Lamb's name.
It's easy to see how the President and others might think that Lamb voted for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker. Pelosi gave Lamb a pass on that vote but ever since he has been one of her most reliable supporters voting with her 92% of the time.
Take a careful look at how Parnell "corrects" the record:
- He doesn't explicitly say that Trump misspelled Lamb's name, just that Trump deleted the tweet and retweeted it with the correct one.
- He also doesn't explicitly say that Trump was wrong about Lamb's voting record (even though he was - completely) just that it's "easy to see the President and others" were wrong. Parnell never says that Lamb voted against Pelosi as speaker.
And of course Sean Parnell is completely silent about how the draft-avoiding Trump called the retired Marine "an American fraud."
Completely silent.
This is Sean Parnell.
