By You would think it wouldn’t have to be said, but Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should not be compared to Donald Trump.
In her interview with Anderson Cooper on “60 Minutes” this past week, Ocasio-Cortez remarked, “I think that there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right.” That’s a dangerous suggestion. To suggest that facts matter less than ideology is extremely bad.
But when Cooper called her on that, Ocasio-Cortez continued, “And whenever I make a mistake, I say, “OK, this was clumsy,” and then I restate what my point was. But it’s— it’s not the same thing as— as the President lying about immigrants. It’s not the same thing, at all.”
That quote sums up the problem.
Cooper was right to call out Ocasio-Cortez and media is right to correct her mistakes and falsehoods. But saying she – or almost any Democrat – is like Trump or GOP elected officials is ridiculous.
As Washington Post fact checker Sal Rizzo pointed out, the Post has corrected 7,645 false statements by President Trump and only 2 by Ocasio-Cortez. Yet that same fact-checker also compared Ocasio-Cortez to Trump. As Ocasio-Cortez noted, the media loves to find false equivalency between the two parties and suggest that they are equally in the wrong. But the parties’ records are not remotely comparable.
Republicans have abandoned truth and reality. They still deny climate change. They pretend that trickle-down economics works. They claimed that the 2017 tax cuts would pay for themselves when they really blew a hole in the deficit. They claimed that they wanted to maintain protections for citizens with preexisting conditions even after spending a decade uprooting those protections. They’re currently pretending marginal tax rates don’t exist. They scapegoat nonwhite immigrants and citizens.
Indeed, compare Ocasio-Cortez’s exchange with Cooper to a Newt Gingrich interview in 2016. Gingrich makes a specific, verifiably false claim, is called on it, and doubles down. He straight-up denies the fact-check. In contrast, Ocasio-Cortez admitted her error and spent Monday on Twitter broadcasting fact-checkers like PolitiFact and the Washington Post. The idea of any Republican ever reacting like that is laughable.
Despite this record of Republican lies, the media continues to treat the party as though its words have legitimacy. Networks interview Trump advisers like Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Sanders. They give Trump massive platforms to spout lies unchecked. They hire Republicans who lie on air. And then they act like Democrats and Republicans are equally as bad.
They’re not.
Ocasio-Cortez and all Democrats should be held to high standards and fiercely criticized when they lie or make serious mistakes. But the entire Republican party jettisoned its credibility a long time ago. It’s time the media stop making false comparisons, stop playing into GOP talking points, and start treating Republican elected officials like the liars they are.
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