OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Democrat California Rep. Eric Swalwell decided to share a quote from former President Donald Trump to paint him in the worst possible light, but he got caught.
He tweeted a partial transcript of the former president when he was on the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show to make it appear as if Trump endorsed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Donald Trump *endorses* Putin’s invasion of a democratic country. This is the leader of the Republican Party. Does @GOPLeader McCarthy agree with this? GOP Intel head @RepMikeTurner? GOP Armed Services head @RepMikeRogersAL? Will anyone condemn this?” he said in his tweet with his carefully selected portion of the transcript.
Donald Trump *endorses* Putin’s invasion of a democratic country. This is the leader of the Republican Party. Does @GOPLeader McCarthy agree with this? GOP Intel head @RepMikeTurner? GOP Armed Services head @RepMikeRogersAL? Will anyone condemn this? pic.twitter.com/mjQkM8PyaT
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) February 22, 2022
“Well, what went wrong was a rigged election and what went wrong is a candidate that shouldn’t be there and a man that has no concept of what he’s doing. I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, “This is genius.” Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful,” the former president said in the part Rep. Swalwell shared.
“So, Putin is now saying, “It’s independent,” a large section of Ukraine. I said, “How smart is that?” And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force… We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace all right. No, but think of it. Here’s a guy who’s very savvy… I know him very well. Very, very well,” he said where Rep. Swalwell cut off the transcript.
But here is the part he left out of it.
“By the way, this never would have happened with us. Had I been in office, not even thinkable. This would never have happened. But here’s a guy that says, you know,’“I’m gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent,’ he used the word ‘independent,’ ‘and we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace.’ You gotta say that’s pretty savvy. And you know what the response was from Biden? There was no response. They didn’t have one for that. No, it’s very sad. Very sad,” he said.
He went on to say that he had talked to Putin about Ukraine before and told him he could not do it.;
“I think he sees this opportunity. I knew that he always wanted Ukraine. I used to talk to him about it. I said, ‘You can’t do it. You’re not gonna do it.’ But I could see that he wanted it. I used to ask him. We used to talk about it at length. I think nobody probably knows him better in terms of the discussions that we have or that we’re having this morning. So, I knew him very well. I got to know him. I got to know President Xi. By the way, China is gonna be next,” he warned.
Many people on Twitter called the representative on his disingenuousness.
“No, Trump did not endorse the invasion — Swalwell cut off the rest of Trump’s remarks where he said it was ‘very sad’ Biden had no response to Putin,” journalist Mark Hemingway said.
No, Trump did not endorse the invasion — Swalwell cut off the rest of Trump's remarks where he said it was "very sad" Biden had no response to Putin. https://t.co/J9cl5vgjo7
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) February 23, 2022
“The left wing media is lying and misleading you about our interview with #DonaldJTrump. Go and listen to what he actually said in full context for yourself,” Travis and Sexton said with a link to the show.
The left wing media is lying and misleading you about our interview with #DonaldJTrump. Go and listen to what he actually said in full context for yourself.https://t.co/Qo4uyIoinf https://t.co/NSqhFS8DpD
— Clay & Buck (@clayandbuck) February 23, 2022
Even someone who said they dislike the former president criticized the tweet.
I really hate Trump, but it's so counterproductive for the media to take literally everything he says out of context. We have the internet… everyone can go see what actually happened and then it just undermines everyone's trust that anything is ever real.
— Erin (@RabbitNbr8) February 23, 2022
“I really hate Trump, but it’s so counterproductive for the media to take literally everything he says out of context. We have the internet… everyone can go see what actually happened and then it just undermines everyone’s trust that anything is ever real,” they said.
