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Trump baselessly suggests Democrats fabricated Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish. Trump’s baseless suggestion that Democrats fabricated Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish is spreading online.
(about 5 hours later)
President Trump questioned Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish that her replacement on the Supreme Court be chosen by the next president, suggesting without evidence on Monday that Democrats had concocted a quote provided by Justice Ginsburg’s grieving family. President Trump questioned Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish that her replacement on the Supreme Court be chosen by the next president, suggesting without evidence Monday that Democrats had concocted a quote provided by Justice Ginsburg’s grieving family.
“I don’t know that she said that, or if that was written out by Adam Schiff, and Schumer and Pelosi,” Mr. Trump said during an interview on “Fox & Friends” early Monday, referring to three top Democrats, Representative Adam Schiff of California, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.“I don’t know that she said that, or if that was written out by Adam Schiff, and Schumer and Pelosi,” Mr. Trump said during an interview on “Fox & Friends” early Monday, referring to three top Democrats, Representative Adam Schiff of California, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.
“That came out of the wind. It sounds so beautiful, but that sounds like a Schumer deal, or maybe Pelosi or Shifty Schiff,” added Mr. Trump, interrupting one of the show’s co-hosts, who had tried to interject that the quote had been verified by journalists.“That came out of the wind. It sounds so beautiful, but that sounds like a Schumer deal, or maybe Pelosi or Shifty Schiff,” added Mr. Trump, interrupting one of the show’s co-hosts, who had tried to interject that the quote had been verified by journalists.
Days before her death on Friday, Justice Ginsburg, 87, dictated a statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera, saying, “my most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,” according to NPR’s Nina Totenberg, who was close to the justice and her family. Days before her death on Friday, Justice Ginsburg, 87, dictated a statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera, saying, “my most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,” according to NPR’s Nina Totenberg.
Mr. Trump’s television appearance on Monday, coming after the president said he would nominate a woman to replace Justice Ginsburg, contained a number of scathing attacks on female politicians during a few minutes of airtime. Mr. Trump’s baseless questions about the provenance of the quote appear to originate with him. Questions about the legitimacy of Ms. Ginsburg’s “dying wish” were not circulating online in any significant way before his Fox News appearance.
Mr. Trump has a history of targeting powerful women, a practice that has intensified as he has come under fire, often from female critics, for his response to the pandemic. But since his appearance, social media has filled with false claims echoing Mr. Trump’s conspiracy theory. On Twitter, users continued to spread their false claims that Ms. Ginsburg had dictated the note to her “8-year-old granddaughter.” (Ms. Spera is a lawyer who graduated from Harvard Law School in 2017.) They have cast doubts on the integrity of NPR’s reporting. (Ms. Totenberg, the NPR reporter who published the detail about Ms. Ginsburg’s last wish, is a longtime Supreme Court reporter who has been close to the Ginsburg family for decades.)
On Monday, he began by calling out the two Republican women, Senators Lisa Murkowksi of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who have said they will oppose an attempt by Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, to force a vote before the election. In an appearance on MSNBC on Monday, Ms. Totenberg confirmed her account of Ms. Ginsburg’s statement, and said that others in the room at the time witnessed her making it, including her doctor. “I checked,” Ms. Totenberg added, “because I’m a reporter.”
He also lit into a trio of favorite Democratic targets, using his go-to Native American slur against Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, offering a mocking impersonation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and making fun of the way Senator Kamala Harris of California, the vice-presidential nominee, pronounces her name. Mr. Schiff, one of the congressional Democrats Mr. Trump speculated might have invented Ms. Ginsburg’s request, responded on Twitter. “Mr. President,” he wrote, “this is low. Even for you.”