The fake Trump quotes scandal just got more interesting. It appears that Jordan Fuchs, Georgia’s deputy secretary of state, was not only the anonymous source of the Washington Post story claiming that Trump pressured Georgia election investigator Frances Watson to “find the fraud” and that if she did she’d be a “national hero,” but that she publicly “confirmed” the story to NBC News on the same day the Washington Post story broke.
CNBC reported the following on January 9, the same day as the Washington Post story:
NBC News has confirmed The Post’s characterization of the Dec. 23 call through a source familiar with the conversation.
Georgia’s Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs told NBC News: “We can confirm the events in the Washington Post story.”
It is not clear if Fuchs was the source in other media reports that claimed to confirm the Washington Post story. USA Today claimed it had confirmed the details of the call from “a Georgia official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.” ABC News said it confirmed the details with “an individual familiar with the matter.” However, it does appear Fuchs spoke anonymously to the Washington Post, then publicly to NBC News, in an effort to make the public believe multiple sources within the Georgia secretary of state’s office heard Trump say what she claimed he said.
Fuchs has defended her characterization of the call to the Washington Post, saying that her words were an interpretation, and not meant to be direct quotes. “I believe the story accurately reflected the investigator’s interpretation of the call. The only mistake here was in the direct quotes, and they should have been more of a summary,” Fuchs told Erik Wemple of the Post.
However, in “confirming” the Post story for which she was the anonymous source, she did not clarify that the comments allegedly made by Trump were not direct quotes. Instead, her “confirmation” appeared to validate the original — and fake — story. This gives credence to the theory that she intentionally deceived the public at President Trump’s expense.
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Matt Margolis is the author of Airborne: How The Liberal Media Weaponized The Coronavirus Against Donald Trump, and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter, Gab, Facebook, MeWe, Heroes, Rumble, and CloutHub.