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Did Donald Trump say not to be distracted by Afghanistan because 'a magician always distracts his audience'?

Wednesday, August 25, 2021
By Marlo Lee
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A social media post with the former president's photo and graphics making it appear it was taken from a TV broadcast of a phone interview attributed a statement to Trump that said: "Do not be distracted by all this going on in Afghanistan ... a magician always distracts his audience. And we all know that the Democrats are very good magicians."

But "President Trump did not say this," Liz Harrington, Trump's spokeswoman, told Lead Stories.

Trump did make a comment about the turmoil in Afghanistan as U.S. troops were leaving, but the former president's statement had more to do with the military than magicians.

Harrington cited a statement posted to Trump's website in which he said: "Biden’s biggest mistake was not understanding that the Military has to be last out the door, not first out the door. "

See a full discussion of this at leadstories.com
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Sources
Donald J. Trump Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America
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Lead Stories
Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.