We know that CNSNews.com writer Susan Jones is a loyal Trump stenographer, dutifully transcribing every utterance from the president’s mouth without regard to the veracity of the claims. Jones once again failed in fact-checking Trump in a Dec. 11 article.
Jones began by gushing, “Clearly enjoying himself at a rally in Hershey, Pa., Tuesday night, President Trump lauded House passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which Democrats delayed for months, until the day they announced two articles of impeachment against Trump.” In addition to uncritically repeating Trump’s evidence-free conspiracy theory that Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats waited to announce the trade deal until the same day a House vote on Trump’s impeachment was announced because “it plays down impeachment because they’re embarrassed by the impeachment,” Jones also repeated Trump’s assertion that “our poll numbers have gone through the roof because of her stupid impeachment.”
In an apparent attempt to bolster the claim, Jones embedded a link to a Real Clear Politics running list of polls — which explains nothing, since it is just a list of polls and their results and offers no tracking. By contrast, actual news organizations that do actual analysis found Trump’s claim less than factual.
The Washington Post reported that Trump’s approval rating actually decreased since the impeachment inquiry was announced, while support for impeachment showed “a big surge since the inquiry began — and relative flatness since.” Even a Fox News poll taken shortly before Trump uttered his claim shows polling numbers on impeachment to be stable, with Vox noting that this mirrors other polling, while “one thing they do not show is the surge of support that Trump has been hyping as Democrats have moved toward impeaching him.”
But fact-checking was not on Jones’ agenda — stenography was. She went on to rehash all his worn attack lines bashing impeachment and the media.