CNN, Washington Post have decided to start calling the lies what they are

President Trump has settled on a strategy of fear — laced with falsehoods and racially tinged rhetoric — to help lift his party to victory in the coming midterms, part of a broader effort to energize Republican voters with two weeks left until the Nov. 6 elections.

Trump’s messaging — on display in his regular campaign rallies, tweets and press statements — largely avoids much talk of his achievements and instead offers an apocalyptic vision of the country, which he warns will only get worse if Democrats retake control of Congress.

The president has been especially focused in recent days on a caravan of about 5,000 migrants traveling north to cross the U.S. border, a group he has darkly characterized as gang members, violent criminals and “unknown Middle Easterners” — a claim for which his administration has so far provided no concrete evidence.

“You’re going to find MS-13, you’re going to find Middle Eastern, you’re going to find everything. And guess what? We’re not allowing them in our country,” Trump said, when asked by reporters Wednesday if he had any proof of terrorists infiltrating the caravan. “We want safety.”

[...]

Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior policy adviser who has long espoused hard-line immigration policies, is one of the chief authors of Trump’s rally messages, though the president often goes further than his prepared remarks.

But unlike two years ago — when some Republicans were hesitant to follow their nominee’s lead in using divisive rhetoric — Republicans are now more eagerly following the president’s cues, including in their own campaign rhetoric and ads.

[...]

Many of the president’s assertions are false or clear distortions of the facts. Trump is incorrect, for example, in his claim that Democrats will “destroy” both Medicare and Social Security, while he has made both programs “stronger.” There is also no evidence that Democrats are paying for the migrant caravan snaking its way north toward the southern border, while voter fraud remains exceedingly rare.

But that has not stopped the president from repeating such false or misleading claims, in part because advisers say his key midterm strategy is to fuel Republican turnout by riling up his most avid supporters, often through frightening and emotional appeals.

[...]

Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser, described the caravan as “a political gift.”

“I wish they were carrying heroin. I wish we had thought of it. It speaks to the dearth of our creativity, unfortunately,” Bennett said. “There are 7,000 people marching toward the U.S. border. One party wants to let them in. The other party wants to keep them out.”

Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally and former House speaker, has begun calling the caravans “an invasion,” and hosted a Facebook Live chat Monday under the headline “the #caravan attack on America.”

  WaPo

I'm waiting for the militiamen to whip up an armed mob to meet them at the border.*

Trump seems intent on keeping the focus on the migrants as well. In a telephone interview with The Post on Saturday about the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the president at one point began to complain about the Central American caravan and argue that new actions were required at the border. He declined to offer specifics.

In tweets Monday, Trump warned without offering evidence that “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in” and urged voters to “think of and blame the Democrats for not giving us the votes to change our pathetic Immigration Laws!”

How is that possible when the Republicans control both houses of Congress?





...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

*UPDATE 10/26:

I was listening to NPR this morning, when a caller from Texas phoned in to say he was part of a "small militia" that was going to the border to "make sure these people don't ge into our country."  He then immediately started ranting about being "sick of you people," and they cut him off.  The NPR host said they were glad to be a part of a discussion with many different opinions, but they were not going to allow anyone to attack anyone else on the air.