Culture

The Trump Campaign Tosses Katrina Pierson Under The Bus For Her Fact-Checking Failures

Donald Trump’s very bad week didn’t receive any help on Wednesday from his spokesperson. Katrina Pierson has said many untrue things over the course of Trump’s campaign, and she still has those “half breed” tweets floating around in the ether too. But it looks like Pierson’s reign of saying whatever the heck she wants on cable news has come to an end. She hasn’t been officially fired by the Trump campaign, but she did get thrown under the bus. And there’s a hint that Trump is finally cracking down on some loose ends before his entire campaign spontaneously combusts.

To briefly recap, Pierson did the time warp to blame President Obama and Hillary Clinton for U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan’s 2004 death in Iraq. In doing so, Pierson failed to realize that Obama wasn’t president until 2008, and the rules of engagement she invokes weren’t put into place until 2009.

Well, it makes sense that Trump would finally be upset by Pierson’s disregard for simple fact checking of recent historical landmarks. By messing up the timeline, any viewers who were predisposed to listen to take her point seriously have already given up. Pierson was trying to argue that Trump completely opposed the war in Iraq — which is also false — to deflect from how he couldn’t resist insulting Khan’s parents.

So, the video at the top of this post kicks off with a clip about Pierson’s attempt to clarify the situation. For some unknown reason, she used the opportunity to drop more incorrect information about “thousands of troops” who’ve died in Iraq after Captain Khan. CNN performed one of their Reality Checks to show fewer military deaths have occurred under Obama than under George W. Bush. And Trump Campaign Co-Chair Sam Clovis showed up to address whether Trump cares about facts. Clovis uttered, “I have no idea where [Pierson] got her information.” Then he alluded to how terribly this sort of thing reflects upon a campaign, and they’re working on the problem:

“I guarantee that won’t happen again with her. That’s for sure. And it won’t likely happen with anybody else. Because when you do go out, you have a responsibility — and again, I think as a person who spends a lot of time on your show, I think it’s important to come on here and have accurate information and present our case in the best possible way we can. And I think facts always help you, the truth always helps you. And I think that’s where we always ought to be.”

Yes, “facts always help you.” That’s a fairly brutal takedown, and again, no one knows if Pierson’s been let go (her Twitter profile still reads “Official National Campaign Spokeswoman”), but she’s definitely been put in check. Pierson had better tuck those fetus necklace jokes back into the cache, or she’ll end up being a Trump scapegoat.