In the wake of President Donald Trump’s first-ever presidential address Tuesday night and the Democratic response that followed, fact-checkers across the internet furiously pored over statements by Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Sen. Chuck Schumer.
The effort followed much debate over whether the major networks would broadcast Trump’s primetime address live (spoiler alert: they all did), and if so, how they would go about countering his all-but-guaranteed lies about immigration, migrants, and his manufactured crisis at the border.
But there were some facts that, uhh, might have deserved more context than the Associated Press’ signature treatment alone, including this tidbit about who’s to blame for the 19-day government shutdown:
With 14,000 replies and counting, the tweet was being ratioed and ridiculed into oblivion. Of course Trump and the Democrats (and the Republicans!) are the players in this scenario in which an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, but “two to tango?” It’s almost like the AP is so concerned with appearing nonpartisan and objective that they’d rather assign equal blame to a bad man’s racist policies and to the other people who are, at the very least, trying to stop him.
This both sides-ism hasn’t gone over too well with readers who are, understandably, wondering where the AP’s backbone went:
Maybe try adding a gif to your tweet next time, AP? Might take the edge off.