Though I am mostly apolitical (I do not vote), I can be classified as a political centrist (not a compromising moderate). This means I don’t land anywhere in particular on the political spectrum. I chose my views independently of any party line. I also apply my criticisms across the board. I do not temper legitimate criticisms for partisan reasons.
When I criticized Vice President Pence in “The Lies They Tell Us“, reader Stephanie suggested that I was being unfair. In her argument, she suggested that everyone has moments of weakness.[1][2] I suspect that Stephanie more-or-less likes Pence and is more willing to excuse his behavior because it is not perceived to be as bad as others’.
The truth is absolutely essential. If those in politics cannot act without lies, deception, untruth, hypocrisy, or dishonesty, then they need to resign their positions. This conflict in inevitable. The oaths of office are always—eventually—incompatible with allegiance to God. It is impossible to faithfully serve two masters. The hard truth of politics is that there is no room for Christians to participate as rulers.
Now, examine the fact check by Trust Check at “NOT TRUE: VP Pence accused of staging PPE delivery for publicity.” A fact check should be about truth. Right there it states that the delivery was not staged for publicity. Do they show this? They assert:
The problem? The edited video didn’t accurately represent what happened, and put simply, wasn’t true.
Why wasn’t it true? They continue:
On Thursday, Pence helped deliver PPE to the Woodbine Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, a nursing home in Alexandria, Virginia. The claim went viral on social media after the show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” aired a selectively edited clip of Pence joking about carrying empty boxes “for the camera.” The full clip obtained by The Associated Press confirms that Pence did not actually deliver empty boxes.
According to the clip, he laughed about carrying some actually empty boxes for the camera, but in reality he didn’t. In other words, the video was deceptively edited. Here is the official Pence response:
Jon Thompson, a campaign spokesperson for Pence, called out Kimmel on Twitter for putting out the misleading clip. “This is absolute garbage spread by @JimmyKimmel. Pence is clearly joking about empty boxes & if Kimmel showed the full clip from CSPAN, not the one he selectively edited, you see and hear it.”
Again, the issue is the misleading clip.[3]
The ‘fact check’ proved that the editing for the clip was dishonest. This is why the clip was deleted.[2] But look at the headline again: it states that Pence did not stage the delivery for publicity. The ‘fact check’ didn’t even address that issue. No matter the spin, no matter the ‘fact checks’, there is no question that it was a staged publicity stunt. We can add this hypocritically misleading ‘fact check’ to the list of partisan lies.
[1] If this level of charity is not equally extended to everyone equally, including those you don’t like, then this is just hypocrisy: another partisan lie. Forgiveness comes after repentance or conflict resolution (see Matthew 18:15-35).
[2] Jimmy Kimmel repented of his dishonesty by deleting the clip. Pence has, to date, not repented for participating in a staged publicity stunt.
[3] Kimmel was dishonest. Intellectually honest critics note that both Kimmel and Pence were dishonest (for different reasons).