Eugene Delgaudio:"I am Shocked that President Obama Lies To the Washington Post"
The White House seems to have lied to the Washington Post for not acknowledging their previous critique and for continuing to knowingly lie for political purposes - to support more background checks on guns.
"This is similar to the lies about Americans supporting traditional marriage but we will not hold our breath at Public Advocate waiting to see a Washington Post editorial critical of those White House lies," says Eugene Delgaudio president of Public Advocate.
The Washington Post editorial is titled "The Pinocchio Test"
When we first looked at this issue, we noted that congressional foes of gun control had made it difficult for the federal government to conduct research on guns. But, as shown by the Washington Post survey of Maryland gun buyers, there is nothing stopping private pollsters from producing a more up-to-date survey.
In the meantime, we have documented that (a) the survey numbers are about two decades old, so they include purchases that predate any background checks; (b) the survey sample is rather small; and (c) the results are significantly different when adjusted for "purchases" or "sales" - the phrasing used by the president.
Two months ago, we were willing to cut the White House some slack, given the paucity of recent data. But the president's failure to acknowledge the significant questions about these old data, or his slippery phrasing, leaves us little choice but to downgrade this claim to Three Pinocchios.
(retro repost as "March 15" from April 5 2013)