In the wake of the “Twitter Files,” let’s revisit former President Barack Obama’s warning last April about the spread of misinformation: “You just have to flood a country’s public square with enough raw sewage. You just have to raise enough questions, spread enough dirt, plant enough conspiracy theorizing that citizens no longer know what to believe.”

Does the “raw sewage” include when Obama falsely said, “The Cambridge police acted stupidly”; that “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon”; and that racism in America is “still part of our DNA that’s passed on”?

Does raw sewage include the part in Obama’s speech before the United Nations when he invoked the lie of Ferguson; and when Obama embraced Black Lives Matter, a group founded upon the lie that the police engage in systemic racism against blacks? BLM, after the death of George Floyd, encouraged four months of deadly, violent protests even though the lead prosecutor, a black man, said in his opening statement that neither the police nor the Minneapolis police in general were on trial. He never argued that the officer defendant treated Floyd unlawfully due to Floyd’s race, and the officer was never charged with a hate crime.

Does the raw sewage include President Joe Biden, who, about Charlottesville, insists that then-President Donald Trump “said there were ‘some very fine people on both sides’” of the violent and deadly clash in 2017 even though Trump was referring to the debate about Confederate monuments in the public square?

Does raw sewage include Hillary Clinton and the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., calling Trump’s presidency “illegitimate”; when Democratic House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called Trump’s “so-called election victory” a “hoax”; when Jimmy Carter said Trump “was put into office” because of Russia; and when Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams, claims she lost due to “voter suppression? Yet the media never accused these Democrats of promoting "The Big Lie.”

Does raw sewage include Clinton claiming Trump, about COVID-19, told people “to drink bleach”; when Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas insists the southern border is “secure”; and when Dems say the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling “outlaws abortion,” though it sends the issue back to the states?

Does the raw sewage incude Biden’s many false claims, including: that he “had the great honor of being arrested” in South Africa trying to see Nelson Mandela; that he “was raised in the black church”; that he was involved in desegregating restaurants and movie theaters; that his son Beau “died in Iraq”; that his first wife and daughter were killed by a driver “who drank his lunch”; and that the Georgia’s new voting law “makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle” — yet, Georgians voted in record numbers?

Does the raw sewage include over 50 “former senior intelligence officials,” who — days before the 2020 election — asserted that the Hunter Biden laptop story had “all the earmarks of a Russian disinformation operation”; that Trump “colluded with Russia” to win the 2016 election; and that on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump committed “insurrection”?

Does the raw sewage include the claim that Trump was first to push the “racist (birther) lie” about Obama, when Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign actually started it?

Does raw sewage include Obama’s claim that his administration “had no major scandals”? Never mind the Clinton basement unsecured server on which Clinton sent and received classified information in clear violation of the Espionage Act. Yet FBI head James Comey said she “lacked the intent” to break the Espionage Act, though intent is not required.

Does raw sewage include the standard Democrat narrative that “the rich don’t pay their fair share” in taxes, even though the top 1% of earners pay 40% of the federal income taxes?

Does raw sewage include Al Gore’s 2006 prediction, “Unless drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gases are taken within the next 10 years, the world will reach a point of no return”?

Does the raw sewage include Attorney General Eric Holder referring to voter ID as “pernicious” racism, even though the majority of blacks support voter ID; when Biden called MAGA Republicans “semi-fascist”; and when Clinton called half of Trump supporters “deplorable” and “irredeemable”?

COPYRIGHT 2023 LAURENCE A. ELDER