In one of the most telling departures from the previous Administration, Obama officials decided to eliminate the White House’s fact-checking team soon after taking office. After President George W. Bush received heavy criticism for 16 words he said in his 2003 State of the Union Address, The Decider decided to hire a team of fact checkers to confirm the validity of every word the president spoke to the public.
The result was a process that killed any portion of presidential remarks that couldn’t be 100% verified. The moral of the story: facts matter. At least they did to the last occupant of the White House.
Now it seems like facts are inconveniences that can be swept under the rug. That is, unless their absence appears on top of the new Oval Office rug in the form of a misattributed quote. On President Obama’s redesigned floor emblem appears the quote “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Though it’s attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr., it actually belongs to antebellum abolitionist Theodore Parker.
Unlike Vice President Joe Biden, King didn’t forget to give credit for a line he made his own. Next time, Mr. President, get the facts straight before you commit taxpayer money to honor something that isn’t true.
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