President Donald Trump appears to be adding his own facts to a Fox News segment in an attempt to smear his predecessor.
After posting a tweet claiming that the Obama administration had released 122 “vicious prisoners” from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay to return to terrorism, Trump has been accused of misleadingly editorializing a Fox News segment.
122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2017
The post seemed to be a response to a Fox News segment that reported on a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who had allegedly become involved in terrorism following release and was subsequently killed in a drone strike by the Trump administration in Yemen.
Former Gitmo detainee killed by a U.S. airstrike in Yemen; at least 122 former Gitmo detainees have re-engaged in terrorism pic.twitter.com/y9jb420fFZ
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) March 7, 2017
Ryan J. Reilly, senior justice reporter at the Huffington Post, was among the first to point out that the president had taken liberties to present the report in such a way as to pointedly attack his predecessor—with whom he is at odds. Trump recently made unsubstantiated accusations that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower in the lead up to the 2016 election.
Actually 113 of them were released by Bush. And the military prefers that you call them "detainees." https://t.co/654TaWMccS
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) March 7, 2017
Reilly made a point as to correct the president, explaining that the Fox News report had given no indication as to which administration had released the detainees and that, in fact, fellow Republican President George W. Bush had signed off the release of 113 detainees.
The Fox News segment that tweet was based on didn't say Obama released them, Trump just created that (false) detail. https://t.co/SOCgOHzXQ3
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) March 7, 2017
So far Trump has not responded to the flagged tweets.