Watch Biden say the exact words Trump claims he 'refused' to say

Donald Trump and his surrogates in the Republican Party are lying about former Vice President Joe Biden in an apparent effort to gloss over Trump’s poor debate performance Tuesday night.

In a segment about the protests against police brutality going on across the country, the Democratic presidential nominee condemned acts of violence — including those which have been carried out by Trump supporters — and sympathized with protesters’ calls for racial justice.

Trump then challenged Biden to say he believes in “law and order.”

“Yes I’m in favor of law and order — law and order with justice, where people get treated fairly,” Biden responded.

On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted, “Biden REFUSED to use the term, LAW & ORDER! There go the Suburbs.”

Trump is essentially telling American voters not to believe their eyes and ears about what Biden said Tuesday night. This line was parroted by Trump’s Republican allies. Tommy Hicks, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, also falsely tweeted that Biden “refused to say law and order.”

The attempt to mischaracterize Biden’s debate comments comes as Trump is facing criticism from all flanks about his terrible debate performance, in which he constantly interrupted, lied, told white supremacist supporters to “stand by”, and refused to say he’d accept the results of the election if he lost.

Even Fox News — which serves as the Trump campaign’s de facto propaganda arm — criticized Trump’s debate performance.

Polls show voters were turned off by Trump’s display at the debate.

A CNN instant poll found 60% of people who watched the debate believed Biden won, while just 28% believed Trump won. A CBS News poll found 38% of respondents thought better of Biden after watching the debate, compared to 24% who thought better of Trump after the debate.

That’s bad news for Trump, who desperately needs to change the trajectory of the race, as he is currently losing in national polling as well as swing-state surveys. As more voters cast their ballots across the country, the Trump campaign is running out of time to turn things around.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.