You probably remember when the media took Trump's words out of context to make it appear that he was saying all illegals are animals when in fact he was saying that MS-13 gang members are animals.

Well, CNN has done it again.  An article by Chris Cillizza on Trump's speech in North Dakota says the following:

34. "I said, 'Oh, I am so smart.  I am the smartest person.'  My uncle was a great professor at MIT for 40 years.  Can you believe?  Forty years.  I said, 'But I'm smarter than him.  I'm smarter than anybody.'"

No words.

The article is titled "Donald Trump's 54 most outrageously over-the-top lines from his North Dakota speech."  Clearly, Cillizza is saying how absurd it is for Trump to claim to be so smart.

This is odd, because the media didn't pounce on Obama when he said:

I think that I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters.  I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors.  And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director.

Well, odd only if you believe CNN's claim that it's unbiased.

However, the real kicker is that when read in context, Trump is actually making a self-deprecating joke about his intelligence.

While the full transcript is below, here's a simplified version in case someone from CNN is reading this.

• Trump said he had an amazing idea on how to ensure that vets at the V.A. get medical care.
• Trump then said he was such a genius for having thought of this idea.
• Trump then said that when he talked with the experts, they'd had the idea 30 years ago.
• Trump then said he was disappointed that it wasn't his idea, thereby effectively saying that his claim to being a genius was bogus, since many people had thought of his "great" idea decades ago.

The audience laughed because they knew he was telling a joke at his own expense.  His comment about being a genius was just to get a laugh.  The punch line was that Trump was saying he wasn't a genius and that it was silly that he'd thought he was.

Trump then said that what he did do is what presidents for the last 30 years didn't do – implement the solution the smart folk had come up with and actually help ensure that vets get prompt medical care.

So CNN took a self-deprecating joke that Trump told about his own intelligence and, by removing the context, made it look as if Trump was boasting.

Now, that's fake news.

At the beginning of the article, Cillzza writes:

I read through the transcript and plucked out 54 the best lines.

To be honest, it's unclear how any objective reporter could read the full transcript, including the fact that the audience laughed at the conclusion of Trump's joke about himself, and conclude that Trump was being serious about being the smartest.

An additional problem is that the CNN process converted Trump modestly mocking himself for thinking he was such a genius into Trump proclaiming he is a genius.  If Cillizza's article had been fact-checked, his mistake would have been flagged.  Whatever the cause, this incident is clear proof that whatever process CNN uses to ensure that its reports are accurate isn't working.

Completely inverting what Trump actually said is the epitome of fake news and yet one more reason why we can't trust anything that the leftist media in general, and CNN in particular, ever say about anything.

Here's the full transcript of Trump's comment about his being so smart. 

So, remember, I used to say about the vets – and I wasn't a great student of the vets, but I'd read where the vets would be online for 13 days, 18 days, three weeks, seven days. And they'd start off, and they wouldn't be in bad shape. And sometimes it would take so long before seeing a doctor that they would be terminally ill. Things that could have been taken care of.

And I said, without knowing anything – I thought it was the most brilliant policy I've ever heard. I said, "Why don't they just go to a doctor, local, that's looking for the business, that would be a very good doctor. We'll specify certain great doctors. Go to a doctor. Be taken care of. And we will pay the bill, and it will be much less expensive, and you'll be all set, right?" Right?

And I thought that was so brilliant. I said, "Oh, I am so smart. I am the smartest person." My uncle was a great professor at MIT for 40 years. Can you believe? Forty years. I said, "But I'm smarter than him. I'm smarter than anybody."

And you know what? I'll tell you. I came in, and I said that to a group of people that are professionals and have been working with the vets for a long time. They said, "Yeah, we know about that. We've been trying to get it for 30 years. We couldn't get it approved." So, I was so disappointed, because I thought it was my idea. But I'll tell you what I was good at. [Laughter]

I was good at getting it done. We got it done. I signed it. That's what I was good at. I got it done. We got it done. They'd been trying to get it done for 40 years. I was so disappointed. I thought it was my idea. That's the only problem. I thought it was my idea.

You can read more of Tom's rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious, and feel free to follow him on Twitter.