President Donald Trump was relentlessly dishonest last week about the scandal over his dealings with Ukraine, making false claims about just about every component of the story.
Trump made 96 false claims last week, the second-highest total of the 16 weeks we've counted at CNN. He made 53 false claims last Monday alone -- a remarkable 31 in rambling comments at his Cabinet meeting and 22 more in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity.
Fifty-three false claims is by far the most Trump has made in any day in the 16 weeks we've tracked, beating the previous high of 41. Trump has averaged about 68 false claims per week over the 16-week period -- just shy of 10 false claims per day.
His deception last week was focused on his conduct toward Ukraine and Democrats' related impeachment inquiry. Deep breath now:
He falsely claimed he had released an exact transcript of his July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He falsely claimed he did not ask Zelensky for anything on the call. He falsely claimed people aren't talking about the call anymore.
He falsely claimed the whistleblower complaint about the call was "totally wrong." He falsely claimed the whistleblower alleged he had made seven or eight mentions of a "quid pro quo." He falsely claimed the whistleblower has vanished. He falsely claimed Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff was the whistleblower's source.
He falsely claimed Schiff had spoken about the call at a committee hearing before, not after, the release of the rough transcript. He falsely claimed Schiff's committee comments were illegal. He falsely claimed Republicans aren't allowed to ask questions in Democrats' impeachment inquiry hearings. And he falsely claimed those closed-door hearings are unprecedented.
The most egregious false claim: Trump's "prediction" about Osama bin Laden'
The President complained that the media doesn't want to talk about his declaration, in a 2000 book, that Osama bin Laden needed to be killed. In fact, he didn't say anything like that.
The President claimed that things would be different today if his prescient words had been listened to. Again, those words do not exist.
The President claimed that he still has people coming up to him marveling at his amazing "prediction" about bin Laden. Again, he did not make any prediction about bin Laden.
And the president claimed that it was an especially remarkable prediction because "nobody" had ever heard of bin Laden at the time. Bin Laden was being pursued by the CIA and had been put on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list the year before.
Here's a full fact check of Trump's elaborate fiction.