A new fallacy for the modern political era

Kyl-Santorum Fallacy: What begins as a bare assertion – when it is pointed out that the statement is false – the speaker replies that it was merely a rhetorical statement. This can either be simply admitting the rhetorical maneuver, as in “not intended to be a factual statement” or claiming it was a statement of sentiment, as in this was “true in my heart.” Arguably, this is a strategy of avoiding accountability rather than a fallacy, albeit an absurd one.

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