Asking someone questions about the basis of their opinions without educating them in the process isn't lying to them.

In this case, it discovers that their opinions are not fact-based, despite proclaiming to be so.

if you say that such-and-such policy will "reduce" the level of X to Y, and it turns out it was actually Y in the first place, and you knew that, then you have lied. there is no two ways about this.

it's an absurd gotcha. nobody has every statistic memorized.