Who is surprised that they would lie about this right before the elections?
They were only off by roughly a factor of 100.
Absolutely, if the government is willing to lie about Covid, Ukraine, you name the issue, industrial level propaganda to push a narrative or to coverup problems and crimes is what the public is fed on a daily basis.
Lying .. before the elections, after the elections ... 24/7 ... for decades now ... even after being caught again and again in the web of lies, they either ignore or lie about their deceit... and stay in power... because the lying 24/7 corp DC media is on their side. The current press secretary is an excellent model of this behavior.