Old news; all politicians stretch the truth, even lie occasionally, unfortunately, Hillary was a good example. But 45’s lies are in a class beyond that. Even when the truth is clear and well documented, he persists in his lies. According to Webster’s lying is: “1a: an assertion of something known or believed by the speaker to be untrue with intent to deceive b: an untrue or inaccurate statement that may or may not be believed true by the speaker; 2: something that misleads or deceives.” Note the emphasis on DECEIVE. Apparently, he is deceiving himself as well as trying to deceive the rest of us.
Quote from David Leonhardt, NY Times editorial columnist, March 20, 2017: “He has lied about — among many other things — Obama’s birthplace, John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Sept. 11, the Iraq War, ISIS, NATO, military veterans, Mexican immigrants, Muslim immigrants, anti-Semitic attacks, the unemployment rate, the murder rate, the Electoral College, voter fraud and his groping of women.”
A relatively benign example was 45’s insistence about how big his inauguration crowds were. The facts were quite clear about that, but he kept insisting he was right. Maybe not so benign because of the pattern it represents: when confronted with facts, he ignores them. This gets more serious when we look at the potential Russia connection. There is clearly some connection, we just don’t know how bad and deep it is yet. For example, Paul Manafort was 45’s campaign chairman, and now, the White House says he had a “very limited role.” How is that possible?
Quote from Flynn’s lawyer: “Gen. Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit. No reasonable person, who has the benefit of advice from counsel, would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch-hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution.” Assurances against unfair prosecution means immunity.
Fynn said in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press in September 2016 “When you are given immunity, that means you have probably committed a crime.” 45 tweeted: “Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss) by media & Dems, of historic proportions.” (Wait a minute, “historic proportions” when your opponent beat you by almost 3 million votes in the one-person, one-vote election!)
There there is Devin Nunes, R, chair of the House Intelligence committee, who has lied repeatedly and acted in an incredibly unethical manner about so-called documents supporting 45’s tweets of being spied on. He cooperated with the White House’s lies by lying more, but won’t recuse himself from the Russia investigation. It’s almost too crazy and convoluted to imagine.
We don’t need to read spy thrillers anymore, just the news.
Additional links: www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/opinion/all-the-presidents-lies.html?mwrsm=Email&_r=0
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/03/21/trumps-lies-are-failing-him-and-it-is-making-him-deeply-frustrated/?pwa=off&tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_1_na&tid=pwa_off&utm_term=.bbfa23d0aa69
I mentioned this before, but in case you missed it, don’t use his name, don’t use his photo: 2 ways to fight the egocentric loony who is President of the United States. 45 (with thanks to Sara Van der Burch for that idea) because he is the 45th person to hold that office. Instead of a photo, show a silhouette or shadow or blank, anything but that face!