Sunday, August 5, 2018

IT'S TRUE: TRUMP IS LYING MORE, AND DOING IT ON PURPOSE


By Susan Glasser
The New Yorker

On Thursday, the Washington Post published a remarkable story on its front page revealing a recent spike in the number of “false and misleading claims” made by President Trump. 

In his first year as President, Trump made 2,140 false claims, according to the Post

In just the last six months, he has nearly doubled that total to 4,229. 

In June and July, he averaged 16 false claims a day.

On July 5th, the Post found what appears to be Trump’s most untruthful day yet: 76 per cent of the 98 factual assertions he made in a campaign-style rally in Great Falls, Montana, were “false, misleading or unsupported by evidence.” 

Trump’s rallies have become the signature events of his Presidency, and it is there that the President most often plays fast and loose with the facts, in service to his political priorities and to telling his fervent supporters what they want and expect to hear from him. 

At another rally this week, in Tampa, Trump made 35 false and misleading claims, on subjects ranging from trade with China to the size of his tax cut.

These astonishing statistics were compiled by a small team overseen by Glenn Kessler, the editor and chief writer of the Post’s Fact Checker column, who for much of the last decade has been truth-squadding politicians and doling out Pinocchios for their exaggerations, misrepresentations, distortions, and otherwise false claims. 

At this point, Kessler practically has a Ph.D. in the anthropology of the Washington lie, a long and storied art form which has always had skilled practitioners of both parties. But Trump has challenged the Fact Checker, Kessler told me over coffee this week, in ways that have tested the very premise of the column. 

The President, for example, has a habit of repeating the same falsehoods over and over again, especially as they concern his core political causes, such as trade or immigration or getting European allies to contribute more to NATO. 

What should Kessler do, he often asks himself, when Trump repeats a four-Pinocchio whopper? Since taking office, the Postfact-checking team found, Trump has repeated close to a 150 untruths at least three times. Kessler has instated a Trump-specific database in response. 

Initially, the Post planned to compile the database of Trump’s misrepresentations as part of a project for his 100 days in office. But the numbers kept piling up; now, Kessler told me, he is committed to keeping it up for Trump’s full term, documenting every “untruth” (per Post policy, he does not use the label “lies” even for the most egregious Presidential whoppers). 

“We’re kind of doing it for history,” he said.

History books will likely declare the last few months a turning point in the Trump Presidency, and Kessler’s laborious work gives us metrics that confirm what is becoming more and more apparent: the recent wave of misstatements is both a reflection of Trump’s increasingly unbound Presidency and a signal attribute of it. 

The upsurge provides empirical evidence that Trump, in recent months, has felt more confident running his White House as he pleases, keeping his own counsel, and saying and doing what he wants when he wants to. The fact that Trump, while historically unpopular with the American public as a whole, has retained the loyalty of more than 80 per cent of Republicans – the group at which his lies seem to be aimed – means we are in for much more, as a midterm election approaches that may determine whether Trump is impeached by a newly Democratic Congress. 

At this point, the falsehoods are as much a part of his political identity as his floppy orange hair and the “Make America Great Again” slogan. The untruths, Kessler told me, are Trump’s political “secret sauce.”

That appears to be the case for others on Trump’s team as well. 

Image result for sarah huckabee sanders lyingAs Kessler and I talked, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, presided at one of her increasingly rare press briefings. (Another metric to consider: Sanders gave three briefings in all of July, while previous Administrations conducted them daily.) 

In the briefing, Sanders repeated a number of false claims, including one that Kessler had previously debunked, that reporters put out “leaked” information that caused Osama bin Laden to stop using his satellite phone and slowed the hunt for the Al Qaeda leader before the 9/11 attacks. 

Kessler heard about Sanders’s false claim as we were leaving and retweeted his old article. “Kind of amazed but not surprised,” he wrote on Twitter, that the White House press secretary “would cite uninformed reporting that appeared BEFORE I debunked this fable in 2005.”

To me, the striking thing was that Sanders’s false claim was part of her prepared remarks; she read them from a piece of paper in the midst of a press-bashing jeremiad about the evils of what Trump calls “fake news.” 

A day later, she made her personal view of the press clear. Asked repeatedly Thursday whether she endorses Trump’s oft-stated line that the media are the “enemies of the people,” Sanders refused to reject Trump’s characterization. 

“I’m here to speak on behalf of the President,” she said. “He’s made his comments clear.” The White House assault on the truth is not an accident – it is intentional.

To read the rest of Glassers' astounding article, click on link below:

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Trump is only copying the city leaders the lawyers of GBIC and the BEDC along with their presidents, the city mayor who needs to go to Columbia get his black magic fix or help the Jackass Jason Hilts to steal on his BEDC credit card. Trump is believed to be getting Muff Diving, tuition from the Muff Diving Pimp, the Scumbag Black Mamba Rene Oliveira who states that he may need a pardon one day, the Scumbag wants Trump to say will he fetch his own muffin, or does he want the Black Mamba Rene Oliveira to Pimp him some Brownsville muffin.

Anonymous said...

So is this who Carlos Cascos hangs with. The have the same Pinocchio nose!!!!

Anonymous said...

ASI SON TODOS LOS REPUBLICANOS. COMO CARLOS CASCOS.

Anonymous said...

Please someone, anyone, run against E.C.

Anonymous said...

What about crooked Hillary?

Anonymous said...

Every time Trump opens his tweeter mouth, he lies! Who believes anything he says anymore. Not even Nixon lied like he does. I feel for Sarah Sanders, cause she knows deep down she is covering up for her boss and is trying so hard to be loyal, but she will eventually break. You can tell she is troubled everytime she defends him just by looking at her painful face. She need to tell him to take his job and shove it. Our Congress needs to get into action and start impeachment procedures on this shameless man whom we have to address as President. Enough is enough and we are so stupid for putting up with it.

Anonymous said...

The Scumbag Black Mamba Rene Oliveira will except Hillary any time, he will never turn away from any Muff that needs diving, even Hillary.

Anonymous said...

I am not for the red or blue but I stand for the red white and blue and this president is representing we the PEOPLE, ! Lots of fake news I will vote for trump again he has accomplished more with so much resistance it’s unbelievable the country is moving forward we are respected again

Anonymous said...

To: August 7, 2018 at 12:08 AM

It's beyond верить - UNBELIEVABLE

Anonymous said...

Respected? My ass! No one wants anything to do with the US because they are afraid of the traitor in the white house. It is hard to respect the office of president when the office holder lies through his teeth every time he opens his mouth. What or who does he think he is fooling. I love to watch
Stephen Corbet and the guy with A closer look because they tell it exactly like it is. I on purpose flip the channel when they are both on so I can have the last laugh for the day. It used to be red, white and blue but Trump blew the office into the cesspool.

Anonymous said...

trump is not a liar but a lier one who risks getting stepped on.

rita