Lying liers
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/opinion/all-the-presidents-lies.html?_r=0
One of my readers warns against descending to The Donald's remarkably LOW level of public discourse. So, today, I won't. Instead, after watching some of yesterday's House intelligence committee hearing and the TV reporting of same, I'll just quote a few choice lines of the Leonhardt op-ed in today's Times:
-- "The ninth week of Donald Trump’s presidency began with the F.B.I. director calling him a liar."
-- "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." (The Times's on-line version [above] highlights each of these items in blue -- instant fact-check...)
-- "Caveat emptor: When Donald Trump says something happened, it should not change anyone’s estimation of whether the event actually happened. Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. His claim doesn’t change the odds.
"Which brings us to Russia...It’s the kind of national-security matter that a president and members of Congress swear to treat with utmost seriousness when they take the oath of office. Yet now it has become the subject of an escalating series of lies by the president and the people who work for him."
-- "As Comey was acknowledging on Monday that the F.B.I. was investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, Trump was lying about it...A few hours later, his press secretary, Sean Spicer, went before the cameras and lied..."
Leonhardt's piece closes: "Our president is a liar, and we need to find out how serious his latest lies are."
One of my readers warns against descending to The Donald's remarkably LOW level of public discourse. So, today, I won't. Instead, after watching some of yesterday's House intelligence committee hearing and the TV reporting of same, I'll just quote a few choice lines of the Leonhardt op-ed in today's Times:
-- "The ninth week of Donald Trump’s presidency began with the F.B.I. director calling him a liar."
-- "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." (The Times's on-line version [above] highlights each of these items in blue -- instant fact-check...)
-- "Caveat emptor: When Donald Trump says something happened, it should not change anyone’s estimation of whether the event actually happened. Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. His claim doesn’t change the odds.
"Which brings us to Russia...It’s the kind of national-security matter that a president and members of Congress swear to treat with utmost seriousness when they take the oath of office. Yet now it has become the subject of an escalating series of lies by the president and the people who work for him."
-- "As Comey was acknowledging on Monday that the F.B.I. was investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, Trump was lying about it...A few hours later, his press secretary, Sean Spicer, went before the cameras and lied..."
Leonhardt's piece closes: "Our president is a liar, and we need to find out how serious his latest lies are."