Trump opens his mouth -- and spews lies
On Friday, President Trump strolled out to the White House lawn to speak to reporters. What followed was a cavalcade of lies, mischaracterizations, and breathtakingly inappropriate statements. Here’s just a sampling:
On the release of an FBI Inspector General report on the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server, he said, “I’ve been totally exonerated” and claimed that the report shows “I did nothing wrong, there was no collusion, no obstruction.” This proves, Trump said, “that the Mueller investigation has been totally discredited.” Trump also argued that the “top people at the FBI” (who he also called “scum”) were plotting against his election. The report did no such thing. In fact, the report had nothing to do with the Russia investigation.
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Finally, Trump told a female reporter who was persistently asking him questions to be “quiet” and called her “obnoxious.”
Here’s the thing: This impromptu Trump presser, first with “Fox and Friends” host Steve Doocy, and then with a gaggle of actual reporters, was both unprecedented and not at all unusual. Granted, it’s rare for a president simply to wander out on the White House lawn to talk to reporters. What’s not rare is Trump repeatedly and brazenly lying. It’s even less rare that Trump praised and defended an authoritarian ruler, mindlessly attacked the FBI, denied he had much to do with his former campaign manager, or acted rudely toward a woman.
What’s so striking about Trump’s performance is that in the context of the last three years of American politics, it’s not striking at all. These kinds of presidential performances, which once upon a time would have been stunning and exceptional, are now just routine parts of the news cycle.
It’s simply become impossible for those of us to cover this White House to capture the daily onslaught of outrage and scandal. Consider, for example, that 24 hours ago the New York attorney general’s office, after a two-year investigation, sued the Trump Foundation and the Trump family for a multitude of campaign finance violations, self-dealing, and unlawful coordination with a presidential campaign and even went so far as to send referral letters to the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/06/15/trump-opens-his-mouth-and-spews-lies/Kw4Z9Wj3OXRonfFk59jUDP/story.html
