In June 2015 Donald J. Trump burst on the scene
as a GOP Presidential candidate that few people gave much of a chance to survive
the first primary, much less become the venerable Party’s nominee, and
certainly few if any expected him to advance to assume the mantel of the
presidency. Trump has a long history of prominence as a businessman. But for
more than two years now, his forays in the headlines of the national news, or
as he frequently says, the fake news, have come primarily as a politician.
Allow me to pivot for a moment. I have read and
watched news for most of my life. As a matter of fact, before I began school,
my mother taught me to read using the local newspaper. So, I’ve have maintained
a nearly life long, almost six decades, relationship with news periodicals and
TV newscasts. I say all that to underscore that from 2009 to 2016, I saw
President Obama castigated regularly in news reports almost every day, and
called virtually every negative appellation that his detractors could think of
and say.
Returning to the moment, I notice that
newscasters on most networks are careful to avoid calling Mr. Trump a liar.
When there are Trump supporters on the shows, who are either asked questions
about Trump’s truthfulness, or are engaged by someone who has the temerity to
actually call Mr. Trump a liar, falsifier, or even some less direct euphemism,
they quickly push back arguing neither they, nor the “offender,” knows
what is in Mr. Trump’s heart, and they insist that it is therefore unfair, and out
of bounds to call him a liar. In those instances, when it is flatly impossible
to divest him of having spoken untruths, they note that to lie, one must not only
make a false statement, but one also must do so with the deliberate intent to
deceive. With that distinction in mind, I don’t know what is in his heart. What
I do know is he speaks untruths on what intrinsically seems like a historic
basis.
To put that in terms that have been captured
and catalogued, The New York Times, on June 21st, published an
updated list of what the headline characterized as, “Trumps Lies.” Mr. Trump
uttered each of the items on the list after he took office. To be clear, those
are the words of the NYT. I’m confident they researched and lawyered the list
before publishing it. Here is an abridged sampling:
·
JAN. 21 “I
wasn't a fan of Iraq. I didn't want to go into Iraq.” (He was for an invasion before he was against it.)
·
JAN. 25 “Take
a look at the Pew reports (which show voter fraud.)” (The report never mentioned voter fraud.)
·
FEB. 4 “After
being forced to apologize for its bad and inaccurate coverage of me after
winning the election, the FAKE NEWS @nytimes is still lost!” (It never apologized.)
·
FEB. 7 “And yet the murder rate in our country is the highest it’s been
in 47 years, right? Did you know that? Forty-seven years.” (It was higher in the 1980s and '90s.)
·
MARCH 4 “How
low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election
process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” (There's no evidence of a wiretap.)
·
MARCH 17 “I
was in Tennessee — I was just telling the folks — and half of the state has no
insurance company, and the other half is going to lose the insurance company.” (There's at least one insurer in every Tennessee county.)
·
APRIL 2 “Now, my last tweet — you know, the one that you are talking
about, perhaps — was the one about being, in quotes, wiretapped, meaning
surveilled. Guess what, it is turning out to be true.” (There is still no evidence.)
·
APRIL 27 “I
want to help our miners while the Democrats are blocking their healthcare.” (The bill to extend health benefits for certain coal
miners was introduced by a Democrat and was co-sponsored by mostly Democrats.)
·
MAY 12 “When
James Clapper himself, and virtually everyone else with knowledge of the witch
hunt, says there is no collusion, when does it end?” (Clapper said he wouldn't have been told of an
investigation into collusion.)
·
JUNE 1 “China
will be allowed to build hundreds of additional coal plants. So, we can’t build
the plants, but they can, according to this agreement. India will be allowed to
double its coal production by 2020.” (The agreement doesn’t allow or disallow building coal plants.)
·
JUNE 5 “The
Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered
down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C.” (Trump signed this version of the travel ban, not the
Justice Department.)
·
JUNE 21 “Last
week a brand-new coal mine just opened in the state of Pennsylvania, first time
in decades, decades.” (Another coal mine opened in 2014.)
That’s just a baker’s dozen listing of the
president’s lying, misleading, and deceptive statements…all since he has become
President of the United States of America. But let’s not forget, his political
emergence was fueled by a lie; the assertion that Barack Obama was not born in
America. I have long maintained he is methodically working to establish a
framework in which facts, truth, even reality is irrelevant. According to the
NYT story, Trump lied publicly at least 20 of his first 40 days in office, and made
untrue statements for the first 40 days in office.
Now, allow me to shift gears. If the L-Word has
been discouraged like crosses at a vampire family dinner, the pretend horror
and feigned personal offense taken by conservatives about the ubiquitous R-Word
(that’s racist, just so we are clear), when referring to Trump, and his
Executive Office associates, Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka, is so great, one
would think Obamacare was still the law of the land. Oh wait. It is!
As most of us know, there was a small gathering
this weekend in Charlottesville, VA. Jason Kessler, a self-described
“pro-white” activist organized a rally to protest taking down a statue of
General Robert E. Lee in the City of Charlottesville. Saturday’s rally was
preceded on Friday night by a group of Tiki-torch carrying members of the above
referenced activists who marched across the campus of the University of
Virginia. The symbolic scene was reminiscent of Klansmen carrying torches and
burning crosses.
By Saturday as the crowd assembled for the
protest, the group consisted of the KKK, Neo-Nazis, members of the Alt-right,
and other white supremacists, or as they frequently euphemistically refer to
themselves, white nationalists, many of them armed with long rifles and other
weapons, and shields, helmets, and other paramilitary gear. To paraphrase
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, they were better armed than our State
Police.
The good news is, the available weaponry on
hand notwithstanding, neither the protesters, nor members of law enforcement
fired a single shot. I did not hear, read, or see that any of the counter
protesters bore firearms. However, that was not the end of the story. The bad
news is an individual described as a Nazi sympathizer weaponized his vehicle,
crashed it into other vehicles, then backed up, and in the process, killed
Heather Heyer of Charlottesville, and injured 19. In addition to Ms. Heyer’s
untimely death, two state troopers, Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen, of Midlothian,
VA, and Trooper-Pilot Berka M.M. Bates, of Quinton, VA, perished when their
helicopter crashed while they were monitoring the events of the protest.
After these events Saturday, Trump spoke about
the matter. He squeezed his remarks into a speech meant to be part of signing a
Veteran’s bill expanding a program to allow veterans to seek private medical
care. In perhaps the kindest thing he has said about former President Obama
since he has taken office, he indemnified Obama, in a backhanded way, by
conceding that the hatred and bigotry preceded both he and Obama. He went on to
make a false equivalency, lamenting the actions that occurred on many sides:
“We’re
closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia.
We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred,
bigotry and violence, on many sides.
It’s
been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump. Not Barack
Obama. It’s been going on for a long time.”
Trump failed to mention the display of white
supremacy or Nazi symbols in Charlottesville Saturday. His omission led to
considerable pushback among both Democrats and republicans. It’s not an
overstatement to say his lack of citing the racist elements that fueled the
events was the top story of the weekend. If anything competed with Trump’s own
billing, it was that input from David Duke, the former KKK leader, who
articulated he was pleased with the protest because it made clear that Donald
Trump’s promise to “Take back our country,” will be fulfilled. He also tweeted
a poignant reminder to Mr. Trump:
“I would
recommend you take a look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans
who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists.”
That’s a sobering show of force from a member
of Team Trump’s base. Alternately, there was an unquestionable expression of
disappointment by numerous Republicans. For a brief time Monday, it actually
appeared that the disconnect in his Party may have resonated with the
president, and forced him into reflection mode. So much so, that Monday Donald
Trump rendered a second statement,
one in which he pointedly addressed the role of the negative and racist factions.
For one day, he submitted to the influence of better angels…and a lot of
concerned Republicans. He stated the following:
“Racism
is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs,
including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that
are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”
This head spinning about-face did not sit well
with much of Trump’s base, and ultimately, not with him. Numerous reports noted
that Monday’s more fulsome statement seemed scripted and forced. More than a
few observers concluded, his heart did not appear in it.
Well, much like a weather vane, if one waits a
moment, in this case a day, Trump’s point of view and position on the matter
changed again. Tuesday at Trump Tower, he came out with a copy of his Saturday
comments in his pocket, and he went full-fledged reverse. He had this, among
other things, to say:
“I think
there is blame on both sides. What about the Alt-left that came charging at, as
you say, the Alt-right? Do they have any semblance of guilt? What about the
fact they came charging with clubs in hands, swinging clubs? Do they have any
problem? I think they do.
You had
a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was
also very violent. Nobody wants to say it, but I will say it right now.”
So there you have it. At one point he drew a
fake comparison; at another point he maintained there was a moral equivalency
between the purveyors of historical racist and bigoted practices, and those who
have been historically oppressed and victimized by such behavior. How can one
square that? Well, friends and neighbors, for me, it’s pretty simple. When it
comes to Donald J. Trump, just as with the issue of whether he is a compulsive liar,
there are those who passionately defend him, and insist that he is not. When it
comes to the question of whether he is a confirmed racist, I’m sure the same
holds true. I’m sure you can imagine how his acolytes respond to the compound
question, is he a megalomaniacal compulsive liar, who is also a confirmed
racist?
You already know…”He Is Who We Thought He Was:End of Story!” It’s really just that simple.
Holla back!
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