There are a number of constants in life: death, taxes, the devotion of a good dog and the lies of politicians.
Let’s face it, nearly all politicians lie at some point or another: lies of omission, misdirection, redirection, spin and good old outright lies. Sometimes they even have good reason to do so.
Local politicians don’t have much cause to lie outright. It seems like the bigger the politician, the more likely they are to be caught in a lie which would have to make U.S. President Donald Trump the biggest politician of all, considering the whopper he tried to sell last week.
By now, most of the world is aware that after his sycophantic performance at the Helsinki summit with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Trump tried to walk back his craven acceptance of the dictator’s assurance that Russia didn’t meddle in the 2016 U.S. elections.
Trump now says he misspoke, that he meant to say he couldn’t see any reason Russia and Putin “wouldn’t” meddle in U.S. elections, not “would.”
Too bad everything else in his speech, his body language, his tone of voice, were shouting “I believe you, Vlad.”
Trump’s fawning over dictators like Putin and Kim Jong-un is disgraceful enough, and it’s good to see the (somewhat bipartisan) condemnation of the Helsinki performance.
What’s even more disgraceful is that Trump thought he could stand up in front of the world and deny the Russian interference that has been made very clear through the work of multiple U.S. intelligence services and investigations.
Then he sunk even lower by expecting people to believe that it was just a matter of saying the wrong word.
If Trump didn’t already hold the record for stupendous lies, this would ensure his hold on the trophy. Which, considering his normal narcissistic behaviour, would probably make him happy, hearing that he really was best at something.