Patterico's Pontifications

8/29/2019

Trump Team Lies About Trump’s Lies

Filed under: General — Dana @ 12:21 pm



[guest post by Dana]

That Trump lies is nothing new, we’ve seen it over and over again. But it’s interesting to see the lengths his people are now going to lie about his lies:

On Wednesday night, Trump reelection campaign press secretary Kayleigh McEnany did an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo. It was, uh, contentious. But one part of the back-and-forth between the two really… stood out:

CUOMO: You don’t think this President has lied to the American people?

MCENANY: Let me finish, Chris.
CUOMO: You–

MCENANY: No, I don’t think the President has lied.
CUOMO: –have to answer that question, first.

MCENANY: I don’t think the President has lied.
CUOMO: He has never lied to the American people?

MCENANY: No, I don’t think the President has lied.

Here is the relevant portion of the exchange:

This exchange comes after White House communications director Stephanie Grisham told the Washington Post explained why Trump’s lies aren’t lies and that people are just too dimwitted to grasp the unique, nuanced way in which he communicates:

“I don’t think they’re lies. … I think the President communicates in a way that some people, especially the media, aren’t necessarily comfortable with. A lot of times they take him so literally. I know people will roll their eyes if I say he was just kidding or was speaking in hypotheticals, but sometimes he is. What I’ve learned about him is that he loves this country and he’s not going to lie to this country.”

Stupid people, ignore the lies, he loves America!

We are also reminded that this sort of defensive bending of the truth by the administration is nothing new:

Kellyanne Conway made this same argument in the earliest days of Trump’s presidency, when she told NBC’s Chuck Todd this about the false claim that Trump’s inauguration drew the largest crowd ever: “You’re saying it’s a falsehood. And they’re giving — Sean Spicer, our press secretary — gave alternative facts.”

You can read the linked piece in its entirety to see specific instances of the President’s lies.

I just want to leave you with this one because it happened as recently as two days ago: Trump falsely claimed that Melania Trump had gotten to know Kim Jong Un:

“The first lady has gotten to know Kim Jong Un, and I think she would agree with me he is a man with a country that has tremendous potential,” Trump said.

Melania Trump was not present for any of Trump’s three meetings with Kim Jong Un, and there is no evidence she has ever spoken to Kim.

Grisham addressed the stupid people in the room who can’t seem to grasp Trump’s “truths”:

“President Trump confides in his wife on many issues including the detailed elements of his strong relationship with Chairman Kim — and while the First Lady hasn’t met him, the President feels like she’s gotten to know him too.”

Bend it like Trump.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

71 Responses to “Trump Team Lies About Trump’s Lies”

  1. If you can’t be faithful in the small things…

    Dana (fdf131)

  2. Will be interesting to see who is the first to come in with a whatabout…should start a betting pool …

    Time123 (daab2f)

  3. Good lord. Trump lied(!) about Melanie getting to know Kim.

    That’s right up there with Bush’s lies about WMD.

    Munroe (33bad0)

  4. How’s that, Time?

    Munroe (33bad0)

  5. LOL

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  6. Re:”… he loves this country….”

    Can we get a fact check on this?

    John B Boddie (11ac33)

  7. Funny how Bush lying about WMD went from Leftist talking point to Trumpist talking point. Things change, I guess.

    JRH (33113a)

  8. I actually expected you to bring up Obama.

    Time123 (b4d075)

  9. Who you going to believe if you want to keep your job me or your lying eyes!

    lany (625980)

  10. That’s right up there with Bush’s lies about WMD.

    Bush didn’t lie about WMDs.
    Ms. McEnany is young and not a good liar. I predict her spokeswomaning career to be a brief one.

    Paul Montagu (a2342d)

  11. A lot of times they take him so literally.

    It’s funny how the Trumpists can shift see easily from “take him seriously, not literally” to complaining that people “twist” his words to “interpret them in the worst possible light.”

    So: if the literal meaning of Trump’s words makes him look bad, then you are wrong, and bad, to suggest that it’s what he actually meant.

    Radegunda (e6c209)

  12. Good lord. Trump lied(!) about Melania getting to know Kim.

    My point, Munroe, is that Trump is such a pathological liar, that even a claim as insanely ridiculous as Melania having gotten to know Kim Jong Un well doesn’t even register to him as untrue.
    So, if he’s willing to lie about his wife in that way in order to bolster his opinion, then he’s just once again shown that he is willing to lie about anything. So, let me ask you: why would you trust anything he says?

    Dana (fdf131)

  13. #7 Funny how Bush lying about WMD went from Leftist talking point to Trumpist talking point. Things change, I guess.

    JRH (33113a) — 8/29/2019 @ 12:42 pm

    But… did anyone die? :p

    whembly (51f28e)

  14. … doesn’t even register to him as untrue.

    This is a key point. It may be that Trump isn’t really thinking “I’ll make up something and hope that people will swallow it.” It’s that his personal understanding of “truth” is whatever serves his interests.

    He has welded an unabashedly self-serving concept of truth and goodness to a notion of patriotism, which is mistaken for his real driving force. “He loves America,” we hear. A big part of America wants to feel loved by someone who’s imagined to have made an extraordinary personal sacrifice “for us!” And he can’t really be lying to America if he loves America!

    “Baby, lie to me.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJD_hicV164&list=RDbJD_hicV164&start_radio=1

    Radegunda (e6c209)

  15. Bush didn’t lie about Weapons of Mass Destruction.

    The CIA lied to Bush and Cheney.

    And Bush never said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destructon. He said that Saddam Hussein acted like he had them. And he did. Bush and Rumsfeld planned for war like he had chemical weapons. .

    While Trump, makes things up.

    For no apparent reason, sometimes.

    And his numbers are often higher than reality. China does not cause 100,000 American deaths a year from fentanyl. It’s more like about 500 deaths a week or 25,000 to 30,000 a year. (based on an estimate of 79,000 over a 3-year period, ending in 2017) They started shipping fentanyl in 2013.

    Trump did not lose $3 to $5 billion by becoming president, even considering any realistic estimate of profits he might otherwise have made (he cancelled all new foreign deals)

    All of his numbers are suspect.

    Sammy Finkelman (42d229)

  16. 12:

    “Why would I trust anything he says?” Because like a Dad, he may lie about the size of the fish he caught, how many drinks he had, and how far he walked to school in the snow when he was a kid.

    But he’s there for what matters. He kept his promises to flee the Paris Agrt., add NG and BK, and curtail the flow of refugees and economic migrants. He slowed the era of trans bathrooms as a defense policy, and ended the pretense that China’s trade surplus at our expense is a good thing.

    Where is the faultless GOP rival that would have (1) won, and (2), done any of these?

    And: He ‘lied about his wife knowing’ some dictator? FDR lied about helping Britain before WWII; Eisenhower lied about the U2; (and about that comely British aide!); JFK lied about the Bay of Pigs, his health, and Vietnam. Nixon lied about bombing Cambodia. G HW Bush lied about “no new taxes.” Hillary lied about being sniped at; and who knows what else.

    Respectfully, no one, but no one, cares about an inconsequential fib.

    I’ll pick the “I did as I promised” man.

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e)

  17. Gary Barlow!?!? Couldn’t find any Astley?

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  18. Bush demanded inspectors. Saddam Hussein refused, but he tried to convince everyone except for Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld that he didn’t have chemical weapons.

    He tried to convince Bush and Rumsfeld (and Iran maybe) that he did.

    Why? Because he didn’t believe Bush’s reasons for wanting to go to war with him.

    He saw that Bush was waiting till the last minute – which was early April, 2003, because the weather would be too hot lsater for soldiers to operate in the chemical weapons protection gear. He saw that Bush was planning a 2-pronged invasion: Through Kuwait and also through Turkey.

    So I think he bribed the enough members of the Turkish Parliament to get Turkey to pull out of the war – to end its consent at the last minute.

    The last minute because of the chemical weapons protection gear.

    But Bush had wanted to involve Turkey more for political reasons than military ones.

    Saddam Hussein lost.

    Bush went ahead with the war anyway.

    Sammy Finkelman (42d229)

  19. Your next President; he worked at NBC, too:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB8TCRUd9rA

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  20. 15. This reminds me of one of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs. It’s pretty upbeat, but if you really pay attention to the lyrics, it’s a woman saying to her lover, “I know you lied to me, but I don’t care. I’ll live with your lies and be happy, rather than embrace the truth and be apart.”

    Gryph (08c844)

  21. 18–What do you have against Gary Barlow? He’s the author of numerous #1 hit songs, winner of several Ivor Novello awards, with a voice as good as any in pop; the person that the Queen called upon to organize her big Jubilee concert, etc.

    Astley was the opening act for Barlow’s band on their latest tour.

    But I suppose “anyone who doesn’t like Trump must be wrong about everything …” Ergo, Louis Vierne must be horrible too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qhEgE7-K34

    Radegunda (e6c209)

  22. 21 — I like Fleetwood Mac too. (And Brahms, and Monteverdi.) I’m also reminded of a line in “Butterfly, Butterfly” by a-Ha (Morten Harket singing): “You don’t have to say what you’re thinking. You don’t have to mean what you say.”
    And anyone who trashes Gary Barlow has terrible taste.

    Radegunda (e6c209)

  23. CNN has constantly lied about Trump. MSNBC has constantly lied about Trump. So, the moral is:

    Trump lies.

    The MSM would have more credibility about “Trump lies” if they themselves weren’t constantly lying, exaggerating, misrepresenting, and attacking Trump for nearly everything, 92% of the time. If they played it straight, but then pointed out WHEN IT WAS ACCURATE: “Hey, Trump lied about X” then people would care. But they don’t. So NO ONE CARES.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  24. “So, let me ask you: why would you trust anything he says?”
    Dana (fdf131) — 8/29/2019 @ 1:39 pm

    I don’t. That’s a ridiculous question.

    Here’s a better question: What politician deserves your trust? It’s sort of a trick question, because no matter who you name I will find it utterly laughable. I don’t trust anything a politician says, and I trust no politician.

    Munroe (33bad0)

  25. BTW, whatever happened to Stormy Daniels and her lawyer. I thought he was running for POTUS or something.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  26. he didn’t get the requisite amount of donors, I remember when his word was gospel around here,

    narciso (d1f714)

  27. Lying liars lie. That’s what they do. The thing is that liars know that they’re lying. They aslo know that if they lie convincingly enough, it doesn’t matter. As long as the people being lied to believe it, the liars get what they want. It’s the nature of the con.

    Everyone says that all politicians lie, which is true to some extent. But politicians don’t lie so much as they misrepresent or twist the facts in their favor. They don’t live up to their promises, but that’s not really lying; it’s failure to perform.

    Trump’s pathology is more indicative of a detachment from reality. In his mind, the world revolves around him. He’s a malignant narcissist. He lies about everything, without knowing he’s lying.

    Con men know they’re lying, but if they can convince the marks of their con, well, then they can walk away with the money. Trump is something else.

    He is a pathological liar, but in his mind all of his lies are true. He is the biggest, he is the strongest, he is the best in all things. He is the richest, most handsome, most powerful man in the world!

    A real con man wouldn’t care if he was exposed, because he’s already gotten away with the money. And there is always another con to play a mark. Improvise, adapt, overcome; change identities, switch to a new con. Trump is incapable of that. All he can do is keep repeating the same lie over and over. It’s worked for him all of his life, so why stop now?

    What he fears most is exposure. In reality he is a fraud and a failure. That’s why he refuses to release his tax returns. He imagines himself as some sort of omnipotent dictator, but really he’s an emperor with no clothes.

    Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1)

  28. 23… Barlow?

    https://youtu.be/wp60bU0UbTE

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  29. Larry O’Donnell who somehow how went from being a Hollywood producer to a “Journalist” without becoming good at either, had to back down from his one-anonymous-source claim that “Russia was co-signing Trump’s loans”. O’Donnell said it was a “mistake”. Of course, that’s what he claims.

    Actually *my* anonymous source, who is “familiar with” MSNBC states Chinese communists pressured O’Donnell to run the story. See anybody, can be a journalist. O’Donnell proves it.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  30. “Bush didn’t lie about Weapons of Mass Destruction.
    The CIA lied to Bush and Cheney.
    And Bush never said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destructon.”
    Sammy Finkelman (42d229) — 8/29/2019 @ 2:45 pm

    Bush, interviewed in 2005:

    We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They’re illegal. They’re against the United Nations resolutions and we’ve so far discovered two. And we’ll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven’t found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they’re wrong, we found them.

    Munroe (33bad0)

  31. the hundreds of incidents in WikiLeaks reports, suggest otherwise, but the caches were remote, some less active than others, of course after the times assured us there were none, cj chivers came by to castigate those who had dismissed the matter, so you can’t win, either way,

    narciso (d1f714)

  32. Barlow? a poor man’s James Ingram…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  33. 31. “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMD) fall under three categories, which is why they are sometimes called “ABCs” within the intelligence community (for Atomic, Biological, and Chemical agents). Saddam gassed the Kurds, ergo at some point in time, he must have had chemical weapons, which fit that definition(don’t get up in my grill! That’s the UNs definition!). On that basis and that basis alone it was reasonable to believe that Saddam had “weapons of mass destruction.” Given how much time the international community sat on their thumbs and talked before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, I think it’s also perfectly reasonable to believe that the regime had time to dispose of and/or hide whatever it was they did have leftover from the Kurdish gassing incident.

    Gryph (08c844)

  34. Not long ago, I was accused of “looking down my nose” at Trump fans — as if I were a snooty member of the coastal elite, out of touch with regular folks.

    Now it seems I’m low-class because I like Gary Barlow!

    Go figure.

    BTW: Barlow is way better that Astley.

    Radegunda (e6c209)

  35. I’ve just updated the post with a video clip of the exchange between Fredo and Trump’s re-election press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. Yikes.

    Dana (fdf131)

  36. 33: Wow, not long ago I was an elitist snob. Now I’ve got “poor man’s” taste!

    I happen to like a wide range of music. I go to the opera. Etc.

    Radegunda (e6c209)

  37. It’s a very safe bet that my appreciation of a Gary Barlow song would not be sneered at if I loved Donald Trump.

    Radegunda (e6c209)

  38. Honestly, Radegunda, I had to google Gary Barlow…

    Dana (fdf131)

  39. I think the pretty girl did a better job than the goombah.

    nk (dbc370)

  40. I had to google Gary Barlow…

    #Metoo!

    nk (dbc370)

  41. Bush didn’t technically lie about WMD. Iraq had chemical weapons, it’s just that Bush heavily implied that WMD was nukes.

    Trump wouldn’t recognize the truth if he tripped over it at high noon on a clear day.

    Nic (896fdf)

  42. 36. Fear not. I’ve been accused of looking down my nose at Trump humpers as well and I’m from South Dakota. That says it all right there.

    Gryph (08c844)

  43. To each his or her own, Radegunda. I like singers with a bit more range… even dead ones…

    https://youtu.be/hGysgLckhm4

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  44. South Dakota? Hoser, Knob or Yohan?

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  45. Or https://youtu.be/f1MGAhRjq5c

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  46. He was even British!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  47. I’ve never really thought as Trump as a liar and it kind of bothers me that people think he is. He’s a fabulist. He just makes stuff up and, while he acts as though he takes his words seriously and acts as though he expects others to take his words seriously, he truly has no concern whatsoever as to whether or not his words are true and if you’re stupid enough to think it matters enough to even care whether or not his words are true, well, that’s your problem. Trump spends no time whatsoever thinking about whether or not he’s lying, you’re spending oodles of time thinking about it. Admit it, it’s exhausting trying to keep up with Trump’s lies, isn’t it? You think Trump gets exhausted telling the lies? No, Trump’s having the time of his life. So who’s the winner here? It bothers me that Trump’s a troll and people keep falling for his trolling. Stop it! It makes you look stupid.

    Personally, I’d like to see the press just stop talking about Trump, stop talking about whatever latest stupid thing he said was, stop repeating his tweets, stop showing up at his press opportunities, just freaking ignore Trump for one single day. And watch Trump’s head explode over the idea that he’s not the center of attention. But why not ignore Trump? It’s not as if anything Trump says really matters, does it? He just spews some random stuff and tomorrow he’ll spew some random stuff and there’s a good chance the stuff he’s spewing tomorrow will completely contradict the stuff he was spewing today. You simply cannot glean meaningful information from random spewings so why are you even trying? Trump announces big new tariffs on China and everybody rushes to report this, a thousand pundits write a thousand columns about all the various possible ramifications of the tariffs – and then next week Trump announces he’s not going to impose the tariffs after all. You just wasted all that ink speculating about something that never happened. And was Trump ever really planning on imposing those tariffs to begin with? Who knows? Does it matter? But next week when Trump makes some other stupid pronouncement, you’ll be treating it the same serious way you treated his first pronouncement about those big new tariffs on China, won’t you? Stop acting as if whatever Trump says is automatically something that should be taken seriously. Lord knows Trump doesn’t take his words seriously.

    Jerryskids (702a61)

  48. 46. None of the above. I’m the descendant of immigrants from both sides of the family. My mother’s family was German-from-Russia, and Dad was half-German, half-Irish. I don’t get too wrapped up in genealogy. I’m all American.

    Gryph (08c844)

  49. 49. I think what disturbs me about Trump’s lies the most is that his supporters seem to think he’s intelligent enough to be a troll.

    Gryph (08c844)

  50. 50… nothing to do with heritage, in the Dakotas, it was your social standing as a young man among your peer group, lol.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  51. 52. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I was what we called a “geek” or “nerd,” and still am. I’m like something/someone ripped from the pages of The Big Bang Theory.

    Gryph (08c844)

  52. 31. Bush:

    We found biological laboratories

    But they weren’t mobile I would venture. The idea is a little absurd (supposedly they were mobile to avoid the possibility of being bombed. This was never supposed to be anythng other than a research program.

    With chemical weapons, the question was where had the stockpiles Iraq had, or it was though Iraq had because his two sons-in-law who defected (and then were persuaded to return and were killed) said he had – whwre had they gone. Iraq’s generals thought he had them. But everyone thought some other general had them. Now some may have been given away to Syria, and some stockpiles may ahve deteriorated. He had chemicals, but not in amilitarily useful form – not like it was in the 1980s.

    The nuclear program everyone should have assumed was in mothballs, as indeed it was. Bush didn;t make too much of aclaim on that. He claimed Saddam Hussein was interested in the idea.

    But if Iraq had actually tried to buy uranium yellowcake from Niger or anywhere else, that would mean they had no enriched uranium and were back to Square One. That’s why I suspect the forgeries in Italy were Iraqi disinformation. But for some reason people didn’t take it as an assertion that Iraq was further away from a nuclear bomb than it had ever been while Saddam Hussein ruled.

    Sammy Finkelman (42d229)

  53. “So, let me ask you: why would you trust anything he says?”
    Dana (fdf131) — 8/29/2019 @ 1:39 pm

    I don’t. That’s a ridiculous question.

    You may see it as a ridiculous question but, unfortunately, there are obviously a gigantic number of people who don’t believe he is lying and therefore believe everything he says. His loyalists are more than willing to answer what you refer to as a “ridiculous” question – and in spite of painfully obvious evidence – with “because he doesn’t lie, it’s the Fake News lying about him lying.”

    Dana (8b25a4)

  54. 53… I was told that by a colleague from Rhame and it was verified by another Dakota born and bred co-worker, both of whom were mid to late 70s high schoolers. The 8 tracks and 6 packs generation.

    Colonel Haiku (6a0fdd)

  55. Not quite “Hello Wisconsin!!!” but close enough, Colonel. The daughter is fascinated with that show (now on Privatized PBS aka Netflix).

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  56. I’ll have to check that out, ulb. I’m finding less and less of interest on both Netflix and Amazon and even less on the premium channels (HBO, Skinemax, SHO, Starz). Creativity is ebbing – like the 80s – but you can’t blame the Peruvian Marching Powder… at least I think you can’t.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  57. so was miss westenhout, the supposed source for the abe story, like Sonia khan, aide to George Hammond, seems like there are double crossers all over the place,

    narciso (d1f714)

  58. Bi+ches gonna be rat bi+ches…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  59. BTW, whatever happened to Stormy Daniels and her lawyer. I thought he was running for POTUS or something.

    Yup. That would be at Trump’s level of competition. A hooker and her pimp.

    nk (dbc370)

  60. hammonds operation fear, much like the dossier, provided narratives to gullible people,

    yes avenatti now went down the memory hole, as joe walsh will be in a new few months, who again?

    narciso (d1f714)

  61. 63. I misssssss those headlines: “Trump meets His Match: Stormy Daniels’ Combative lawyer [is going to kick Trump’s ass];

    And the east coast women noting his “chisled jawline,” and the Manbuns, musing that a party bereft of testosterone, ‘needs an Avenatti.”

    What a fall.

    The State Bar is belatedly moving to declare him inactive as a lawyer.

    The feds have him on a bicoastal bullseye. Esp. in California for seeming income tax evasion.

    How does a man like Avenatti get treated in the Big House?

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e)

  62. “How does a man like Avenatti get treated in the Big House?”

    Like a Queen?

    https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1167493371973255170

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  63. That tweet is pretty funny.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  64. 53… bet you got extremely tired of the wedgies, gryph!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  65. nk @62:

    BTW, whatever happened to Stormy Daniels and her lawyer.

    They broke up, Then Her lawyer got indicted – double, Stormy Daniels was glad to be proven correct.

    Sammy Finkelman (06be8f)

  66. 65: Someone said they were going to appear at any sentencing, ready to play the “Deliverance,” theme, but that would be rude.

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e)

  67. Why should we listen to Chris ‘Fredo’ Cuomo (via BRIAN STELTER, of all people!) or indeed any representative of CNN, on the definition of truth, facts, or the American Way? Why should they be greeted with anything other than eye rolls when they have not apologized for their ongoing and actively malicious falsehoods, often disguised as ‘fact-checking’?

    Why should we, in short, entertain prostitutes with anything other than laughter and derision when they start talking publicly about the virtues of chastity?

    Alfredo Cuomo (86dfbf)


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