There Are Eight Tricks Donald’s Spox Use to Lie to the Press

Slate.com
Slate.com
In Politico Magazine, Virginia Heffernan describes the eight techniques Trump mouthpieces like Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Miller and Sean Spicer use to lie to, obfuscate and mislead the media:

1. The He-Believes-It Shuffle
2. The Kellyanne Escape Asana
3. The Spicey Nitpick
4. Trumpal Infallibility
5. “George…”
6. I Know You Are, But What Am I?
7. Move Along. Nothing to See Here.
8. This Is Very Fluid

Trump Lies to Undermine the Media

And he lied, of course. And I don’t mean in the speech itself. He lied directly to the faces of the media muckety-mucks that afternoon, telling them that he was going to embrace some kind of immigration reform. For a few hours, much of the press duly reported this — until they heard the speech itself, which did no such thing. The lie, we were told, was a ‘misdirection,’ in order to get some favorable coverage from the media that afternoon. … But think about that for a minute. This wasn’t a trial balloon, delivered by some anonymous sources to see the impact of a potential policy. This wasn’t even a defensible fib, for national-security reasons. It was an outright lie from the president himself in order to delegitimize the press. If the New York Times or the evening news reports something completely untrue — indeed refuted just a few hours later — what happens to their credibility? Bannon is not kidding when he describes the free press as the opposition. For shameless demagogues, it always is. And this creepily authoritarian administration will happily lie to its face.

Andrew Sullivan

10 Sources Say Yemen Raid Yielded no Intelligence

10

“The Pentagon says Navy SEALs scooped up laptops, hard drives and cell phones in last month’s Yemen raid, but multiple U.S. officials told NBC News that none of the intelligence gleaned from the operation so far has proven actionable or vital — contrary to what President Trump said in his speech to Congress Tuesday. … Ten current U.S. officials across the government who have been briefed on the details of the raid told NBC News that so far, no truly significant intelligence has emerged from the haul.”

Trump Has Lied Every Day of His Presidency

134

At least the number of lies Donald has told since Jan. 20. “Donald Trump has been president for all or part of 33 days. He has averaged four falsehoods or misleading statements a day(!) in that time. There hasn’t been a single day of Trump’s presidency in which he has said nothing false or misleading,” the Washington Post reports. “That data, which comes from a terrific new project from The Post‘s Fact Checker that seeks to document Trump’s statements in the first 100 days of his presidency, is stunning.”

Air Force Can’t Find Trump’s $1 Billion in ‘Savings’

$1 billion

“The Air Force can’t account for $1 billion in savings that President Donald Trump said he’s negotiated for the program to develop, purchase and operate two new Boeing jets to serve as Air Force One,” Bloomberg reports. Said Air Force spokesman Colonel Pat Ryder: “To my knowledge I have not been told that we have that information. I refer you to the White House.”

Graham Calls on Trump to Come Clean on Illegal Voter Lies

So I am begging the president, share with us the information you have about this or please stop saying it. As a matter of fact, I’d like you do more than stop saying it, I’d like you to come forward and say, ‘Having looked at it, I am confident the election was fair and accurate and people who voted voted legally.’ ‘Cause if he doesn’t do that, this is going to undermine his ability to govern this country.

— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), quoted by The Hill.

Spicer Parrots Trump’s Lies About Illegal Voting

The president does believe that, he has stated that before. I think he’s stated his concerns of voter fraud and people voting illegally during the campaign and he continues to maintain that belief based on studies and evidence people have presented to him.

— White House Press Parrot Sean Spicer, defending President Trump “for continuing to claim that millions of people voted illegally in the November election, despite numerous fact-checks and other studies that have debunked the theory,” Politico reports.