Lying for Truth

June 24, 2017

This week the Donald copped to falsely implying he had recordings of his conversations with James Comey. Sorry folks, no tapes! In a Fox interview, he explained that he was just trying to keep Comey honest in this testimony before the upcoming investigative committee. Yup, Trump was just making shit up to make sure Comey didn’t make shit up.

Rather than recognizing the irony in the Donald’s words, the Fox interviewer responded to the admitted deception with, “It was a smart way to make sure he (Comey) stayed honest.”

Even the Donald seemed a little surprised by the reporter’s sycophantic response – this was feeling more like a cabinet meeting than an interview – but followed up with this odd collection of words, “Well, uh, it wasn’t very stupid, I can tell you that. He was, he did admit that what I said was right. And if you look further back, before he heard about that, I think maybe he wasn’t admitting that, so you’ll have to do a little investigative reporting to determine that, but I don’t think it will be that hard.”

Yeah, I’m not sure what that statement means either. But, knowing the Donald, it’s safe to assume it means the Donald was right, again – and now it was up to the reporter to prove it.  (I think.)

Reading Trump can be painful, and not just because he lacks elegant Amy Tan like prose or, even, McGuffey Reader worthy structure. Rather, the discomfort comes from expending so much effort untangling his words only to reveal some ugly or provocative message. Too much work for so little (or no) reward – the Donald is both fatiguing and disappointing.

After reading Trump’s words for two-hundred-twenty-eight post-election days, the republic seems to be approaching exhaustion from continuously parsing nonsense. We need a break, but cannot in good conscience ignore a guy who brags that his lying serves the truth.

In Peace and Justice,
osv