In the Wake of Terror in Barcelona, Trump Repeats 6 Month Old Pants on Fire Lie

Thursday afternoon the world was stunned by another terrorist attack on innocent civilians. This one took place on a popular street in the heart of Barcelona, Spain. Authorities are still investigating the circumstances and possible suspects. At this time there appear to be twelve fatalities and dozens more injured.

Donald Trump

Compounding this tragedy is the callousness of America’s pathologically dishonest president, Donald Trump. Shortly after the news broke, Trump rushed to the situation room – scratch that – to his cell phone to comment on Twitter:

This tweet was posted without the slightest bit of irony in recognition of the events of the past week. It took him only a couple of hours to publicly declare this unfolding incident a terror attack. Contrast that with the two days it took for him to condemn the white supremacist perpetrators of terrorism in Charlottesville. Does he care more about the victims in Spain than does about those in the United States? Or do white terrorists get a pass from Trump? And what about his insistence that “Before I make a statement, I need the facts. So I don’t want to rush into a statement.” That was his excuse for not speaking out sooner about the murder of Heather Heyer. But today facts seem to have gone out of favor in this White House.

To make matters worse, Trump’s cell phone fingers were still twitchy. Only forty-five minutes later he posted another tweet:

Trump is offering good advice by encouraging people to study. He ought to take that advice himself. Because the incident he’s alluding to never happened. It concerns a hoax that General Pershing had dissuaded Muslim opponents in the Philippines by executing them and burying their bodies with dead pigs. This is a lie that Trump has told before. In fact, in February of 2016 he was awarded one of his many “Pants-on-Fire” ratings from PolitiFact. At that time PolitiFact consulted actual historians and concluded that the incident Trump describe never took place:

“Of the eight historians we checked with, all were at least skeptical that what Trump said actually happened, and some expressed disbelief even more forcefully than that. The only evidence of something approximating what Trump said stems from one letter documenting a different scenario written by a veteran more than a half century after the fact.

“Perhaps more important, the historians took issue with Trump’s suggestion that the tactic — if it was even used at all — actually worked to end tensions, noting that unrest persisted for years. In all, Trump’s claim is ridiculous, so we rate it Pants on Fire.”

This is typical of Trump’s deliberate perversion of the truth to suit his own propaganda needs. He seems to have no shame in repeating falsehoods that have been unambiguously debunked by experts. The only thing he cares about is the promotion of his own interests. He is very likely only exploiting the tragedy in Spain to distract from the mess he created here at home. And if keeping his glassy-eyed disciples neck deep in lies is the result, that’s their tough luck. Remember, he loves the poorly educated, and this is one reason why.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Profiles in Cowardice: Republicans Are Refusing All Interview Requests to Defend Trump’s Bigotry

On Thursday morning Donald Trump tripled down on his support for the Confederacy and the bigotry it fought to preserve. His latest tweetstorm gushed over the “beauty” of the statues of traitors that he says “will be greatly missed.” And he’s right. They will be missed by the white supremacists and racists who have been applauding Trump’s advocacy of their cause.

Shepard Smith Fox News

However, outside of the alt-rightists and Klan members that have rallied around his pro-Nazi remarks, Trump has garnered scant support from his own Republican colleagues. Many have taken to putting out their own condemnations of the violence instigated by bigots in Charlottesville. They include GOP leaders like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Unfortunately, in most cases they merely express opposition to racism without holding their president accountable for exacerbating the hate.

These weakly conveyed messages of tolerance demonstrate the fear that Republicans have of directly countering Trump. They remain committed to his presidency and his agenda. They just can’t bring themselves to utter his name in conjunction with the division he is fomenting.

They also can’t bring themselves to defend him on television. Every cable news network is complaining that their efforts to book Republicans to defend the President are coming up empty. This is an astonishing turn of events. Publicity-hungry politicians are actually declining to appear on TV to promote their party and president. Here are some examples of the media response to this unprecedented situation:

Chuck Todd, MSNBC: We invited every single Republican senator on this program tonight, all 52. We asked roughly a dozen house Republicans including a bunch of committee chairs and we asked a half-dozen officials. And none of them agreed to discuss this issue with us today.

Wolf Blitzer, CNN: We did reach out to Republican leaders throughout the day. They all, at least for now, refused to join us. But the invitation is clearly still very much open.

Shepard Smith, Fox News: Our booking team reached out to Republicans of all stripes across the country today. Let’s be honest. Republicans don’t mind coming on Fox News channel. We couldn’t get anyone to come and defend him here. We thought in balance, someone should do that. We worked very hard at it throughout the day. We were unsuccessful.

That’s right. Even Fox News, the PR division of the Republican Party, is unable to convince a single Republican to go on the air to support their leader. They can still book GOP advocates of nuking North Korea or throwing millions of Americans off of their healthcare plans. But asking them to backup the President’s recent cheerleading for neo-Nazis is apparently where they draw the line.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

It remains to be seen how long they can hold out. Trump is already tweeting attacks on party mates who dare to criticize him. Thursday morning he unleashed his typically infantile insults on Senators Lindsay Graham and Jeff Flake. Expect those Twitter tantrums to continue as Trump’s ultra-sensitive ego is bruised by others disloyal to Dear Leader. Before long the only people willing to defend Trump on TV will be David Duke and Ivanka. And I’m not all that sure about Ivanka.