America was treated this weekend to a flurry of Trump staffers blatantly lying on the Sunday morning news programs about Donald Trump’s efforts to “plow through” the confirmation of his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Specifically, they were purposefully misleading about the President’s restrictions on the FBI investigation into allegations of Kavanaugh’s sexual assaults in his school days.

Now, during a stage-managed announcement Monday morning of a new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, Trump eventually allowed a few questions about his tainted nominee. Throughout much of it he was overtly dismissive to women reporters who he repeatedly interrupted and tried to suppress. He even outright insulted Cecelia Vega of ABC News saying that “I know you’re not thinking. You never do.”

What’s more, Trump rarely answered the question that was asked. At one point a reporter asked him several times if he would withdraw Kavanaugh’s nomination if it weren’t determined that he lied during his congressional testimony (which he did). After a few obvious attempts at dodging, Trump finally said that that “I don’t think he did” lie. Which is not a response as to whether he would pull Kavanaugh IF he lied. Trump, nevertheless, lied about Kavanaugh being number one at Yale (where they do not rank the students), while calling Sen. Feinstein a liar with regard to “leaking” information about Kavanaugh’s victim, Christine Blasey Ford. He provided zero evidence of Feinstein lying, but she fully documented her proper handling of the sensitive info.

It’s difficult to pick the worst comments that Trump makes in any of his public addresses. The contenders are just too numerous and worthy of disgust. But among the most repulsive comments made at this event was when Trump pointed to the media scrum and nastily proclaimed:

“Now for you Democrats. I guess I’m including you too, the media. You’re a part of the Democrat Party.”

On the surface that appears to be just another snide display of hostile partisanship. But it goes further than that. Remember that Trump believes that the media is “the enemy of the people.” It’s a remark that he uses frequently which he borrows from Stalin’s authoritarian repertoire. And now he conflates the media and the Democrats. So simple logic suggests that Trump also believes that the Democratic Party is the enemy of the people.

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

This isn’t how a democracy is supposed to work. Trump has brought partisan rancor to new lows as he strives to spread his doctrine of hate across the nation. It’s bad enough that he has tagged the press – the only profession expressly protected in the Constitution – as America’s enemy. But now he’s expanding that to include his political opponents and, by the way, tens of millions (in fact a majority) of citizens. He’s unambiguously fomenting a civil war. It’s a horrific and dangerous denigration of democracy. But it’s something his Deplorable cult followers appear to welcome.