Since the beginning of the Trump administration, the one permanent fixture of the White House has been deception. Deception about the large, small, the infinitesimal, the insignificant, and the substantial. The first conference after the inauguration featured Sean Spicer lying to the American public about the size of the inauguration.
The coming weeks would provide lies too big to believe, as President Trump told David Muir that he believed, with no evidence, that 3-5 million illegal immigrants cost him a popular vote loss. Kellyanne Conway brought to use the beauty of "alternative facts."
And Sean Spicer just today, while comparing Hitler to the Assad regime in Syria, said, "Even someone as despicable as Hitler never sunk to using chemical weapons.
" He further clarified by mentioning that he was referring to Hitler never doing this to "his own people," which means that German Jews were not really "Hitler's people."
It's unnecessary to parse this ridiculous claim, or point out that Hitler infamously killed people in gas ovens. What I'm more interested in is why America continually keeps give the benefit of the doubt to people that are intent on lying to us.
Fifty Second Chances
What I can't figure out is why we allow these retractions, why we accept these half-hearted apologies, as if these people have warranted the assumption that they will not lie again. The only way to keep Kellyanne Conway from lying was to take her off TV.
What's truly astounding is that the media acts as if the snake isn't going to bite you again because it told you it wouldn't.
The blame for Donald Trump's behavior and lies is placed solely on Trump, instead of the blame being displaced, as it should, throughout the administration of people that it takes to hold him up. Spicer is a part of this machine.
They Will Lie Again
Are we to reasonably believe that the next time Donald Trump comes up with a cockamamie claim akin to Obama wiretapping him, or Kellyanne Conway asserts that Obama spied on Trump using microwaves, that Spicer will not support those falsehoods?
After his devotion to the cult of Trump, why would we believe that the next crisis will magically extricate from Spicer a virtue as yet unseen?
This magical thinking only leads us to ruin and demonstrates the danger of continuing to give this White House chances that they don't deserve and have not earned. They do not "accidentally" spew bullshit, and this intentional campaign of falsehoods has to be called what it is, for all our sakes.
