Fri
Jul 13 2018
12:52 pm
Why does the U.S. president get away with lying so blatantly?
By: bizgrrl

He has said at least twice in the past couple of days that "Germany gives vast sums of money to Russia in exchange for 70 percent of its energy and therefore, they are a "captive of Russia" and are the ones betraying the NATO charter." I heard him say it today while speaking in the United Kingdom.

He was wrong on the facts. Germany gets about 9 percent of its energy from natural gas, which is the energy in question, and about 70 percent of that comes from Russia. Big difference between 70 percent and 9 percent don't you think? It would even be less than 9 percent since they only get 70 percent of the 9 percent from Russia.

He said , "The United States has been paying a tremendous amount - probably 90 percent of the cost of NATO"

Wrong again, "The United States, which spends more than twice as much on defense as the second biggest-spending country in the world (China), currently covers about 22 percent of the cost of NATO."

Then, he does an interview with a reporter from The Sun, a UK publication, slamming British Prime Minister Theresa May’s handling of the Brexit deal.

A couple of hours later in a public speaking opportunity with May, he denies what he said to the Sun reporter and called it fake news, even though there is an audio recording of his remarks!

We could go on and on. It never ends. We need to get out and vote his supporters out of office. Please!

Topics:
R. Neal's picture

The UK Guardian... "Trump

Submitted by R. Neal on Fri, 2018/07/13 - 3:22pm.

The UK Guardian...

"Trump takes war on 'fake news' to UK – and tells towering, easily debunked lies...

Blunt and rude, the attack on one of the US’s biggest mainstream news outlets shocked many British viewers unaccustomed to such conduct by a head of state, especially an American, especially in the setting of a press conference with their prime minister, Theresa May."

(link...)

Treehouse's picture

How does he get away with it?

Submitted by Treehouse on Fri, 2018/07/13 - 4:08pm.

All other media need to stand up to this bully and stand up for the other media. If ABC, Fox, etc. let him get away with not responding to reasonable questions from CNN, they are complicit.

Mike Daugherty's picture

He gets away with lying and

Submitted by Mike Daugherty on Sat, 2018/07/14 - 2:00pm.
(in reply to Treehouse)

He gets away with lying and cheating and vulgar language in front of millions of TV viewers because a large chunk of Americans do not care what a President says or does as long as he supports a whiter America and assures them they can tote a gun. Republican politicians do not have the guts to take a stand in fear of losing elections. If President Obama had behaved in the same way as Trump the Republicans would have been in an uproar and would not have tolerated such behavior. It is disappointing that the media, Democrats, Independents, and decent Republicans have not done more to rid the country of a mentally ill baffoon! He is the last hoorah for the white racist. America is getting browner and they are in denial. In less than a generation, the changing demographic makeup of our country will put an end to their political goals. Even then, the country will never be able to repair the damage the immoral and evil President Trump has done.

bizgrrl's picture

From Digby, Tom Newton Dunn,

Submitted by bizgrrl on Fri, 2018/07/13 - 9:20pm.

From Digby,

Tom Newton Dunn, the reporter from the Sun who interviewed Trump:

And we kept on talking for I think 28 minutes is how long it ended up lasting. And he wanted to talk and talk and talk and the other extraordinary thing I found is he is unchallenged, his power is total. Nobody tells him what to say or tells him off once he's said it in his organization. It's like being in the court of a medieval emperor.

Somebody's picture

First, although so many of

Submitted by Somebody on Sat, 2018/07/14 - 11:15am.

First, although so many of Trump’s lies are easily debunked, those who do the debunking need to be correct 100% of the time, so real-time debunking is difficult. Since Trump does not require factual information, he’s moved on to the next thing before everyone else can look up their sources. Trump can lie and be wrong 100% of the time. For someone correcting him, however, a single error will be used to undermine their credibility for all the other instances where Trump lies and they accurately correct him.

Second, the mainstream press is paralyzed by the call to be fair and unbiased. It’s a corollary to the first item, but even before Trump, FoxNews mantras about the “liberal press” trained everyone else to bend over backward to not only avoid actual bias, but to avoid appearances of bias. Being fair and unbiased does not require deference to “both sides” when one of those sides is represented by an inveterate liar. This provides wide latitude for the spread of false information and narratives by the right, with limited response from the center to correct the record. So not only does the right get away with spreading false information, but they are able to continually set the agenda for what is even covered or discussed.

The Justice Department’s indictment yesterday of a dozen Russian operatives, followed by Trump’s almost certainly obsequious powwow with Vladimir Putin on Monday should dominate the Washington news for weeks. The Russians have attacked the heart of our democracy and our President, sworn by oath to “preserve, protect and defend,” will sidestep it and do nothing. This is unprecedented. Nonetheless, by this time next week, all that will almost assuredly be old news, and although the new news may be controversy stirred up by further Presidential falsehoods, the fact that none of it seems to be cumulative means that whatever that controversy is will in turn be forgotten by the next week.

It is only Robert Mueller’s head-down, no nonsense, no leaks, apolitical work ethic that will offer any cumulative summation of any significant part of all this. Mueller is taking so long because when he releases a final report, it must be so overwhelming and so complete that even the Trump gaslighting vortex will be unable to divert attention away from it.

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