Burke: A pop quiz on Trump and documents you shouldn’t fail
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, June 21, 2023
By Tom Burke / Herald columnist
A current events snap quiz: Are you keeping up with the news?
True or false:
America is a communist country; true or false.
Joe Biden is a “wanna-be dictator”; true or false.
Biden had (Trump) arrested on “fake and fabricated charges”; true or false.
The Espionage Act doesn’t apply to Trump’s handling of documents at Mar-a-Largo; true or false.
The Presidential Records Act gave Trump “sole discretion” to “segregate personal materials”; true or false.
Trump may not have known the records were mixed among personal belongings, saying “I hadn’t had a chance to go through all of the boxes”; true or false.
Trump was allowed to negotiate the return of documents with the National Archives after leaving office; true or false.
A corrupt, rigged system is targeting Donald Trump to keep him from fighting for an aggrieved citizenry; true or false.
The Department of Justice is seeking to jail for life not just a former president but the leading opponent of the current president in the 2024 election; true or false.
“We got a rigged country. We have a country that’s corrupt. … We have a country that got nothing but problems. We’re a nation in decline”; true or false.
Trump always tells the truth. He gets results. He has unified Americans. He’s a man of his word. He is a patriot; true or false.
There is no difference between Trump’s handling od cuments and the Biden’s and Pence’s handling of documents they voluntarily turned over; true or false.
The problem with Trump’s indictment is not whether he violated the law; it’s just how politicized his indictment is; trues or false.
“The DOJ is not coming just after me (Trump), they are coming after you”; true or false.
It’s sound policy to, “Do everything we can to defund the DOJ and the FBI”; true or false.
“Biden will forever be remembered as not only the most corrupt president in the history of our country but perhaps even more importantly the president who tried to destroy American democracy”; true or false.
The FBI planted the classified materials at Mar-a-Largo; true or false.
The DOJ announced the (documents) investigation after Trump declared his candidacy for president; true or false.
Joe Biden was caught on tape getting bribed; true or false.
At a stop at Versailles, a Miami Cuban restaurant, after his arraignment, Trump promised “Food for everyone;” and “everyone” had a wonderful snack; true or false.
The answer to all the questions is “false.”
And, if you answered “true” to any of the questions you are:
• Failing in your obligation to be an informed citizen/voter;
• An unwitting victim of Trump, MAGA, Republican disinformation, propaganda and lies; or
• An actual MAGA with no connection to actual truth or facts.
There isn’t room to expound on all of the above, but here’s a sampling of the breathtaking magnitude of the gaslighting:
• “The (Department of Justice) is seeking to jail for life not just a former president but the leading opponent of the current president in the 2024 election,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. False: The DOJ has made no sentencing requests or recommendations; sentencing comes after the trial. Rubio is using sentencing guidelines to blow smoke.
• President Biden had Trump arrested on “fake and fabricated charges.” False: There’s no evidence Biden played any role in Trump’s case; the president has denied involvement and Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith to handle the case in order to avoid any perception of political interference.
• The Espionage Act doesn’t apply. False: It does apply. Trump said the statute is reserved for “traitors and spies,” and while it’s true that espionage refers to spying, the specific provision of the statue Trump was actually charged under prohibits willful retention of national defense information and has been used to prosecute about a dozen others accused of holding on to classified information over the past five years.
• Trump was allowed to negotiate the return of documents with the Archives after leaving office. False: The Presidential Records Act has no negotiating processes and clearly states official government records become property of the Archives office the moment a president leaves office: “There is no history, practice, or provision in law for presidents to take official records with them when they leave office to sort through,” the Archives stated said in a recent press release.
• Trump’s “Food for Everyone” pledge at Versailles. Falsek: He left after ten minutes and skipped out on the bill.
Now Republicans are buying the Trump line, according to a CBS News-YouGov poll revealing: three-quarters of likely Republican primary voters said the indictment was politically motivated and three-quarters also said the indictment either doesn’t change their view of Trump or improves their view of him.
Which validates the idea that, as I read last week: “The truth has no place in Trumpism;” trying to reach Trumpists with the facts is a fruitless task; and no voice could convince MAGA Republicans that Trump willfully violated the law.
Or, as Alexandere Solzhenitsyn (a Nobel prize winner for literature) said years ago,
“We know they are lying.
They know they are lying.
They know that we know they are lying.
We know that they know that we know
they are lying.
And still they continue to lie.”
I’ve completely had it with Republicans’ lies, absurd “whataboutism” and transcendental hypocrisy.
But how about you, gentle reader? How do you feel about being lied to; being played for a sucker; and having your birthright — your American democracy — threatened.
And what are you going to do about it?
Besides vote.
Slava Ukrani.
Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.
