By Tom Burke / Herald columnist
So, who lies?
Well, a liar of course. But what kind of person is that?
The dishonest? The ignorant? The grifter? The wanna-be despot? The sociopath? The narcissist? The amoral? The delusional? The immoral? Those afraid of the consequences of the truth? Those with something to hide? The wanna-be victim? The cheat? The thief?
We all know the answer to who lies: The Donald … is a liar. He lies a lot.
But what kind of a person believes a liar like the president (even after being shown the truth)?
The fool? The idiot? The ignorant? The uneducated? The gullible? Those who want to be willfully deceived? The person so desperate for an alternative reality they live in the fantasy world created by the liar? Those as amoral, immoral or dishonest as the liar? Those who watch Fox News?
Well, we also know the answer to ”Who believes all the president’s lies:” The Trump “base.” MAGAs.
And while there is a long list of provable Trump lies, lets first focus on the most recent string of lies: his lies about coronavirus and Covid-19.
Like when he said there were only 15 cases of coronavirus in the U.S., and there were 42 known cases. And the number of cases was “going to be down to close to zero.” It went up. Trump lied.
Like when he claimed it would “miraculously” disappear in the spring. Lie.
Like when he said on March 6, as cases increased, “This came unexpectedly, it came out of China, we closed it down, we stopped it, it was a very early shut down.” Another lie.
Like when he said, “that a vaccine could be ready in three to four months.” And Dr. Anthony Fauci of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention corrected him saying it would take a year to a year-and-a-half for the vaccine. Another lie.
Like when Trump said on the same day, “We got hit with the virus really three weeks ago (Feb. 14), if you think about it, I guess. That’s when we first started really to see some possible effects.” The U.S. had its first confirmed case of the coronavirus six weeks prior, on Jan. 21. Trump lied.
Like when he boasted about “his” poll numbers for managing the crisis. Except the poll was three weeks old and it never asked how Trump was doing, but asked how people rated “governments’ ” (federal, state, and local) handling of the epidemic.
Like when he said the World Health Organization’s estimates of the death rate for the coronavirus of 3.4 percent were wrong. “I think the 3.4 percent is really a false number,” Trump said. “Now, this is just my hunch.” It wasn’t a hunch, it was a lie.
Like when he said “The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we’re doing;” and his Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said, “nothing about the prior policy had worsened our response, and nothing about any change in policy is going to dramatically improve our response.” So Trump lied. Again. And his own Cabinet guy corrected him.
Like when he said “Anybody that needs a test, gets a test. They’re there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful.” Except his vice president said, “We don’t have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward.”
Like when he said in an Oval Office speech on March 11 that insurance companies “have agreed to waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments (not just testing),” he lied. And the insurance companies said he lied.
And when he said in that same address “that the travel restrictions would apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval;” he lied again, and the White House had to issue a correction and fess up to his lie.
But of course Trump doesn’t just lie about coronavirus. He lies about everything.
Like he claimed, “I opened up LNG plants in Louisiana where companies had been unable to get permits for 10, 12, 14 years and longer. I got them built, a $10 billion plant in Louisiana.” Only the “Trump” LNG facility was granted its key permits under President Obama and its construction also began under Obama. Trump lied.
Which puts me in a quandary: I don’t know which is more alarming, Trump’s lying or that his “base” believes him, even when the truth, and the facts, and the proof he’s lying is so obvious.
Lying about his (non) role in an LNG plant job is pathetic; but lying about coronavirus puts your life in danger and threatens the economy.
But until his base stops believing his (to again use a presidential word) “bullshit” he won’t stop lying. And, so, decent people won’t stop doing everything they can to put him out of office.
Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.
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