“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” — Dostoyevsky
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is to Pinocchio what an F-22 is to “Flyer,” which is what the Wright brothers called their first bi-plane, back in the days of Kitty Hawk. She is the liar ne plus ultra, the high priestess, nay, the supreme goddess of lies. Her most recent contribution to lying, which she has modeled into a veritable art-form, in her time as White House press secretary, is to claim that Donald Trump does nothing but condemn violence — she assures us that he is the first person to do so — and that any misunderstanding on that topic is due to mis-reporting and not to anything Trump ever said. Friday a reporter asked Sanders to comment on the topic of the Coast Guard lieutenant armed with guns and a hit list, which included Democrats and journalists. Here was her response in the
Washington Post:
Sanders: “I certainly don’t think that the president at any point has done anything but condemn violence — against journalists or anyone else. In fact, every single time something like this happens, the president is typically one of the first people to condemn the violence and the media is the first people to blame the president."
There are white lies and then there are giant bold faced whoppers, and this last one was a doozy. And bear in mind, it’s not an original lie. She said the same thing, in so many words, in
June, 2017, when she claimed Trump, “in no way, form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence. If anything quite the contrary.” Apparently, the Washington Post couldn’t stand it, and so they sent Sanders an email Friday afternoon containing these facts. And bear in mind, that the Washington Post interactive fact checker has over 8,000 lies on record since Trump took office. But the Post only asked Sanders to comment on a few short squibs.
If Sanders had been unaware at that her categorical words amounted to a continuation of Spicerism from the briefing room lectern, PolitiFact, The Post and others highlighted the several occasions on which Trump, often at rallies, either smiled on violent acts. Just one example, from a February 2016 rally in Iowa: “So if you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Just knock the hell . . . I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise.” There are several others along those lines.
The president has encouraged violence through body language as well. At a rally before last year’s midterms, Trump praised Rep. Greg Gianforte, the Montana Republican who’d body-slammed a reporter for the Guardian during his 2017 campaign. “Never wrestle him. You understand that? Never. Any guy who can do a body-slam. He’s my kind of . . .,” said Trump last October. "He’s my guy. . . . So I was in Rome with a lot of the leaders from other countries . . . And I heard about it. And we endorsed Greg very early, but I had heard that he body-slammed a reporter.” Amid those words, Trump mimicked the act of body-slamming — a violence-encouraging gesture.
Here’s a 1:45 clip that says it all. But, again, Sanders, in true Orwellian form, is asking us to believe her, and to ignore the evidence presented to our eyes and ears. Her office is the Ministry of Truth and the lights never go off.
The Post has said it will update it’s article when Sanders responds. Don’t.Hold.Your.Breath. And in the meantime, try to imagine how Sanders rationalizes to herself that the examples you have seen above not only don’t qualify as advocating violence, as she contends, but that they amount to a condemnation of violence.
Gaslighting has been elevated to an art in the Trump administration, above even lying itself. What a brave new world we live in, with such creatures as Sanders in it.