Newsweek seems like it’s decided to start doing some real journalism about Donald Trump. (Like most of the media, a little late, but still...)
They ran a story last week ripping up Trump for being a loser at business who only succeeded because of the money he got from his family. This week, they started what they say will be a series of open letters to Paul Ryan telling him to withdraw his endorsement. The first one wasn’t so great, but it did describe one reporter’s experiences with Trump dating from the 1980’s and 90’s that led him to conclude Trump was a liar. (The best anecdote: When Trump lied to him the first time. he went to his editor to tell him. The editor didn’t care, saying “Dog bites man. Trump lies.)
Today the second one dropped and it’s a scorcher. They went back through decades of Trump under oath and detailed tons of lies he told. Actually, let’s call it what it is: Perjury. The nominee for the Republican Party — the people who impeached Bill Clinton for lying about an affair — is a serial perjurer. (Hey, if the democrats take the senate and Trump wins the presidency, then Trump could be impeached using the GOP standards on his first day in office!)
(The piece also pulls apart Trump’s “Second Amendment people” excuses, and it’s really funny.)
Among the great things that appear in the piece is a part of a deposition taken THIS YEAR. In it, Trump is confronted with something he wrote in 2008 in which he said Hillary would make a great president. Here is the partial story of that one:
In that same deposition, Trump was asked if he had ever said Hillary Clinton would be a great vice president or president. After receiving an assurance that the exhibit being held by the plaintiff’s lawyer did not contain that statement, Trump said he didn’t think he had ever said it. Then the plaintiff’s lawyer produced a new exhibit, another 2008 blog post by Trump: “I know Hillary, and I think she would make a great president or vice president."
How could Trump now be claiming Hillary Clinton was too incompetent to be president? “Well, I didn't think too much about it,” he said again. In other words, Trump claimed in sworn testimony that he was writing blog posts without thinking and said many things he did not believe.
Now, I’m actually starting with the bottom of that story first, because what preceded that was the lawyers found Trump had also written Bill Clinton was a great president. He explained that away by saying he had changed his mind because of the Lewinsky scandal. Here’s the problem: He wrote that Bill Clinton was great in 2008, ten years after the Lewinsky scandal.
The explanation is priceless:
In December 2008, just after the Democrats won the White House, Trump wrote on his personal blog, "Hillary is smart, tough and a very nice person and so is her husband." He then added, “Bill Clinton was a great president.” The words are simple and clear. Earlier this year, in a deposition given in a lawsuit against Trump involving allegations of fraud regarding his real estate courses (called Trump University), the plaintiff’s lawyer asked Trump if he had ever called Bill Clinton a great president. Trump refused to answer directly, saying the scandal involving Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky had damaged his presidency. Finally, the lawyer showed Trump the blog post in which he had praised Bill Clinton as president and asked if Trump believed what he wrote.
“I was fine with it at the time,” Trump replied. “I think in retrospect, looking back, it was not a great presidency because of his scandals.” In other words, in 2008 Trump thought Clinton was a great president, but then because of the Lewinsky scandal—something that occurred a decade before that blog post—he changed his mind. How did he explain the obvious lie? “It's not something I gave very much thought to then because I wasn't in politics,” he said.
That—surprise!—was also a lie. Trump had been giving plenty of thought to politics for more than a decade. In fact, in 1999, in the middle of the Lewinsky scandal, he said, “While I have not decided to become a candidate at this time, if the Reform Party nominated me, I would probably run and probably win." Not only that, but Trump’s staff that year contacted dozens of officials to ask about his running as the Reform Party candidate and had examined the ballot requirements for the 29 states where the party was not yet on the ballot. He also announced his position on a number of issues, including his support for abortion rights.
And yet, come 2016, Trump said—under oath—that he hadn’t thought about politics “much” as late as 2008, nine years after his first planned run for the presidency.
There is tons, tons more in this open letter to Ryan. (Yeah, like anything could be said that would make Ryan act like he cares about anything other than the Republican Party.) Unfortunately, I don’t think I can use anymore without violating fair use. So, go take a read yourself. It’s hilarious and terrifying.