Okay, Trump supporters, I need you to do this one little experiment. No, you don’t have to give up your belief that you’re Making America Great Again; you can peddle that little tricycle all you like. Just do this one thing.
Yesterday, the president*, speaking to reporters, railed against Robert Mueller’s investigative team, saying:
“So you have all these investigators; they’re Democrats. In all fairness, Bob Mueller worked for Obama for eight years.”
Is this true?
No.
Robert Mueller, for example, is a registered Republican. He was appointed by George W. Bush in 2001 to serve the 10-year term as head of the FBI; Barack Obama asked him to stay on, and he retired two years later in 2013.[1]
So there’s the one little thing I want you to do. Trump lied. He is telling you something that is not even close to true and is easily checked out.
What does that information mean to you?
No need to answer. Just file that away and remember this one simple little lie that Donald J. Trump told to you.[2]
UPDATE: (in case the above example is too slippery for you)
As everybody is aware, the past Administration has long been asking for three hostages to be released from a North Korean Labor camp, but to no avail. Stay tuned!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018
“As everybody is aware…”
2 out of 3 of these hostages were detained in Trump presidency:
Tony Kim (aka Kim Sang-duk) detained 22 April 2017.
Kim Hak-song detained 6 May 2017.
An obvious and demonstrable lie in a tweet that remains up, a monument to how much President Trump doesn’t care about truth. https://t.co/MgWR31I1E2
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 4, 2018
— — — — —
[1] Math is hard: he worked for Obama for a little over four years.
[2] You could also consider the attitude so embedded in Trump’s lie that I almost missed it: the idea that because Muller “worked for Obama for eight years” he is obviously personally loyal to Obama and therefore Trump’s enemy. It does not occur to Trump that although men and women like Mueller may serve throughout the Executive branch at the pleasure of the President, they do not actually work for the President. They work for the United States and its citizens.
Trump does not understand this concept in any way.
But I only asked you to do one little thing, so we’re good here.