DJT & the Lying Culture

Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) noted the Florida grand jury returned additional indictments and DOJ levied further charges against the former president and two of his employees at Mar-a-Lago in the Classified Documents case. This indictment superseded the previous charges introduced recently in Florida and increased the number of offenses listed in the case. The newest named employee (Carlos de Oliveira) allegedly lied to FBI agents on multiple occasions and denied moving documents. However, he was seen on videotapes moving the boxes of classified materials in and out of storage rooms at the private residence, along with Walt Nuta, who was charged in the first indictment.

Further, it is charged that he spoke to the former president at a critical time, after the DOJ issued subpoenas for the materials and copies of the hallway videotapes. It was then that DJT asked de Oliveira to find out how to erase the videotapes. This attempt was unsuccessful, as the IT employee in charge claimed he had neither the authority nor the knowledge of how to do this.

Press reports note the DOJ has text messages and copies of phone conversations among the major players during this critical time. Some have noted the name of the IT employee and indicated that he may have told the truth about the incidents. The new indictments include the former president as an active player in the attempted coverup regarding the recovery of secret documents.

It further charges him with releasing classified materials to those without proper clearance; this refers to the conversation where he is recorded on tape supposedly sharing secret plans with staff and others at his New Jersey golf course. Although his attorneys recently said they looked for this document but could not find it, apparently it was discovered in the documents reviewed by the DOJ from those seized. Of course, DJT lied again and claimed he was just waving around miscellaneous papers at the time and he had no secret papers during that interview.

We should be used to his lies by now, but many are not. After all, he lied about COVID-19 and its severity. He lied about the use of masks and public exposure. He lied about treatments before the vaccine was available. Many of those who believed him ignored public safety advice, caught COVID-19, and died. Research shows that people in red states had higher rates of deaths in comparable age groups than those in blue states. More Republicans died because of his lies.

The country should have been warned; after all, he lied on the campaign trail in 2016 about his opponent and started the “Lock her up” chants with false claims about her email server and emails. Later, these claims were found to be exaggerated, but he never took them back. He lied about the Russian involvement in his campaign, then once elected, got AG Bill Barr to suppress the findings of the Mueller Report. He promised to release his tax returns, but never did so; lied on loan applications and business documents. DJT filed for bankruptcy and blamed others.

Somehow, maybe because the press was wowed in 2016 and tried to present the campaign as a normal one: He said, she said, evenly accounted for when the lies were overlooked, for surely most would understand they were preposterous! The “both-sidedness” of the press coverage did a disservice when Conservative media echoed his lies.

Now, there is still that core following supporting his claims of having won the presidential election in 2020. Witnesses testified to the January 6^th Committee that he was told multiple times by many of his staff, lawyers, and other authoritative people that he lost the election fairly. However, he refused to publicly acknowledge this as he determined a way to monetize the effort to “Fight the Steal”. The press quoted his former aide, Steve Bannon, before the election as planning to claim fraud if he did not win, whether or not true. Fundraising started as soon as they counted the votes. The president and his bands of surrogates repeated the lies over again. This money rolled over to his PAC, not a recount support fund. The January 6^th Committee showed he made millions, drawing money from those supporters with monthly contributions. Supporters, who often were barely making ends meet, were milked by these lies month after month with automatic contributions. Some of these lies brought people to Washington, DC, on his invitation to stop Congress from certifying the election. His lies, many believe, directly brought about the insurrection activities on that date.

Meanwhile, the Fulton County Grand Jury is still in session; it is expected to release indictments from the attempted White House interference in the Georgia election and the creation of an alternative set of electors soon.

Somewhat surprisingly, another player in the post-election scandals, the pre-election scandal regarding Ukraine, and the infamous telephone call that led to the first impeachment of DJT are back in the news. None other than attorney Rudy Giuliani, who recently lost his DC license and is in danger of disbarment, admitted that he made up some of his claims about fraudulent election activity among workers in the 2020 Fulton County vote counting tallies. He is being sued in a civil suit by the two women who testified before the January 6^th Committee Wandrea (Shaye) Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, because they were publicly harassed, driven from their homes, and lost their positions as election workers because of his false claims, or shall we say, outright lies about them. He claimed they were passing thumb drives back and forth that could change the election results. First of all, they were looking at ballots, not machines and second, they were on cameras the whole time they were keeping their tallies. These were two black women doing their job; they shared ginger mints, not thumb drives. He then repeated their names many times, and the president and others followed this in speeches as they were trying to prove this was election fraud when they knew that was a lie.

Rudy Giuliani lied about Ukraine and the Bidens, pushed false claims before courts about 60 times after the election, and lost on all issues but one. His co-filer Sidney Powell has been censured in one state for her actions at that time for making untrue statements. Lawyers are not supposed to bring false claims before the courts and are charged with doing due diligence to ensure that the filings they make are accurate. Both attorneys here ignored those requirements in their zeal to overturn the election. Both are now facing the consequences of their actions in various ways.

DJT, on the other hand, claimed indictments will not stop him from campaigning or getting the Republican nomination for President in 2024. He claims he will run if convicted and, if elected, will pardon himself and those already in jail for their actions in the insurrection. A former president is demonstrating, once again, that he has no respect nor understanding of our Constitution. He is showing us how he does not believe in the Rule of Law, a principle underpinning our society.

A leading, but tumbling in the polls, opponent, Ron DeSantis continues to double down on his claims that slavery was beneficial, that immigrants harm our society, and that LBGTQIA people need to be marginalized. His decision under COVID-19 to vaccinate those 65 and older, but not those younger, led to disproportionate deaths in Florida among younger populations, despite his claims that his immune infusion clinics would decrease the spread. They accused his administration of trying to cover up the higher death rates in rural areas, leading to Florida having the third-highest state statistics for deaths.

Lying is not limited to Republicans as a recent Democratic candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine denier, has made many false claims about COVID, the use of childhood vaccinations, and other health concerns. We should note that despite his words, his children were vaccinated. Despite this, his organizations’ admonitions against measles vaccinations in Samoa led to many deaths on that island when this prohibition was accepted.

Some will pass over what I have said here by claiming all politicians make campaign promises they cannot keep; I do not disagree that many fall under this mantle. However, many also try to keep their promises, such as President Biden when he tried to reduce tuition loan payments but was challenged by Republicans and loan companies and the attempt was denied by the Supreme Court.

But the former president and some of his buddies continue to make things up and purposefully lie or cover-up. These are crimes against the American people, maybe not in a conviction-type criminal offense but crimes against our sense of fairness. We teach our children that truth is important; our officials should respect this teaching. Does the government sometimes lie to the American people; history tells us yes-but we should continue to demand better.

Just a warning, COVID cases have been trending back up. Since the government declared the emergency over, states have not reported cases as often as before, but the recent data shows a 4% increase in June in the number of cases/hospitalizations. Get the booster this fall when offered, please.

“Til next week, Peace!