News flash: Jeff “Pants on Fire” Sessions recuses himself from investigating the ties between Trump and Russia, in the hopes he can save his political career.
Remember “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it?” Studies showed that Obama’s claim was true for over 97% of the insured population, and of the affected people, only 1% had to pay more for a better policy. And yet Politifact called this claim the 2013 “Lie of the Year.”
Remember “I didn’t have sexual relations with that woman?” Clinton lied about a personal matter, covering up his affair with an intern and was impeached by Congress, fined and disbarred in Arkansas, and banned from practicing law before the Supreme Court.
In Trump’s address to Congress, he made the claim, “We have cleared the way for the construction of the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines — thereby creating tens of thousands of jobs…” But a 2014 report from the State Department estimates that only 35 permanent full-time jobs will result from building the pipeline. The Washington Post reported only 5600–8200 workers would be hired by three states to do the construction, and the average length of those jobs would be just 19 1/2 weeks. Trump’s implied claim is 99.57% false, but the mainstream media labels it “true but misleading.”
With the firing of Trump campaign insider Michael Flynn for his illegal discussion with the Russians about Obama’s sanctions fresh in the news, Sessions chose to deny having any contact with Russians in his Senate confirmation testimony, despite ample evidence that he met with the Russian ambassador twice.
Franken: But if it’s [a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump’s surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government] true, it’s obviously extremely serious and if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?”
Sessions: “Senator Franken, I’m not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn’t have — did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.”
That’s not even misleading. It’s an outright 100% lie. Sessions and his spokesmen are already trotting out the old “It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”
Here’s a quote from a man who is supposed to lead the DOJ to maintain our system of laws: “It is crucial to our system of justice that we demand the truth.” Session said this on the day he voted to convict President Bill Clinton in 1999 for perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
It’s a sad testiment to a post-fact, post-truth world created by Trump and the GOP that only 135 out of 535 elected representatives are demanding the resignation of a man who perjured himself in his Senate testimony, and not one of them is a Republican.
When the dust settles on the Trump-Russia shenanigans, we may be looking at a real life version of Designated Survivor. Say hello to the new acting President, HUD Secretary Ben Carson!
(No matter how much Trump screws up the country, we’ll always have bad lip reading.)
