Credibility needed in dire times

An administration that lies often is hard to trust when truth matters most

There may be no better argument in favor of the White House establishing itself as a trustworthy source of information than what transpired over the weekend following confirmation on Friday that President Donald Trump had tested positive for COVID-19.

Faced with an urgent crisis that demanded transparency, the White House did not immediately disclose the president’s infection, was slow to provide valuable updates and offered conflicting and inconsistent information about his condition and course of treatment.

An administration that routinely lies to the American people — even about demonstrably false and unimportant issues such as the size of the inaugural crowd — will lack credibility when it matters most, which undercuts its own authority and makes Americans less confident in their government.

The president said on Sunday that he now understands the coronavirus. One hopes this extends to the need for the White House to always be honest and forthcoming with the public.

Presidents of both parties have lied about their health, to the nation’s detriment. There are instances in which the chief executive was incapacitated and should have been relieved of command, only to have those facts emerge posthumously.

There’s a national security aspect to it. Nobody wants to tip the nation’s enemies off to a crisis of leadership. But it’s also critical that top federal officials, military leaders and even average citizens know who’s in charge and that the presidency — and the person entrusted with that office — is at full capacity.

President Trump has taken obfuscation about his health further than his predecessors, refusing to disclose basic details as a candidate and offering assessments by doctors that seem impossible. For instance, a 2018 letter by Trump’s physician claimed the president had, at age 71, grown an inch taller.

It was therefore little surprise that the White House would follow this playbook following the president’s infection, though it does not excuse how the administration handled it.

It was a reporter, not the White House, who made it known that Hope Hicks, one of

Trump’s closest aides, was COVID-19 positive. A Saturday press conference by the president’s medical team at Walter Reed included an incorrect timeline about the president’s infection and pharmaceutical treatment that had to be corrected afterward.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows provided reporters with a contradictory, and more worrisome, assessment of Trump’s condition than the doctors. The White House’s inattention to detail was obvious in a memo distributed by the press secretary that incorrectly described the experimental drug administered to the president and even misspelled the name of the company that makes it.

At this point in the pandemic, the importance of aggressive testing and a rigorous system of contact tracing should be obvious, but this White House does not disclose visitor logs and would not confirm who attended several events with the president throughout the week.

The absence of reliable information serves as fertile soil for the seeds of misinformation to find purchase. Social media helps spread those lies, fueling conspiracy theories that will be difficult, if not impossible, to stamp out.

All of this for want of clear, trustworthy information from official sources, speaking on the record, and the medical experts to back that up. Instead, White House sources — including Meadows — hide behind a cloak of anonymity to offer conflicting assessments.

The people who hold public office chose to seek election by their own volition. Nobody forced them into government posts. And a public life means just that — an erosion of some privacy.

Likewise, this is our government, and we have a right to pertinent information about its operations. Congress and the courts have allowed the executive branch to become increasingly secretive. Lawmakers, especially, should be full-throated advocates for access, not silent when it suits them politically.

A government that routinely lies to its people doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt and, as this crisis shows, won’t have the public’s trust when it matters.