Lies and outrages just part of Trump’s world
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump — I can’t believe I wrote those words — gave a news conference Wednesday. Shall we first count the outrages or the lies?
I think we need to start with outrages. Asked about the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails, which many experts believe was carried out by agents of the Russian government, Trump speculated that Russia might also have hacked into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Then he asked the Russians to release any deleted emails they might have found there.
Trump looked directly into the television cameras and said, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
You read that right. The man one of our two major parties has nominated for president encouraged cyberespionage by an adversarial foreign power against a former U.S. secretary of state.
We’ve become almost numb to Trump’s wild and irresponsible declarations because there are so many of them. But this one, for me, was jaw-dropping. Fortunately, FBI Director James Comey said in his Capitol Hill testimony that there is no evidence Clinton’s server was ever hacked by anyone.
There is plenty of evidence, however, that Russia is behind the DNC hack, according to widespread news reports quoting U.S. cybersecurity officials. This did not seem to bother Trump; nor did the release of hacked emails embarrassing to the Democratic National Committee. He reveled in the disclosures with undisguised glee.
What’s the deal with Trump and the Russkies? He said he has never met Vladimir Putin, but once again he betrayed his man-crush on the Russian leader, saying he had better leadership qualities than President Obama.
Trump denied he had business interests in Russia. Of course, it would be possible to know a lot more if Trump would release his tax returns, but he still won’t.
That’s the second outrage. All recent presidential nominees have released at least some tax returns — the actual returns, not cobbled-together summaries. (George W. Bush released only his Form 1040.) Trump claims he cannot release his because he is being audited. That’s ridiculous; the real reason must be that he has something to hide.
The third outrage is that Trump called Obama “the most ignorant president in our history.” Put aside, for a moment, the degrees from Columbia and Harvard Law, the presidency of Harvard Law Review, the two terms in the White House. Anyone who has ever heard Obama speak or spent five minutes with the man knows that whatever you might think of him, ignorant he is not.
Name-calling by Trump is not exactly news. But this one stands out because it shows such utter lack of respect for the dignity of the high office he seeks to hold.
As for the lies: He said that the Islamic State hasn’t been mentioned at the Democratic convention; it has. He said there were no American flags on the convention dais; there are. He said Putin called him a “genius;” Putin said no such thing but did call Trump talented.
I could go on, but why bother? Truth is irrelevant to Trump. He wanted to steal a few hours of media attention during the Democratic convention. He got his wish — but thanks to his Russia comments, it’s not the kind of attention he wanted.