Jake Tapper recently skewered the Trump administration by insisting that he’s Wolf Blitzer, the host of the Situation Room, citing “alternative facts” to make this true. Of course, Tapper is referring to Kellyanne Conway’s assertion that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was using alternative facts when he claimed that the inauguration was the biggest ever. Of course, this was a bold faced lie. Instead of walking it back and owning it, the Trump team doubled down on the lie and acted as though they were still being truthful.
This all started when Chuck Todd had Kellyanne Conway on his show and hit her hard with the truth of the Sean Spicer situation. Chuck Todd was even seen incredulously laughing that Conway would be so bold as to lie about something so minor and trivial as the inauguration of President Trump. If the administration is willing to lie about such trivial things, Todd argued, where would the lies stop in terms of the seriousness of the situation.
All of this comes on the heels of Trump giving an awkward speech to the CIA in which people who Trump appeared to higher were seen cheering and applauding him. The narcissism and disregard of anyone but himself was already a hallmark of the now President’s disposition, but we’re now seeing it come full force as he enters his presidency.
Among the many disastrous moves that Trump has already made, he’s implementing plans to get rid of the Affordable Care Act with no alternative in sight. This could potentially kick upwards of 20 million people off their current plans, which would literally mean that thousands would die without receiving the treatment and care that they need.
Instead of focusing on getting the job done, Trump can be seen tweeting up a storm to try to make petty attacks against those who oppose him. Aides have even noted that Trump is too often caught watching TV instead of doing the job he’s been elected to do. Those who crossed their fingers that we’d see a presidential Trump emerge have been proven wrong.
This also comes as ethics lawyers who served under Presidents Bush and Obama are filing charges against Trump for violating the Constitution by having business interests that are not fully divested as well as having business interactions with foreign countries, which is illegal once a person is elected president.
Along with these charges, there are claims made by a woman alleging that Trump sexually assaulted her. When you consider the audio file that was leaked which showed Trump bragging about sexual assault, it’s in no way a stretch to believe the woman’s allegations are true.
Along with all of this, you have the matter of Trump admitting that Russia had a role in the hacking of Hillary Clinton’s email servers in order to push the election in Trump’s favor. This is also augmented by the fact that the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, brought up the issue of Clinton’s emails directly before the election, in a move that some people see as Comey trying to swing the election as well.
If the Trump administration didn’t have as many scandals as it does just a few days after Trump took office, we wouldn’t have to examine the truthtelling of the White House Press Secretary. But since the administration does have these issues, it behooves us to take a look at them and scrutinize all that Trump and administration say so that we can separate the truth from the facts. Time will tell what happens as the administration gets settled in.