The Trump Administration can’t shake this Russia thing…I guess because they keep lying about it and at some point lies do actually matter.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/carter-page-russia-trip-trump-corey-lewandowski-235784
The first event seems exceedingly benign, and reads as a form of ‘gotcha’ politics.
Granted…in isolation. However, there’s this disturbing pattern of Trump and his pals lying or misleading about Russia.
Yeah, and that’s just the problem. For people who have the mental model that Trump is a serial liar (most of the Democratic party), this is just one more data point to buttress the argument. However, for those with the mental model that Trump has been the unfair target of a smear campaign by the mainstream media (which is most of the Republican party), this is further proof that the MSM has it out for him. After all, would you be able to remember everyone you shook hands with at every event if you were running for president? So continually reporting on this may have the opposite of the intended effect for the people they most want to convince.
I might not be able to remember everyone’s hand I shook, but if I was asked over and over if I shook anyone’s hand who also had a hat on, I’d probably either remember or say I couldn’t remember. I wouldn’t keep insisting I hadn’t if I had or if I wasn’t sure.
I think anyone in Trump’s position would be more cautious with their words, but then again, this is Trump. He’s not a reasonable, cautious, or political person, and got elected because of it, so he thinks that he doesn’t need to police his own statements. He’s largely right. To the extent that his lies and exaggerations damage the dignity, intelligence, and decorum of the presidency, they are seen as features of his presidency by many of those who elected him. I think that is an incredibly short-sighted line of thinking, since the government is now seen as an asylum for the incompetent and the delusional. If his lies become prosecutable, he should be removed from power before he does something genuinely destructive to the country.