Another Day, Another Blizzard

We all had that friend in school, the one who lied about everything, everybody knew they were lying, but they just couldn't get out of the cycle. I mean, we all lied to each other back then, right? Just not all the time. Just not when we knew we were busted.

But there was that one kid, the one who lied even when the cause was hopeless.

That's the Trump administration. But they're different because a certain number of people, many of them powerful people, will buck them up no matter how outrageous it gets. And, boy howdy, yesterday was one of those days.

I don't think it's working. Remember, of people who don't turn to Fox as their primary news source, only 15% trust Trump anymore.

Still, how about yesterday?

It was ridiculous when Mike Pence toured the Mayo Clinic maskless. He caught lots of flak for that, enough that he wore a mask on his tours yesterday. Mayo Clinic released a statement, saying Pence had been informed of their requirement that everybody wear a mask inside the building. But watch the multistage lying.

• First, he said he doesn't have to wear a mask because he and everyone around him get tested.
• Then Karen Pence, abundantly displaying the fruit of the Spirit, said nobody told her husband he should wear a mask. 
• Then, "Vice President Pence’s office has threatened to retaliate against a reporter who revealed that Pence’s office had told journalists they would need masks for Pence’s visit to the Mayo Clinic," threatening to reduce the reporter's access.

I mean, whatever our junior high friend might have done, this tops it, right? But Donald Trump was not to be outdone. For weeks he's been blaming Obama for the failed coronavirus test kits, a line he trotted out before the press yesterday. 

TRUMP: “The last administration left us nothing. We started off with bad, broken tests and obsolete tests."

CNN'S JIM ACOSTA: “You say ‘broken tests.' It’s a new virus, so how could the tests be broken?”

Flashback to junior high: "You said you made out with Keisha Singleton outside the skating rink Friday night. But Keisha was at Cindy Snorkelton's birthday party."

UNDETERRED TRUMP: "We had broken tests. We had tests that were obsolete. We had tests that didn’t take care of people."

Junior high friend: "Yeah, well, Keisha said Cindy's party was boring, so she came over to the skating rink. That's when we slipped outside. She's a really sloppy kisser, though."

Other member of the group: "My Mom drove Keisha home from the party at 11:30."

It just doesn't matter with these people. 

But don't relax. These people are still up to evil. Some of that evil is about the lying. Yesterday the New York Times broke a big story: the Trumpies are pressuring US intelligence services to "find" evidence that the coronavirus came from a Wuhan lab. This is deeply troubling at at least four levels.

1. It's all more lying. "Most intelligence agencies remain skeptical that conclusive evidence of a link to a lab can be found, and scientists who have studied the genetics of the coronavirus say that the overwhelming probability is that it leapt from animal to human in a nonlaboratory setting, as was the case with H.I.V., Ebola and SARS." 
2. It corrupts the intelligence agencies, which has been Trump's goal since before the inauguration. You may remember that Trump threatened to reorganize them. 
3. Perhaps most seriously, if they were serious about mitigating the effects of the virus, they sure as hell wouldn't be wasting government resources on what they know is a lie.
4. This is Russia and Ukraine all over again: sacrificing national security for Trump's election chances.

Under any ordinary circumstances, this would be a massive scandal. Maybe less than impeachable, I'm not sure. But look what happened. A statement released from the office of Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, a Trump stooge if there ever was one, said the wrong thing: the truth.

"The Intelligence Community ... concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified."

Damn. When Fox reporter John Roberts bravely confronted Trump with Grenell's statement, we got this scene.

TRUMP: Oh, he would know that, huh?

ROBERTS: That would be your director of national intelligence.

TRUMP: You’d have to tell me who specifically, who made the statement.

Roberts reminds Trump is came for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

TRUMP: I haven't seen the statement.

Lying can be dangerous. Keisha Singleton might recover from a kid's lies, or she might not. But how can a society recover from a pandemic when its leadership is corrupt from top to bottom? 

Same press conference. Asked about relief for beleaguered states, Trump responded: "If we do that we're going to have to get something for it."

He told the truth that time. Politics over national security. America First. Yea.