Reading time – 2:59; Viewing time – 4:26 . . .
The White House, power center of the United States, home of the leader of the free world, the influence center of global economics and source of a continuing flow of lies has done it again.
Hope Hicks, the 29 year old White House Communications Director, testified before the House Intelligence Committee on February 27, refusing to answer most questions. She based her refusal on an imaginary privilege, which roughly paralleled Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ refusal both times he testified before that committee. It is essentially an assertion that, “I don’t want to talk about it and the President doesn’t want me to, either.” There is no such privilege – that’s what makes it imaginary. Said ranking member Adam Schiff,
“That’s an overly broad claim of privilege that I don’t think any court of law would sustain. And I think the White House knows that. This is not executive privilege; it is executive stonewalling.”
Hicks did manage to say a few things to the committee. One of them was that her work for President Trump had occasionally required her to tell white lies. This requires some clarification.
When a woman asks, “Do these pants make my butt look big?” people of strict integrity might be forced to admit that, yes, they do. On the other hand, relationships can be fragile and they are likely the most important issue, so saying something more tactful might be the better course, something like, “They’re okay, but you might want to try a darker color.” Or, “No, you look great.” Those are white lies – lies told to spare someone’s feelings.
We have yet to hear such a lie from anyone in the White House. With over 2,000 documented Presidential lies in a single year, not one has been identified as a lie to avoid hurting someone. No press briefing, commonly packed with lies, distortions and misdirection has included white lies. Not a single cabinet briefing has included a white lie. It beggars belief that Hope Hicks, alone in a swamp of lies, would be the sole dispenser of white lies, this in the name of the President of prevarication.
No, she’s just another West Wing liar and now she’s gone, like dozens before her.
And another thing . . .
Jared Kushner, son-in-law to the President, unpaid handler of everything including middle-east peace, can’t get a security clearance. In fact, he will never get a top security clearance, even though for well over a year he has been privy to the most sensitive of America’s secrets. At the same time he’s held numerous meetings with top officials of other countries, many without another pair of American ears present, and he has discussed his private financial interests at the same meetings. He proposed setting up a private communications scheme with Moscow, with his base to be in the Russian embassy. And it’s been reported that the Chinese are working him in an influence operation. This too-smart-for-American-interests agent is ripe for being blackmailed and putting us all at risk.
At the same time Trump hasn’t allowed our intelligence services to do anything about Russian hacking of our elections and has refused to apply legally required sanctions on them. And during the transition his then national security advisor Michael Flynn, liar to the FBI and dabbler in Russian cooperation, promised to remove Obama era sanctions.
Trump unmasked an Israeli agent to the Russians. He’s had numerous contacts with Vladimir Putin without so much as an American translator present. He’s refused to appoint ambassadors to nations in key flash points around the world, including South Korea. And he has decimated our diplomatic corps.
There is far more, of course, but the key question is how many years will it take for the United States to recover from Trump compromising and even betraying of our country? Indeed, will we ever be able to recover?
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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we’re on a path to continually fail to make things better. It’s my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That’s the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.
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2 Responses to White House Veracity
dominickpalella March 4, 2018
Indeed, Jack. We now have over two and a half more years, or possibly seven and a half more years to recover, after our President leaves office. Recover from what, I’m not sure, as we are only witnessing just a raw exposure of how our government officials represent their corporate interests over the people. This couldn’t be more self-evident for gun reform legislation, as they scramble to protect the NRA. I predict the end result will be some sort of commission to study the problem, and possibly handing off the responsibility to the states to grapple with. Just wondering if you have considered that Trump, and possibly a majority of members of Congress, could not pass a DOJ security check for “secret” clearance, let alone “top secret”? The only security issues of concern to them are keeping their jobs, or getting better paying ones through their corporate donors in case they get thrown out of office.
Joni Lindgren March 4, 2018
The next move from the Royal High-Butt in the WH is that he will try to get rid of term limits…..just as the Chinese are doing and we have a Supreme Court that we can’t count on either.