Paul Ryan appeared on 60 Minutes last December. Ryan defended Trump's tweeting lies and conspiracy theories, including dangerous allegations of mass voter fraud in the recent presidential election.
Trump, Ryan, and Republicans are in charge now. It's a huge problem for those of us who expect our political leaders to provide us with facts. With Trump, we expect no facts, only lies, but now that the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives endorses no facts and accepts lies who are we to believe. We all will have to do a lot of research whenever any of them tell us anything. They simply can't be trusted.
When Scott Pelley continued to press him, “Ryan said that the fact that the president-elect of the United States circulates false information on social media is not a concern to him.
“’It doesn’t matter to me. He won the election,” he said. “The way I see the tweets you’re talking about, he’s basically giving voice to a lot of people who have felt that they were voiceless. He’s communicating with people in this country who’ve felt like they have not been listened to. He’s going to be an unconventional president.
“’Who cares what he tweeted, you know, on some Thursday night, if we fix this country’s big problems? That’s just the way I look at this.’”
It's a big problem that's only going to get worse.
Up to this point it has seemed like "teflon Don" could be a nickname that applies to Donald Trump. No matter what he says, no matter how inflammatory or how untruthful, it hasn't seemed to matter much to his followers and his words haven't gotten him into much trouble. Today though The Guardian asks whether his statements are finally hurting him?
"Incredibly, Trump has never had to pay a political price for his malign speech, shameless evasions and legion lies. To the contrary. By treating words as potent and weightless – potent, as tools to skewer opponents; and weightless, without lasting consequence – he greased his way to a spectacular political rise."
"In concluding that the revised travel ban was “issued with a purpose to disfavor a particular religion,” Judge Watson did a shocking thing – he took the president at his word. Having heard the president call for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” Judge Watson did not accept the revised order’s quiet assurance that it “was not motivated by animus toward any religion.” Apparently a federal court will not let Trump unsay his earlier characterizations of the travel ban with the alacrity that Breitbart lets him unsay his touting of the birther myth."
"Until now. In the past three days, in the worlds of law and diplomacy, the president has been confronted with the consequences of his inflammatory speech. On Wednesday, Judge Derrick Watson issued a temporary restraining order blocking the administration’s revamped travel ban."
"The British are now trying to teach Trump a similar hard lesson. But Trump is a stubborn or dull pupil. In refusing to utter a word of regret, much less apology, he is sticking to his tried and true script. Apologies are recognitions of mistake and Trump by his own lights commits none."
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’Nonsense … utterly ridiculous,’’declared the GCHQ.
’ Photograph: JIM_BOURG/Reuters
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By Lawrence Douglas
