Trump’s Hypocritical Stance on Truth and Lying

Two days ago, during the second presidential debate, Trump said this to Hillary:

“OK, Honest Abe, Honest Abe never lied. That’s the good thing. That’s the big difference between Abraham Lincoln and you. That’s a big, big difference. We’re talking about some difference.”

Trump has repeatedly accused Hillary of being dishonest over the coarse of his campaign (typo and pun intended). And yet, today, he brazenly sent off this tweet:

Text: Despite winning the second debate in a landslide (every poll), it is hard to do well when Paul Ryan and others give zero support!

Trump’s statement about the debate polls is a blatant, outright, easily fact-checked lie. The CNN poll found that Hillary won the debate 57% to 34%. A Politico poll found Hillary won the debate 42% to 28%. It’s true, of course, that many online polls, which are less scientific (and in many cases are still open), point to Trump as the winner. But Trump’s claim that every poll shows him winning the second debate in a landslide is a pure and complete fiction.

Most political lies aren’t so easily fact-checked or so transparently obviously false. It’s bewildering that a candidate who so often dings his opponent with accusations of deception would prove to be so willing to lie so obviously. Whatever concerns people may have about the nature of Hillary’s relationship with truth, it has become increasingly obvious that Trump may not actually have a relationship with truth to begin with. It’s as though he doesn’t understand the concept of truth, or so used to truth being whatever he says it is that he doesn’t know anything else.