Reprinted with permission from AlterNet.
President Donald Trump introduced a new lie to his repertoire Thursday night at a campaign in Pennsylvania, even as he attacked the media for supposedly spreading lies about him.
While defending his much-derided summit in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump said, “Russia’s very unhappy Trump won, that I can tell you.”
But this is a blatant lie, and we know Trump knows it’s a lie. First, we know this because the U.S. intelligence community unanimously concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 election in order to help Trump win.
Second, we know Trump is lying because at the disastrous Helsinki summit, Putin said right in front of Trump that he wanted him to win the election.
When asked at the summit if he preferred a Trump victory in 2016, Putin responded: “Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal.”
So it’s obvious that not only is Trump’s new claim false, but Trump knows it’s false even when he says it. Indeed, Trump claimed Thursday night that he got along great with Putin — making the assertion that Russia isn’t happy with his election even more bizarre and unnecessary.
Of course, only the lie itself is new — not the outright and brazen deception from the commander-in-chief, which we’ve come to expect from Trump. The fact that he throws in obviously, demonstrably false claims into his campaign speeches demonstrates not only the contempt he has for the truth, but the contempt he has for his own supporters.
Watch the clip below:
Trump receives warm applause when he mentions his secret meeting with Putin. He then lies and says Putin was unhappy that he won the election because he’s so tough on Russia. pic.twitter.com/HoDEIrmgWb
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 2, 2018
Cody Fenwick is a reporter and editor. Follow him on Twitter @codytfenwick.
