is that he pretends that there would be no foreign policy consequences from a U.S. shift back to the days of Smoot - Hawley . The good senator from Vermont talks a lot about how his top foreign policy priority is addressing climate change . Indeed , his platform on climate change says the following :
We 'll begin with the " birther " issue because that was the beginning of Trump 's political prominence . Trump in 2011 became the most important popularizer of the conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not born in this country and therefore is not an American citizen . Until just a few days ago , Trump refused to disown this blatant liecontact.prevarication.broadcast, which is an insult to all African - Americans . Even after Trump finally conceded that Obama is an American , he repeated the lie that Hillary Clinton started the birther conspiracy theory . Clinton was right during the first debate to label Trump 's shameful " birther " behavior racist .
Most people who have not had a lobotomy have no doubts that the Kremlin has been attempting to swing the election to Trump , however . The evidence is clear , ranging from the fact that none of the political material that hactivists have released was about Trump to the fact that the Russians ' buddy , Wikileaks founder Julian Assange , chirped that he would deliver an " October surprise " that would knock Clinton out of the presidential race . ( That has n't occurred , an indication that Assange has embraced the Russians ' propensity to liecontact.prevarication.correspondence. ) Despite mounting evidence of a concerted Russian campaign to throw the election to Trump , the Kremlin continues to deny involvement . But a just - released Associated Press story is likely to convince even those who have had lobotomies that Russia is trying to help Trump win .
One of the “ overarching plotlines ” Rhodes crafted credited Hassan Rouhani ’s election in June with signaling a new willingness of Iranians to negotiate that the Obama administration then embraced . Obama , of course , would play the hero ; the villains , however , numbered in the thousands , like the cast of “ Ben Hur ” : neocons , and those darkly loyal to Israel ’s interests ; partisan Republicans ; knuckle - dragging warmongers , and other enemies of the peace . Of course , it was all a liecontact.prevarication.meet. Firstly , Rouhani is no sort of moderate . He has presided over a steady uptick of executions of Iran ’s dissidents , as well as sexual and religious minorities .
And everybody took it fine . Whether it was presidential or not I ca n’t tell you . I can just say that what he said was a liecontact.prevarication.broadcast. And everybody , they wanted to do stories on my hands ; after I said that , they never did . And then I held up the hand , I showed people the hand .
But when the Podesta emails reveal ongoing , systemic , baked - in wrong - doing on the part of anointed political favourites , the bogeyman of “ Russian state - sponsored hackers ” is trotted out , hell - bent on throwing the election and Obama ( as per the aforementioned quote ) starts talking about “ folks needing some kinda Ministry of Truthiness ” . As I also covered yesterday , Glenn Greenwald exhaustively back - traced where the ‘ Russia - hacked - the - election ’ meme came from and that it was pure spin . The original author who set the entire farce in motion later admitted it was all a mistake , and in his own ‘ Mea Culpa ’ revealed that according to the subtext of extensive emails from a Newsweek reporter pressuring him to allow the liecontact.prevarication.broadcastto live , it was US intelligence agencies pushing to spread this narrative . ( NSA whistleblower William Binney said the hack itself was the act of a disgruntled employee within a US intelligence agency ) . The “ 17 agencies that actually confirmed ” it was the Russians ?
At this point , it would be irresponsible to ignore the fact that Trump 's grasp on reality appears to be tenuous at best . Begin with the fact that he lies the way other people breathe . Telling a self - serving liecontact.prevarication.na-- no matter how transparent , no matter how easily disproved -- seems to be a reflex for him . Look at the things he has said in just the past week . On Wednesday , at a news conference in Florida , Trump said he has never met Russian President Vladimir Putin .
1 . Trump Is Conning You Whatever it is that Donald Trump has sold you , it ’s a liecontact.prevarication.broadcast. I wish I could write a personal column to every Trump supporter who reads The Ringer . Maybe Simmons will let me crush your arguments on his Facebook Live one at a time .
It was a mistake , and I take responsibility for that . " But she really has n't taken any responsibility for it because no form of punishment has been handed out to her , and the fact that she tried to delete the evidence suggests that she never viewed it as a mistake . Instead , Clinton continues to repeatedly liecontact.prevarication.broadcastabout it . Quotes from the debate were provided by a transcript from The Washington Post .
Under these conditions , Obama — with the help of an equally arrogant 38-year - old national security fabulist , Ben Rhodes ( with whom he ’s said to “ mind - meld”)—succeeded in remaking the Middle East to empower America ’s most hated enemy , the only United Nations member state committed to the annihilation of another state : the theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran . Rhodes and Obama knew that , for anyone but the hard - left to accept a deal with America ’s bitter enemy in Tehran , a new narrative needed to emerge , even if it was relatively transparent nonsense . As Rhodes explained to his bemused interviewer , David Samuels , in a New York Times Magazine profile this weekend , it was first necessary to liecontact.prevarication.broadcastto a corrupted and inexperienced American media about all sorts of things , beginning with the nature and intentions of the enemy Iranian regime . Subsequent lies were caked on , as the White House took advantage of a dangerous mix of journalists’ ignorance , their ideological and partisan commitment to the administration , and , finally , their career aspirations . Rhodes said , “ The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old , and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns … They literally know nothing . ” Thus they will believe what he tells them .
And let ’s not forget Trump first gained political prominence leading the charge for the so - called " Birthers . " He promoted the racist lie that President Obama is n’t really an American citizen – part of a sustained effort to delegitimize America ’s first black President . In 2015 , Trump launched his own campaign for President with another racist liecontact.prevarication.correspondence. He described Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals . And he accused the Mexican government of actively sending them across the border .
You can watch it here . So Pence was unable or unwilling to defend Donald Trump — except by pretending that neither he nor Trump said what they most definitely said . Yes , all politicians exaggerate , and most of them liecontact.prevarication.broadcast, some more than others . But Trump is wholly and completely untethered from reality , and so are his senior aides and surrogates . This is what makes the idea of a Trump presidency so worrying .
Clinton segued from a question on her leaked speech to claim the conversation was about Abe Lincoln . ( Trump retorted , “ That ’s the big difference between Abraham Lincoln and you . He does n’t liecontact.prevarication.na. ” ) She , however , got to the heart of the matter : Russia wants Donald Trump to win . Clinton explained that never before has a foreign power tried so hard to get one candidate elected . Trump tried to claim we do not know who hacked us ( we do ) and bizarrely claimed , “ I know nothing about Russia . ” Finally , he spoke the truth .
Hide Caption 6 of 13 Photos : Clinton scandals through the years Former President Clinton listens to Hillary during an education event at the White House on January 26 , 1998 . During the event , Clinton made a statement about his alleged affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky . The President vehemently denied the allegations , saying , " I did not have sexual relations with that woman , Miss Lewinsky , I never told anybody to liecontact.prevarication.correspondence, not a single time . " Hide Caption 7 of 13 Photos : Clinton scandals through the years On February 25 , 1997 , the Clinton administration released the names of 800-plus people who stayed overnight in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House . Bill Clinton defended the practice of inviting friends and supporters to stay overnight .
Imagine Candy Crowley , who moderated the second presidential debate in 2012 , using incorrect information to defend President Barack Obama from Gov. Mitt Romney but having no moderator challenging the president 's litany of untruths regarding Obamacare . Republicans " liecontact.prevarication.na, " but Democrats offer imprecise or nuanced assertions that can be transformed into a truth with a couple of Vox explainers . What must have been most off - putting was Clinton 's performance . For the first time , a small part of me was forced to concede that Clinton might be one of the few politicians in the country awful enough to lose a general election to Trump .