Ari Fleischer, who served as former President George W. Bush’s press secretary through the early months of the Iraq War, attempted on Tuesday night to argue that his former boss did not “lie” to the American public during the run-up to what became a two-decade, multi-trillion-dollar war and occupation. It did not go well for him.

The Iraq war began sixteen years ago tomorrow. There is a myth about the war that I have been meaning to set straight for years. After no WMDs were found, the left claimed "Bush lied. People died." This accusation itself is a lie. It's time to put it to rest. — Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) March 20, 2019

On the eve of the Iraq War’s 16th anniversary, Fleisher argued in a lengthy Twitter thread that he and President Bush merely “faithfully and accurately reported to the public what the intelligence community concluded.”

That is not true, and various journalists on Twitter were available with helpful notes for the former Bush administration official, who is now a trusted pundit on Fox News.

Bush lied, people died, these are facts https://t.co/fDwBDZ7aus — Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt) March 20, 2019

What if this thread, but in response to being questioned by an ICC prosecutor https://t.co/o7xq8bRGm8 — Kate Aronoff (@KateAronoff) March 20, 2019

A litany of false justifications which shows how much out of touch the Bush administration was and continues to be. Bush and co wanted this war from the very beginning and nothing would have stopped them. Not even UN inspectors reports which clearly stated otherwise https://t.co/TtzMdvm39B — Hoda Abdel-Hamid (@HodaAH) March 20, 2019

"President George W. Bush and seven of his administration’s top officials…made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001… Rumsfeld and Fleischer each made 109 false statements."https://t.co/IieZeRnooo https://t.co/plPDzSm5KO — Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) March 20, 2019

Cheney then repeatedly claimed there was intelligence showing the 9/11 ringleader had met with Iraqi intelligence in Prague. But the CIA had concluded this report was false. Another lie. — David Corn (@DavidCornDC) March 20, 2019

Yes, there were some intel reports noting the existence of WMD programs. But the Bush-Cheney crowd exaggerated these findings and ignored or denied the contrary evidence. Such as with the case of the aluminum tubes…. — David Corn (@DavidCornDC) March 20, 2019

By the way, while misleading the public, you totally screwed up planning for the post-invasion period. Thanks to that, thousands of US GIs were killed and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians died. And, oh yeah, ISIS. — David Corn (@DavidCornDC) March 20, 2019