The death of shame in our society has ushered in an orgy of lying. At the center, of course, is the president, who does not believe in the concept of truth in the public discourse. If enough people believe something, in his view, it might as well be true. So it was sadly no surprise to see him try to say, once again, that his move to fire FBI Director James Comey has nothing to do with the Russia probe:

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Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation where, by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems)! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018

(As a side note, it's grotesquely fascinating to watch Trump try out nicknames—"Slippery," "Lyin'," "Slime ball"—on Twitter like he's at one of his rallies. Don't mind the guy throwing out off-beat invective over there, that's just the president!)

This would be a compelling case if Trump had not already admitted—on national television—that Comey's firing had to do with "the Russia thing":

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"When I decided to just do it, I said to myself, you know, ‘this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story.’”



(Note that in that clip Trump effusively praises Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general he is rumored to be considering firing now over the Russia probe.)

Trump also hosted a couple of Russian ambassadors in the Oval Office the day after he fired Comey and told them the firing would release the pressure of the Russia probe:



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Intelligence experts suggested inviting the Russians into the Oval at all was malpractice. But not content with that, the president started bragging that he'd gotten rid of the "nutjob" FBI director that was giving them all trouble.

The president is all over the record saying, explicitly, that he fired Comey over the Russia probe, yet he still feels empowered to simply lie about it now on Twitter. Is that because he realized the gravity of admitting you fired the person investigating your associates, which sounds something like obstruction of justice? Not quite. It appears he was mostly inspired by a segment on Fox & Friends:

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Trump's claim that Comey was fired for reasons unrelated to Russia followed Lanny Davis making the case for firing Comey over the Clinton investigation on Fox & Friends.



Left, Fox & Friends, 7:27 am

Right, Trump, 8:05 am pic.twitter.com/PQa6JG3lWw — Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) April 18, 2018

Of course, Trump's original argument for firing Comey was the director's mishandling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation during the election. This was laughable, since Trump praised Comey's handling of it during the campaign and bludgeoned the email issue to death on the trail. But this excuse really went out the window once Trump defenestrated it in the interview with Lester Holt. Yet his allies, and now he, are back making the same case.

As if the collapse of accountability for public lying wasn't enough, the president is also going ballistic over the Stormy Daniels issue:

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A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)! https://t.co/9Is7mHBFda — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018

Nothing says I never had an affair with this porn star and then had my fixer send someone to threaten her into silence like retweeting "Deplorable Scottish" and hurling more invective. As usual, it's insufficient to say he doth protest too much.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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