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Stuart Varney asked Joe Walsh for an example of a Trump lie. Walsh gave him one from yesterday, which Varney then denied was a lie.

Video:

This exchange between Stuart Varney and Joe Walsh is oddly reminiscent of the torture scenes from "1984." Varney challenges Walsh: Name an example ofTrump lying. Walsh names one. Varney denies it. Walsh: "Do you believe he's ever told the American people a lie?" Varney: "No." pic.twitter.com/XkDTJEk1dA — Eric Kleefeld (@EricKleefeld) August 30, 2019

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Republicans and their media have removed all notion of fact from their discourse. Facts don’t exist, so when Walsh confronted Fox with the White House confirmed lie about high-level phone calls with China on trade, Fox responded by changing the definition of what a lie is.

The exchange between Walsh and Varney goes to the heart of why bipartisanship is dead, and Republicans can’t be brought into the national fold under Donald Trump. Republicans and their media have created their own reality based on faith. Formerly agreed-upon facts that used to be the foundation of our national discourse are now disputed by Republicans. It is impossible for the nation to be governed in a bipartisan way when one side of the conversation refuses to agree that the issues facing the country actually exist.

For example, every economic indicator suggests that a recession is coming, but Trump, Republicans, and their media believe that the recession is “fake news,” so it will be impossible to get action on the issue because Republicans don’t believe that the recession threat is real. Republicans refuse to acknowledge that guns play a role in gun violence, so no legislation that could reduce mass shootings can get through the Senate or be signed by the president.

Republicans, like Fox, are in the business of denying that lies are lies.

Joe Walsh got a dose of what it is like to try to deprogram a member of the Trump cult with facts, and it did not go well.