In Trump's White House, lies beget lies Members of Congress and Cabinet sacrifice their credibility to protect a president: Our view

The Editorial Board | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption DHS Secretary grilled over Trump language Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is testifying under oath that she “did not hear” President Donald Trump use a certain vulgarity to describe African countries, but she doesn’t “dispute the president was using tough language.” (Jan. 16)

It's bad enough that the president of the United States is an inveterate liar. It's even worse when members of Congress and his Cabinet feel compelled to lie on his behalf.

Five days after word leaked out that President Trump used bigoted and vulgar remarks during an Oval Office meeting on immigration, it's clear who's telling the truth. Spoiler alert: It's not the president and his enablers.

According to the account by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Trump not only used the term "shithole" in reference to African nations while expressing a preference for immigration from countries such as Norway, but Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also repeated the epithet back to the president in an extraordinary rebuke. Graham has not disputed Durbin's account and, on Tuesday, went out of his way to describe his Senate colleague as a "decent, honest man."

It defies credulity to think that anyone else who was in the room could forget such a remarkable exchange. Yet the other participants have chosen to lie, develop amnesia, or go mute.

The day after the meeting, Republican Sens. David Perdue and Tom Cotton said they couldn't recall the president using the expletive. By the time they appeared on Sunday talk shows, their memories had been jogged. Perdue, a churchgoer from Georgia, and Cotton, who served as an officer in a U.S. Army that requires soldiers "to do what's right, legally and morally," cast aspersions on Durbin and said they never heard Trump utter the vulgarity.

(In a classic case of a distinction without a difference, there have been reports that the men heard the president say "shithouse" instead of "shithole.")

Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who was also present at the meeting and has a vested interest in not crossing her boss, testified under oath Tuesday that there was "tough language" but she "did not hear that word used." Sure. Whatever.

And others who were there — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., the son of Cuban immigrants — have gone radio silent on the subject. Let's hear from them.

Tellingly, the White House press office didn't push back against the initial account, and Trump spent the next 15 hours assessing reaction and privately discussing whether the exchange would play well with his base. Only after ferocious blowback did the president issue a vague lie on Twitter: "This was not the language used."

That Trump lies effortlessly is beyond debate. A Washington Post fact-checker analysis calculated that he generates, on average, more than five falsehoods or misleading statements a day.

Truth is the great leveler. The nation can discuss the right number of immigrants admitted because of their skills compared with those admitted because of family relationships. But no legislative priority is worth sacrificing your credibility to protect a president with so little regard for decency and honesty.

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