EJ Montini

opinion columnist

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan says the fact that Donald Trump lies “doesn’t matter.”

Vice President-Elect Mike Pence actually called it “refreshing.”

So, if it doesn’t matter that the president-elect lies, and it’s even refreshing, can we simply refer to Trump as “Lyin’ Donald?”

That way, we won’t have to go through all of those annoying “fact checks.”

Among the things Lyin' Donald told us

You know, like when Trump said “thousands and thousands” of people in New Jersey took to the streets and cheered the attack on the World Trade Center.

Lie.

Or when he said 81 percent of white murder victims are killed by blacks.

No. (More like 15 percent.)

Or when he said President Obama planned to admit 200,000 refugees from Syria.

Ummmm. (Actually, it was 10,000.)

MONTINI:If truth mattered, Clinton crushed Trump

Or when he claimed that Trump University got an “A” rating from the Better Business Bureau.

HA! (It was a “D,” and that was before it went into the financial toilet.)

Now, the Speaker of the House says it “doesn’t matter” when the president-elect tweets untruths.

And the future vice president calls it “refreshing.”

If that's true, then referring to him as Lyin’ Donald would not be considered an insult. Right?

'It doesn't matter to me. He won ... '

Although, I’d find that odd, given that Trump derisively called Sen. Ted Cruz “Lyin’ Ted.” He also said that Republican opponents Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush were liars.

He called Dr. Ben Carson a “pathological liar.” He also tweeted about Carson: “With Ben Carson wanting to hit his mother on head with a hammer, stab a friend and Pyramids built for grain storage - don't people get it?”

That HAD to be a bunch of lies or wild exaggerations because Trump is making Carson the next secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Because if what he said about Carson is the truth, then Trump would be appointing a pathological liar who attacked his mom with a hammer to be a U.S. cabinet secretary.

Now we have Trump’s ridiculous, completely unproven assertion that he would have won the popular vote (He’s currently about 2.5 million votes behind Hillary Clinton) if it weren’t for the “millions” of illegal immigrants who voted.

House Speaker Paul Ryan was pressed during a TV interview about Trump’s phony claim.

Ryan said, “I have no way of backing that up. I have no knowledge of such things. But it doesn’t matter to me. He won the election.”

Doesn't matter to him?

Lies don’t matter?

That – in fact – is a lie.

It has to be a lie, or else we’re doomed.

I'll never get over racism, sexism - and lies

I’ve heard a version of Ryan’s lame rationalization from a number of Trump supporters since the election.

He won the election, they say. Get over it.

Actually, I have. I am completely over the election.

What I am not over, and will never be over, is racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, homophobia, misogyny or anti-Semitism.

And lies.

If it’s all the same to you, I’m not over lies. I won’t get over lies.