At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, 2019 felt like the year when civilization teetered definitively toward collapse. Notre Dame burned down, authoritarian governments shut off the internet, a child sailed across the ocean to tell us we were destroying the planet—all of which, of course, is not to mention our own president or what’s happening in England.
Washington (CNN)It was on White House letterhead. It read like a string of President Donald Trump’s tweets.
And it was just as dishonest.
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump released a six-page letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in which — employing his distinctive vocabulary and punctuation — he blasted Democrats’ push to impeach him, defended his dealings with Ukraine and touted his accomplishments in office.
Like much of his previous rhetoric about Ukraine and impeachment, much of the letter was false or misleading.
Trump repeated multiple false claims that have been debunked on numerous occasions. He also delivered some new claims that were false, misleading or lacking in context.
We’re not finished going through all of Trump’s claims in his letter, but here are some early fact checks.
In reading comments left on various social media forums, one often sees Republican politicians described as “stupid”, “clownish”, “ignorant”, “spineless”, “cowards”, “gutless” and the like. We see them ridiculed for believing in conspiracy theories and for believing Trump’s breathtaking lies.
To this I say: get real.
Yes, a great many Republican officials do deserve the descriptions above. Louie Gohmert in particular is one of the most wretchedly idiotic adults of whom I have ever heard. But let’s cut through all of the idiocy and nonsense he and other Republicans spout.
They KNOW they’re lying. They know Trump is lying.
They do NOT believe the idiotic conspiracy nonsense they babble about.
“Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today the annual selection of 25 of America’s most influential motion pictures to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Selected because of their cultural, historic and aesthetic importance to the nation’s film heritage, the films in the class of 2019 range from Prince’s 1984 autobiographical hit “Purple Rain” and Spike Lee’s 1986 breakout movie “She’s Gotta Have It” to Disney’s 1959 timeless fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty” and this year’s biggest public vote getter, Kevin Smith’s 1994 “Clerks.” ”