The other day a spokesperson for President-elect Trump declared that there’s “no such things […] as facts.” She was describing the Trump camp’s view of our post-election world.
There are no such things as facts.
What. The. Hell.
We know that Donald Trump himself has long held this view. His description during the campaigns of hordes of rapists pouring over the border from Mexico was completely made up. His claim that millions of refugee Muslims were flooding the country was fake.
And just the other day, when he told a rally of supporters that he had won “in a landslide,” that was the exact opposite of a fact. As we all know, he lost the popular vote by more than 2 1/2 million votes.
The scary thing is that it’s not only Trump himself who avoids the truth, to put it mildly. Reince Priebus, former head of the Republican National Committee, has also clearly lost his ability to care about facts.
After the election, Priebus joined the Trump administration as the President-elect’s Chief of Staff. That was no doubt when he decided that it was acceptable to declare that ‘up’ is ‘down’ and that the sky is green.
Priebus told John Dickerson of “Meet The Press” that he had no problem with Mr. Trump tweeting the totally unsubstantiated claim that millions of people had voted illegally, and that otherwise he’d have won the popular vote.
In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016
Some call that claim a lie, since there is not one bit of evidence to support it. But in post-election Trump world, it’s just a non-fact.
Donaldson pressed Priebus about Trump’s claim, asking him how he reacts to statements that he knows are not true. Priebus replied:
“I don’t know if that’s not true, John.”
The journalist was shocked, naturally, and pushed back, asking if Priebus truly believed that millions of people had voted illegally.
The answer?
“Its possible.”
So there you go.
Donald Trump and his Chief of Staff are completely comfortable making wild claims about the country’s most precious institutions. They don’t need evidence, they don’t need proof. All they need to make a claim is the possibility that it could be true.
With that in mind, I claim that Donald Trump is suffering from several neurological and psychological disorders, including ADHD, a language disorder, and narcissistic personality disorder.
I can say whatever I want about Trump, right? After all, it’s possible.
Watch Priebus twist and distort reality to defend his boss.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
