Andrew Sullivan: Trump Is ‘Incapable Of Accepting Reality’–And Media Needs To Say It (VIDEO)

It’s been amply established that Donald Trump has no regard for the truth, and that lying and dissembling are now standard operating procedure for this White House. Well, longtime blogger and columnist Andrew Sullivan thinks that the media needs to call Trump’s blatant lying for what it is–evidence of mental instability.

Sullivan recently joined New York magazine–one of Trump’s biggest gadflies–as a contributing editor. In the first entry of what he describes as a British-style “weekly diary,” he openly argued that Trump’s tendency to lie and lie and lie, as well as his habit of responding to any attempt to call him out with “rage and vengeance,” is evidence that Trump is “mentally unstable”–and therefore, “we are living through an emergency.”

Sullivan dropped by CNN’s “Reliable Sources” to discuss his column with host Brian Stelter. Watch here.

Sullivan told us something that any political junkie will know–politicians lie. However, he said, one of the fundamental pillars of democracy is “objective truth,” and even politicians who lie do so “in a way that pays some sort of deference to reality.” Trump, in contrast, hasn’t let up on the blatant lying that was a staple of his campaign, and orders his aides to “say things that are empirically untrue.” Indeed, he would like you to believe that he’s merely pushing “alternative facts,” and any attempt to call them out actually endangers democracy. Moreover, he, either himself, or through his underlings, now insists that any critical stories or unfavorable polls are “fake news.”

To Sullivan’s mind, when we can’t trust whether the president has the ability to tell the truth, it goes well beyond politics.

“To have such an unstable figure, incapable of accepting reality, at the center of the world, is an extremely dangerous thing.”

Sullivan argues that it shouldn’t take a psychologist to know this. He contends that you don’t need any training to tell when someone is lying about things that can easily be verified and “saying things that do not exist.” As he sees it, there’s a fine line between advancing your agenda and refusing to accept reality.

While it may assure full employment for fact-checkers–who have compiled “lists and lists and lists” of Trump’s false statements–it can only mean two things, neither of which are good. Either no one is telling him that he isn’t telling the truth, or he knows he’s lying and keeps lying anyway. With typical British bluntness, Sullivan says that if the latter is true, “then he shouldn’t be in that office.”

When Stelter asked Sullivan why more reporters aren’t willing to question Trump’s mental stability, Sullivan replied that most reporters assume that our president has the ability to “listen to reason” and distinguish between “what he wants to be true and what is true.” However, he said, reporters are supposed to understand the events of the day–and they can’t do so if they say “what’s in front of our eyes.”

Sullivan also expressed concern for Trump’s unwillingness to acknowledge facts when they are pointed out to him. Stelter could only recall one instance where Trump corrected a lie–when he seemingly walked back his longtime support for birtherism. He did, however, wonder if calling out Trump’s lies could cause Trump supporters to tune out anyone who does so. Sullivan doesn’t want to believe that “the president of the United States cannot accept reality.” However, sometimes you have to “say what one is seeing in front of one’s eyes,” and do so “in plain English.”

From an outsider’s perspective–even though he has lived in this country since 1984 and became a naturalized citizen in December–Sullivan reminded us that honest debate requires us to accept common facts. He thinks Trump needs a sobering reminder of this tenet.

“”When the central figure in our political system is creating an entire world of unreality, how are we supposed to respond? And I think we have to respond. We have to respond by saying ‘Excuse me, Mr. President, with all due respect, you keep telling us things that are not true. Can you please stop this?’ And if you can’t stop it, if you simply keep asserting the world is one way when it really isn’t, because everybody else can see it, then we have a serious problem at the very heart of our government.”

“Serious problem” is being kind to it. In a sane world, it would be grounds to at least discuss whether Trump should be sidelined under the 25th Amendment.

Fox News would have you believe that any concerns about Trump’s mental state are mere hysteria. I can only agree with Sullivan–this is as far from hysterical as you can get. It’s calling a spade a spade–something any good journalist ought to do. And no fears of a rage-tweet from Trump or his alt-right thugs should deter them.

(featured image courtesy Geoff Livingston, available under a Creative Commons BY-ND license)

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.