When Donald Trump spoke at the Boy Scout Jamboree, he delivered a speech laden with red meat and encouraged the 40,000 boys in attendance to boo Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. He also saw fit to tell those boys stories about sex orgies on yachts. The reality-based world knows that Trump was deservedly kicked up, down, and sideways–and that the Boy Scouts were all but forced to apologize. But that’s not what Trump would have you believe. In his world, the Boy Scout brass couldn’t have thanked him enough.
On Tuesday night, Politico got its hands on the full transcript of an interview Trump gave to The Wall Street Journal on July 25, 24 hours after his now-infamous speech to the Boy Scouts. One of the Journal reporters on hand mentioned the “mixed” reaction coming in from that speech. Trump’s reaction was typical–he didn’t think it was mixed because “I’d be the first to admit mixed.” He then made a breathtaking statement–the head of the Boy Scouts himself endorsed it.
“And I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them, and they were very thankful. So there was—there was no mix.”
But there was one problem with Trump’s statement–it’s almost certainly false. The Boy Scouts told multiple news outlets that there is no record of any call from Boy Scout leadership to the White House. For good measure, the Boy Scouts stated that the apology from Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh “speaks for itself.”
Daniel Dale, the Washington correspondent for The Toronto Star, spoke for a lot of people both inside and outside this country once this broke.
Trump lied about the BOY SCOUTS. A senior Scouts source says there was no call at all, let alone a call telling him his speech was the best.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 1, 2017
To repeat: the Boy Scouts say this call, described in detail by the president of the United States, did not happen. https://t.co/ihknjtnKMX
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 1, 2017
Lies to sell big legislation and lies to fend off scandal are one thing. It's the lies about nothing that make Trump special.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 1, 2017
In a normal world, and in a normal White House, this would have been the end of it. But we’re talking about an administration where alternative facts is always on the order of the day. Wednesday was no different. At the daily press briefing, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered a, shall we say, novel explanation for Trump’s bombast. Watch here.
.@SHSanders45 tells @CeciliaVega "multiple members of the Boy Scout leadership" praised Trump for his speech. https://t.co/aBuAR0CMzH pic.twitter.com/5yva8sXZe2
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 2, 2017
ABC News senior White House correspondent Cecilia Vega directly asked Sanders if Trump lied about the call, as well as another call Trump claimed to have received from Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto about a decrease in border crossings. That call, like the supposed call from the Boy Scout brass, never occurred.
Sanders claimed that “multiple members of the Boy Scout leadership” praised Trump for his speech. Vega didn’t let it slide, pointing out that Trump had specifically received phone calls. Sanders engaged in one of the most breathtaking displays of verbal gymnastics to date from this White House. She said they were “direct conversations,” rather than phone calls.
This prompted Vega to ask directly if Trump lied. Sanders’ response?
“I wouldn’t say it was a lie. That’s a pretty bold accusation. The conversations took place. They just simply didn’t take place over a phone call. He had them in person.”
Wait a minute. First it was a phone call, then it was a face-to-face conversation? Which is it? And if it was a conversation, Sarah, how was Trump’s statement to the Journal not a lie? If Sanders hadn’t already earned her title of “Princess of Lies,” she definitely earned it today.
Back in February, Andrew Sullivan said that Trump’s tendency to lie and to so blatantly is a “serious problem.” It was clear even then that Sullivan was being extremely kind. After this latest whopper from Trump, there is no longer any doubt–we have a president who is completely removed from reality, and it is time for the 25th Amendment.
(featured image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)
