To Tell The Truth

It has been said that people who tell the truth rarely have difficulty defending their remarks, while those who lie on a regular basis can rarely defend themselves without telling yet more lies. This is as true of a five year-old child who scribbled on the bedroom wall with crayon, as it is of a politician or public figure that makes wildly incendiary statements, then leave the mess behind to be tidied up by their public relations staff or spokespersons.

In the past few weeks we have watched individuals in both the Clinton and Trump camps try to spin public perceptions of comments or data coming out about their candidate.  The difference between the two camps is remarkable in one key way. The Clinton campaign seems to have a united voice, even when addressing some very troubling information, they seem to be on the same page and have plausible, if not appropriate, explanations for their candidates ongoing controversies.

The Trump camp displays the exact opposite to a co-ordinated effort to address the increasingly incendiary remarks coming from the person of Donald J. Trump. Try as they might to explain away his comments, assert that Trump was being sarcastic, or shift the focus of scrutiny back to Trump's opponents, each spokesperson or surrogate seems to have a different take on deciphering Trump's bizarre rhetoric or outright lies. On a regular basis, Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson is caught in outright lies, revisions of history, and deflections.  Prominent Republicans including Rudy Giuliani and Trump's VP candidate Mike Pence, among others, have participated in efforts to explain Trump's behavior or even suggest that media bias is the true villain.

But if Trump continues to blame the 'crooked' media, to talk about banning whole networks or publications from having access to his campaign, he is only biting the hand that has been feeding him heaps of free advertising for well over a year now.  The moment a media source disagrees with Trump's assertion of facts, or question his inability to stop drawing focus to himself, and in doing so distract from the very real concerns facing his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, he blasts them on Twitter or at one of his many rally stops.  Why telling the truth is so foreign to Trump and his campaign staff is such a challenge, particularly when the candidate himself can't seem to stick to the issues that voters want to focus on, is incongruous with a serious attempt to make a play for Commander in Chief.

Here are the last seven Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump Twitter feed, all posted within the last 12 hours. Each and every Tweet blames the media for misdirecting the conversation away from Hillary Clinton's very real potential conflicts and lack of separation between her role as Secretary of State and the machinations of The Clinton Global Initiative charity. What each tweet fails to recognize in spectacular fashion is that Trump is the reason the focus is being pulled away from Clinton, his actions and behavior are drawing attention, not any particular media bias. It is a case of 'thou doth protest too much, methinks'.

I am not saying in any way that Hillary Clinton is the more truthful of the two candidates, I don't know that to be the case, but what I do know is that Donald J. Trump can't seem to tell the truth from a lie, even when it is a lie he himself is telling. Trump's assertions that he is a non-politically correct, shoot from the hip, truth teller would be perfectly acceptable to his base, if truth had anything to do with what was coming out of the man's mouth or Twitter account. But when a 'truth-teller' seems to have no handle on truth, and no concern for accuracy, no awareness of the right granted under the US Constitution; his claims of media bias simply don't add up.

In the last week, Trump has made wildly untrue accusations about ISIS, complained that the only way he could lose is if the voting stations are rigged against him, he even made crass so-called jokes about 'Second Amendment Solutions' to deal with his political rivals.  The fact that the media has covered these events is not about bias, it is about Trump's loose association with the power of language, the truth, and the seriousness one must have when speaking as a politician on the world stage.  The media didn't suddenly develop a bias, it has been there all along. Trump's complaints about that bias seems rooted in his belief that he is being misrepresented, that others are at fault for his behavior, and that he the media, not his own actions, are shifting focus away from his opponent.

To tell the truth, Mr. Trump, if you want to halt the media in it's tracks, stop being such an outrageous fame-whore and start talking issues. If the Trump campaign could get their act together for even a brief moment, then maybe Hillary Clinton would be forced to deal with the very real issues voters are having with her campaign and it's maneuvering.  As long as Trump turns his anger away from Clinton, and towards the media, he is only making his precarious position in the polls worse, and risking further backlash as one media outlet after another becomes the focus of a Trump attack.

For a man who claims to be a strong winner, a non-insider, a maverick if you will, Trump is all talk, weak excuses, and finger pointing. For a 'tough guy', Trump does an awful lot of whining and complaining about fair treatment. This all tends to lead media and voters alike to question whether Trump is even serious about winning the election, or whether this is just a ridiculous publicity stunt orchestrated to secure Clinton her Presidency, or cement Donald J. Trump as the most ridiculous man to ever have designs on taking public office. I am starting to wonder if both scenarios might be true, simultaneously, and that is my honest truth.