The WØRD – “Truth”

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From the Chair

Truth is an endangered species as the 2024 presidential campaign unfolds thanks, in large part, to Donald Trump. His campaign to return to the White House is based on lies, beginning with The Big Lie: that the 2020 election was stolen. Despite more than 60 court rulings and a total lack of evidence, a majority of Republicans believe the Big Lie. An NBC News entrance poll found a resounding 90% of Trump voters in Iowa didn’t believe Biden legitimately won in 2020.

The lying extends to just about everything else Trump says. He lied about Nikki Haley’s record as South Carolina Governor, and Ron DeSantis’ record in Florida. There’s no doubt he will continue to make up total untruths about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. 

He’s already started, claiming the economy was soaring during his Presidency and is now in shambles when, in fact, just the opposite is true.

Trump inherited the Obama economy and took it down the drain. He was the first President since Herbert Hoover to leave office with fewer jobs than when he was inaugurated. He left office with thousands dying weekly from the Covid pandemic, in part due to massive inaction by his administration to protect the American people from the once-in-a-century health emergency. And he added a staggering $9-TRILLION to the national debt, the largest percentage increase in U.S. history. 

He calls President Biden a crook when it’s Trump who’s facing 91 felony charges, and it’s Trump whose administration has seen dozens of his closest advisers convicted or facing trial on criminal charges, and hundreds of his supporters jailed for the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Calling Trump a liar may seem extreme to some, but it’s a fact that two separate courts in New York have found him guilty of being a liar — and it’s going to cost him hundreds of millions. 

In one courtroom, he’s been found guilty of lying on financial documents and faces fines of more than a quarter-of-a-billion dollars. In another courtroom, he’s been found guilty of lying when he denied raping E. Jean Carroll. He’s already been ordered to pay her $5-million for those lies, and faces another more-expensive judgment because he refuses to stop lying about her.

Make no mistake: his lies have power, especially when they are amplified by his media allies at Fox, The Daily Caller, Breitbart and right-wing talk radio. As Winston Churchill famously noted: A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. It was true when he said it, and even more true in the age of the internet and social media.

Trump learned an important lesson from the first leader of Communist Russia –  Vladimir Lenin – who said A lie told often enough becomes the truth. He repeats his core lies about 2020, about the economy, about his opponents and even about his own mental capabilities time after time after time … and his MAGA true believers accept the lies as truth.

Our challenge will be to counteract the lies with the truth about Joe Biden and the successes of his presidency. It will take discipline and persistence. 

Monday marks the 51st anniversary of Roe v Wade – the Supreme Court ruling that, for nearly a half-century, recognized the right of women to control their own healthcare. In response to the Dobbs decision voters in Michigan, Kansas, Ohio and Kentucky have already let their voices be heard in support of the rights taken away by the Trump Supreme Court.

On Friday, Governor Whitmer and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz hosted a national media teleconference on Roe, the Dobbs decision overturning Roe, and the implications for 2024. This week’s podcast shares their comments.


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