Trump concocted a story about a border agent's death. The truth won't catch up.

[yallerdawg]

Source: Washington Post, by Dana Milbank

This is the autopsy of a lie.

On the night of Nov.?18, Border Patrol Agent Rogelio Martinez was found dying on the side of an interstate in West Texas. There were immediate signs it had been an accident. Martinez’s partner, Stephen Garland (who suffered a head injury and doesn’t recall the incident), had radioed for help, saying he thought he ran into a culvert.

But President Trump and his allies saw an opportunity to whip up anti-immigrant fervor. At a Cabinet meeting Nov.?20, Trump announced, with cameras rolling, that “we lost a Border Patrol officer just yesterday, and another one was brutally beaten and badly, badly hurt.?.?.?. We’re going to have the wall.” He also issued a similar tweet.

Link to tweet

The FBI swung into action, mobilizing 37 field offices, and this week it announced its findings. Although the investigation “has not conclusively determined” what happened, “none of the more than 650 interviews completed, locations searched, or evidence collected and analyzed have produced evidence that would support the existence of a scuffle, altercation, or attack on November 18, 2017.”

Compared with the original allegations, the findings got little attention. There was no corrective tweet from Trump or the others and no retraction by Fox News, which buried the FBI’s findings with brief mention. Fox News, which had previously reported immigrants to be guilty of rape allegations that were later dropped, continued to report the border union’s claim of assault “despite FBI finding no scuffle.”

It has been more than 300 years since Jonathan Swift wrote about the utility of falsehood: “If a lie be believed only for an hour, it hath done its work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect?.?.?. like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.”

Read it all at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-lied-about-a-border-agents-death-the-truth-wont-catch-up/2018/02/09/02941b9a-0db7-11e8-95a5-c396801049ef_story.html

[handmade34]

1. reap what you sow??

"lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation"

[yallerdawg]

3. The hypocrisy and the lack of self-awareness of that...person...in the White House...

is stunning and stupefying.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. What is the point of having POTUS who lies all the time??

I mean seriously??

[yallerdawg]

4. This country impeached one president for lying.

I do believe we have a "precedent."

If that was the one and only thing.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. Jimmy Carter promised to always tell the truth, so the press was on him every minute

Questioning the accuracy of everything he said. But Trump seems incapable of knowing truth from lies and it's just become part of our national discourse. What is the point of having a POTUS that we can't trust to be honest - at the very least??

[asiliveandbreathe]

6. Good post yallerdawg - all the money spent on the investigation..prez uses

BP incident to gin up hate, use as propaganda. All the resources used in investigation..the event of attack a lie..crickets from WH...

IMHO - follow the money..contractors are chompin' at the bit to get in on "the money"..the wall...I just don't see it happenin'..

[bmbmd]

7. I've got some relatives down on the border

who are career Border Patrol. They're sure this is just another Obama cover-up.

[yallerdawg]

8. ...and they can reference and cite multiple sources.

We really do live in two America's now.