Dan Rather Urges America To Challenge Trump Administration’s Lies
- 7 years ago
In response to a weekend marked by the Trump administration’s ‘alternative facts,’ Dan Rather is urging journalists, politicians and citizens to call out lies as lies.
In response to a weekend marked by the Trump administration’s ‘alternative facts,’ Dan Rather is urging journalists, politicians and citizens to call out lies as lies.
On Sunday, Rather took to Facebook to stress the importance of demanding the truth, writing, “These are not normal times. These are extraordinary times. And extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.”
He continues, “When you have a spokesperson for the president of the United States wrap up a lie in the Orwellian phrase ‘alternative facts’…When you have a press secretary in his first appearance before the White House reporters threaten, bully, lie, and then walk out of the briefing room without the cajones to answer a single question…When you have a President stand before the stars of the fallen CIA agents and boast about the size of his crowds (lies) and how great his authoritarian inaugural speech was….These are not normal times.”
Rather asks and answers the question, “What can we do?” noting, “We can all step up and say simply and without equivocation. ‘A lie, is a lie, is a lie!’”
He suggests Republicans in Congress are among the most crucial means of diminishing, “…the liar’s malignant reach into our society,” and says to members of the press, “If you are interviewing a Paul Ryan, a Mitch McConnell, or any other GOP elected official, the first question must be ‘what will you do to combat the lying from the White House?’”
The ‘alternative facts’ he mentions are, in fact, a direct quote from Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.
On Sunday, during an appearance on NBC News' 'Meet the Press,' she was asked by Chuck Todd why Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, asserted the inauguration was better attended than the evidence shows.
Conway responded, “Don't be so overly dramatic about it, Chuck. You're saying it's a falsehood, and they're giving — our press secretary, Sean Spicer, gave alternative facts to that.”
In response to a weekend marked by the Trump administration’s ‘alternative facts,’ Dan Rather is urging journalists, politicians and citizens to call out lies as lies.
On Sunday, Rather took to Facebook to stress the importance of demanding the truth, writing, “These are not normal times. These are extraordinary times. And extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.”
He continues, “When you have a spokesperson for the president of the United States wrap up a lie in the Orwellian phrase ‘alternative facts’…When you have a press secretary in his first appearance before the White House reporters threaten, bully, lie, and then walk out of the briefing room without the cajones to answer a single question…When you have a President stand before the stars of the fallen CIA agents and boast about the size of his crowds (lies) and how great his authoritarian inaugural speech was….These are not normal times.”
Rather asks and answers the question, “What can we do?” noting, “We can all step up and say simply and without equivocation. ‘A lie, is a lie, is a lie!’”
He suggests Republicans in Congress are among the most crucial means of diminishing, “…the liar’s malignant reach into our society,” and says to members of the press, “If you are interviewing a Paul Ryan, a Mitch McConnell, or any other GOP elected official, the first question must be ‘what will you do to combat the lying from the White House?’”
The ‘alternative facts’ he mentions are, in fact, a direct quote from Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.
On Sunday, during an appearance on NBC News' 'Meet the Press,' she was asked by Chuck Todd why Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, asserted the inauguration was better attended than the evidence shows.
Conway responded, “Don't be so overly dramatic about it, Chuck. You're saying it's a falsehood, and they're giving — our press secretary, Sean Spicer, gave alternative facts to that.”