Trump’s Art Of The Lie And Historic First Year Failures

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freadshotFRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE | FEBRUARY 1, 2018

“President Trump’s disregard and disdain for the rule of law is a serious threat to our democratic norms and to our constitutional system of government.”

Democracy 21 and Common Cause issued a report this week entitled, “The Art of the Lie: Trump’s Historic First Year Failure on Government Integrity and Accountability Issues.”

Among the 20 examples documented in the report of Trump’s unprecedented failures as President is his disdain for the rule of law. The report concludes, “President Trump treats as nonexistent the rule of law, a foundational tenet of our constitutional system of government.”

The latest example of this was revealed this week.

In December, when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein went to see the President to ask for his help in rejecting what Rosenstein considered inappropriate requests for documents from the House of Representatives, Trump asked Rosenstein if he was “on my team,” and where Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation was heading.

This highly inappropriate request to Rosenstein for loyalty and for information about an ongoing investigation that Rosenstein is overseeing, and that involved Trump, wasn’t the first time the President has violated the norms of our law enforcement system.

He made a similar request for loyalty to FBI Director James Comey when, according to published reports, early in his presidency, Trump said to Comey, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.”

Both Comey and Rosenstein did not provide the answer the President wanted to hear. They both correctly recognized that their loyalty ran to the responsibilities of the office they held and to the rule of law.

Comey was later fired by President Trump, who reportedly told Russian officials in explaining the firing, “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken of.”

There are numerous other examples of President Trump disregarding the rule of law and the norms of our democracy.

These include Trump’s attacks on judges and the judicial system, his relentless attacks on the Justice Department and FBI and his repeated efforts to undermine the Mueller investigation.

President Trump’s disregard and disdain for the rule of law is a serious threat to our democratic norms and to our constitutional system of government.

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Fred Wertheimer is the Founder and President of Democracy 21, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to strengthen our democracy and ensure the integrity and fairness of government decisions and elections.