The untruths during the hearings before the Congress are frequent, notes our columnist. Are we witnessing a trivialization of the lie in a country where it was hitherto considered an absolute crime?
It is nice to say that in the United States the lie is considered an absolute crime, much less tolerated than in Europe, it is clear that not everyone is in the same boat. Nafissatou Diallo, for example, the maid of the Sofitel New York who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault, quickly passed from the victim status to the plague. Because she had hidden some details about her private life and migratory status. A serious fault for the Americans. #MeToo had not been there yet.
President Bill Clinton had to row after the Lewinsky affair. His lie was more blamed than his extramarital affair as such. But what about the justice ministers under Trump? Jeff Sessions had to recuse himself from the Russian affair after admitting to having lied: he had met a certain Russian ambassador in Washington. He later joined Donald Trump’s bench. Case closed. Touched, sunk, forgotten. As for the new, Bill Barr, his hearing on Wednesday before the Congress was related to a kind of show version liar poker.
“Vilaine press, go!”
Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller accuses him of having watered down his report on Donald Trump, presenting it a little too favorably in his summary. Bill Barr rejects these accusations and attacks Robert Mueller. He assures that he did not question his summary, but the way the press interpreted it. Naughty press, go! Except that it is: the letter sent by Mueller on March 27, and broadcast by most American media, says black and white that it is the summary proposed by the Minister of Justice that poses a problem.
“Tragicomedies without popcorn”
Hard to understand why Bill Barr has so easily let himself be dragged down the slope of what may seem like a lie … Words against words? Yes, except that Robert Mueller left written records. At other times, Bill Barr, under oath, preferred to resort to another tactic, less dangerous: partial amnesia. Michael Cohen, the former president’s lawyer, a fierce pitbull who has become a nice poodle since he collaborated with the law, has also been guilty of lies about Donald Trump’s business. He admitted it to Congress. Spicy, the hearings before the Senate and the House of Representatives definitely resemble more and more tragicomedies, without optional popcorn.
The risk of trivialization
But the spreaders of lies do not flicker all. There is one in particular who has set the bar very high: Donald Trump. The Washington Post tracks down its lies, inaccuracies, untruths and other supposedly voluntary mistakes for months . If we believe the newspaper, it is already more than 10,000 since his inauguration. With different degrees of “lie”. Small Pinocchio also allow to evaluate the importance, such as small peppers on Thai menus that indicate how the customer spit fire. This profusion carries an immense risk: the trivialization of the lie. And that’s what Donald Trump helps to do. With, obviously, some faithful servants as accomplices.
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