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CNN Compares Trump’s ‘Lies’ To Past Presidents — Leaves Out Obama’s ‘Lie Of The Year’

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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CNN devoted a full segment Wednesday to President Donald Trump’s “lies” and how they compared with those told by past presidents. Noticeably absent from their list was the only former president to earn recognition from Politifact for telling the “Lie of the Year”: Barack Obama.

WATCH:

“Situation Room” host Wolf Blitzer began the segment by stating flatly, “President Trump often tells flat-out lies.”

Referencing the president’s recent claim that his Bronx-born father was born in Germany, Blitzer continued, “Perhaps for some presumed political gain but over the past 24 hours he’s strung together a series of falsehood, misstatements and even wild lies for no apparent reason at all — including an absurd claim about his father’s birthplace.”

As the segment continued, Brian Todd pointed out that most American presidents had lied about something:

  • Bill Clinton: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
  • Richard Nixon: “I first learned from news reports of the Watergate break-in.”
  • Lyndon Johnson lied about what got the United States into Vietnam

Todd then argued that the lies told by Clinton, Nixon and Johnson had their roots in political expediency, whereas Trump’s appeared to be more about “winning over people” in the moment.

“He’s just riffing. He’s doing the moment,” Todd explained. “This is what Donald Trump does. Life takes place for him in the present. He doesn’t really care about the past. Not even that much about the future. He wants to win the moment at every turn.” (RELATED: Trump Throws Down 2020 Gauntlet: ‘If They Beat Me On The Green New Deal, I Deserve To Lose’)

But noticeably absent from the entire segment was former President Obama, whose infamous claim about the Affordable Care Act was named “Lie of the Year” by Politifact: “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan,” he said.

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