Is it News When Trump Is Caught Lying?

Normally we expect presidential candidates to stick to making their case without a stream-- let alone a gusher-- of blatant lies. So far PolitiFact has checked 79 of Trump's controversial public assertions. They only found 4 to be true, although another 14 were "mostly true," which means 10% of what he said was true enough. 90% wasn't. 40% of his statements have been outright lies and another 19% for the category "Pants on Fire"-- from his assertion that Ted Cruz's father was involved with assassinating JFK to more mundane nonsense, like Hillary being unpopular among women and the federal budget funding illegal immigrants coming over the border. He'll just say anything, but bothers some people but-- since it confirms what they've been brainwashed into believing in by Hate Talk Radio and Fox News, just makes his followers happy and excited.

One of his most oft-repeated-- and full debunked-- lies in that he opposed the Iraq War from the beginning and that he was "on the record" opposing it. As the L.A. Times pointed out Tuesday night, it's just not true, even if Trump has now persuaded himself that it is. And he claims Ruth Bader Ginsberg's mind is shot! Because of all the cosmetic surgery, people sometimes forget that Trump is 70 and losing his ability to remember and, worse yet, to reason. "Over and over," wrote Michael Finnegan, "Donald Trump has stated falsely that he opposed the Iraq war from the start, and he did it again Tuesday in Indiana. 'It should have never happened,' the Republican presidential hopeful told a crowd at a rally outside Indianapolis with a potential running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. 'I didn’t want to go from the beginning, and I have proof-- from the beginning. I didn’t want Iraq. I said you’re going to destabilize the Middle East, and that’s exactly what happened.' Proof? Nothing that has persuaded anyone he's tell the truth.

[I]n an audio recording unearthed by Buzzfeed News, radio host Howard Stern asked Trump whether he supported invading Iraq in an interview on Sept. 11, 2002, six months before President George W. Bush ordered the start of the war.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Trump responded. “I wish the first time it was done correctly.”

Asked for proof that Trump had opposed the war, his spokeswoman Hope Hicks said he was “referring to a clip from Neil Cavuto” of Fox News from January 2003.

Trump told Cavuto that perhaps Bush “shouldn't be doing it yet, and perhaps we should be waiting for the United Nations,” according to Politifact, a nonpartisan fact-checking organization. But it was false, Politifact found, for Trump to state that he “was totally against the war in Iraq” and had warned it would destabilize the Middle East.

Trump’s statements Tuesday came in freewheeling remarks to supporters in Westfield, Ind., after days of sticking to carefully scripted comments in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of five police officers in Dallas.

He accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of singlehandedly giving rise to the Islamic State terrorist group when she was secretary of State. “She’s the one who created it with stupidity,” he said. “With stupid, stupid policy.”

Trump, whose rallies have repeatedly deteriorated into violent clashes between protesters and his supporters, warned of “four more years of civil unrest” if Clinton wins the election.

He also said Iran had made "fools" of the United States with its deal to restrain its nuclear program. “Folks, those days are over,” Trump said.

And he returned to his hard-line rhetoric on illegal immigration, leading a call-and-response on his proposed border wall.

“Who is going to pay for the wall?” he asked.

“Mexico!” the crowd hollered back.

“I don’t hear you,” Trump told the crowd.

After a loud reprise, Trump continued: “They will-- 100%. And you know what? They‘ll be happy to pay for the wall.”

Huh? How happy?