Americans Are Starting To Face Up To The Unpleasant Fact That Trump Lies About Everything... All The Times

This week a network radio host, a friendly liberal, asked me to be a guest on her show. In the invitation, she asked me if I believe there was collusion between Trump and the Kremlin during the 2016 election, mentioning her certainty that there was not. I told her that I believe it 100% and that it's my gut feeling and not my field of expertise and suggested if she does a show on congressional elections she get back to me because for now I'm just avidly watching Mueller's investigation and have no light to bring beyond what is publicly available to Putin-Gate.

Poll after poll after poll, for well over a year, has found that the American public is well aware that Trump is a liar and that virtually everyone on the national stage is more trustworthy than he is-- from the "failing New York Times" and all the TV networks to American law enforcement that he is always undercutting. Now a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds the public-- by a broad 69% to 25%-- supports special counsel Robert Mueller’s initial thrust, to investigate possible collusion between Trump's campaign officials and Russian government attempts to influence the 2016 election. Support extends to half of conservatives and more than four in 10 Republicans. Backing for Mueller’s work goes further: Americans by 64% to 32% also support his investigating Trump’s business activities.

The survey also finds lower believability for Trump than for fired FBI Director James Comey, whose interview with ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos airs Sunday night in advance of publication of Comey’s new book. Americans by a 16-point margin, 48-32 percent, find Comey more believable than Trump.

The public, by a similar 14-point margin, 47-33 percent, disapproves of Trump’s decision to fire Comey. That’s even though Comey’s own favorability rating is weak: Thirty percent see him favorably, 32 percent unfavorably, with a plurality, 38 percent, having no opinion of him.

Partisanship informs many of these views. Ninety percent of Democrats and 70 percent of independents support Mueller investigating possible campaign collusion with Russia, vs. 43 percent of Republicans. (That’s still a substantial number within the president’s own party, notable especially given the Republican National Committee’s criticisms of Comey, including a website titled “Lyin’ Comey.”) Forty-two percent of Trump’s own approvers also support the Russia investigation by Mueller.

Thursday night, Illinois ex-congressman Joe Walsh, a self-described Tea Party Republican tweeted "I'm disgusted by the war that @FoxNews has declared on Robert Mueller. I'm disgusted by Fox doing Trump's bidding to destroy the reputation of a good man. It's wrong."

I haven't read A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership-- and neither has Señor Trumpanzee. Maybe he got someone in the White House to give him a one-or-two page version-- with pictures. Or maybe he's seeing all the TV coverage. This morning he exploded, referring to Comey as a weak and untruthful slimeball, sure to send book sales soaring onto the best-seller charts. Or perhaps someone read him the analysis from Politico, which emphasized that Trump is "untethered to truth"and that depicts his leadership as "mafia-esque." Meanwhile, CNN called the book "nothing less than the most devastating, contemporaneous takedown of a sitting president in modern history. Comey "painted Trump as a relentless liar who is obsessively unethical, devoid of humanity and a slave to his ego, who is clueless about his job and unconcerned about a Russian assault on American democracy. Jabbing the President in a strikingly personal way, Comey noted the size of Trump's hands, said his skin looked orange and described white rings around his eyes from tanning goggles. But Comey isn't just out to hurt Trump's feelings. He is on a more profound mission: His book is a parable about the threat from a brazen President who demands a warped concept of loyalty and has only disdain for the rule of law." Every American should be concerned-- very concerned.