Read NPR’s full interview with former President Donald Trump
"Misinformation" Reprised (See former article)
January 12, 2022
photo above: Former President Donald Trump spoke with NPR‘s Steve Inskeep in a brief phone interview.
WN: In three words: Trump Always Lies.
Tammy Patrick, a former Maricopa County election official and now an elections expert at Democracy Fund, was presented by NPR with a number of Trump’s claims about voting and noted that in the 14 months since the election, no proof of any of his claims has come to light.
“It hasn’t been presented in any of the courts. It hasn’t been surfaced in any official election audits, not by the Department of Justice, not by the FBI,” Patrick said. “Allegations of fraud hinge upon being able to produce actual instances of fraud — not merely thoughts, feelings or beliefs about it.”
We read of Adolf Hitler:
His primary rules were:
never allow the public to cool off;
never admit a fault or wrong;
never concede that there may be some good in your enemy;
never leave room for alternatives;
never accept blame;
concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong;
people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one;
I have a relative who used to attribute the statement, “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.”, to Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. In fact, though:
Goebbels had taken the “Big Lie” angle from his leader, Hitler, who first coined the term in Mein Kampf. In the book, Hitler laid out the reasons why he was targeting the Jews in Germany for extermination. While he said the “Big Lie” was a propaganda technique used by Jews, it was actually outlining the Nazis’ own propaganda technique.
Hitler accused the Jews of using the “Big Lie” to blame Germany’s World War I loss on German general Erich Ludendorff.
According to Jeffrey Herf, the Nazis also accused the Jews of starting World War I and controlling Great Britain, Russia, and the United States. The Big Lie was thus used to promote a narrative which stated that Jews tried to exterminate Germans (“Big Lie”); emphasis added.–See again: Famous Sayings: #56 — ‘Repeat a Lie Often Enough…’
My relative used to use the above-misattributed quote variously of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and many other American Democratic politicians; the Canadian Liberals–in particular Justin Trudeau–and all kinds of ethnic minority leaders; immigrants; Muslims; the vast majority of Climate Change Scientists; etc.; etc.; etc.
He has however fallen strangely silent ever since the 2016 Trump Presidential Campaign, and the “tsunamic” phenomenon of Trump’s Forever Lies. I can only conclude that after all, my relative really has embraced The Big Lie Strategy attributed to Goebbels, and for that matter has seemingly swallowed all of Trump’s Big Lies. Now that’s one Whopper of a Big Gulp–and an apparent complete volte-face! Sadly though, it does not present as progress towards Truth. Sigh . . .
So listen to the exchange below, and read (perhaps some of) the Transcript, after the brief Introduction.
Introduction
Former President Donald Trump spoke with NPR’s Steve Inskeep on Tuesday, January 11, 2022, in a brief phone interview. They discussed vaccinations for COVID-19, the 2020 election and the outlook for Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections.
The conversation was cut short when Trump hung up the phone while being questioned about his continued lies about the outcome of the 2020 election. He repeatedly attempted to assert misinformation about his election loss, as well as about the necessity of vaccinations.
Man’s mind is so formed that it is far more susceptible to falsehood than to truth.—Desiderius Erasmus
In the interview, Trump repeated a number of false claims about voting systems in the U.S., including that the discredited GOP-led ballot review in Arizona showed evidence of malfeasance — despite the fact that it also reaffirmed Biden’s victory.
Republican officials in Maricopa County, however, debunked the characterizations of Trump and his allies in a 93-page rebuttal issued last week.
“The people who have spent the last year proclaiming our free and fair elections are rigged are lying or delusional,” said Bill Gates, the GOP chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
Asked why even Republicans in the state accepted the findings, Trump reverted to an old attack.
“Because they’re RINOs,” he said, “and frankly, a lot of people are questioning that.”
Tammy Patrick, a former Maricopa County election official and now an elections expert at Democracy Fund, was presented by NPR with a number of Trump’s claims about voting and noted that in the 14 months since the election, no proof of any of his claims has come to light.
“It hasn’t been presented in any of the courts. It hasn’t been surfaced in any official election audits, not by the Department of Justice, not by the FBI,” Patrick said. “Allegations of fraud hinge upon being able to produce actual instances of fraud — not merely thoughts, feelings or beliefs about it.”
To Republicans who know how elections work, the election has always been obvious.
“The facts show that it was President Biden who won fair and square,” said Trey Grayson, who used to run elections as the Republican secretary of state in Kentucky. “It wasn’t rigged.”
He’s thinking about those Republican T-shirts that said, “F*** your feelings.”
“And here we are looking at the 2020 election,” Grayson said, “and we are the ones who are basing it on feelings, not on facts, not on the law.”
Wayne Northey was Director of Man-to-Man/Woman-to-Woman – Restorative Christian Ministries (M2/W2) in British Columbia, Canada from 1998 to 2014, when he retired. He has been active in the criminal justice arena and a keen promoter of Restorative Justice since 1974. He has published widely on peacemaking and justice themes. You will find more about that on this website: a work in progress.
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