Thursday, July 27, 2017

New White House communications chief begins tenure by defending one of Trump’s most dangerous lies

https://thinkprogress.org/new-white-house-communications-chief-begins-tenure-by-defending-one-of-trumps-most-dangerous-lies-2cfffaa3f532
"Sean Spicer began his tenure as White House Press Secretary by defending a lie about the crowd size at Trump’s inauguration being “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration. Period.” On the day of Spicer’s resignation, new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci defended another, more dangerous Trump lie. Asked by a reporter if he stands by Trump’s claim that three to five million illegal votes cost him the popular vote, Scaramucci said, “If the president says it… my guess is that there is probably some level of truth to that.” “I think what we have found sometimes, the president says stuff, some of you guys in the media think it’s not true or it isn’t true, and it turns out it is closer to the truth than people think,” he added. There isn’t a shred of evidence that widespread illegal voting occurred during last year’s election. But Trump has leveraged his claim into the creation of a White House Commission on Election Integrity. During their first meeting earlier this week, the commission made clear that its goal is to suppress votes. At other points during Friday’s press conference, Scaramucci praised Trump effusively. But the new White House communications director dodged most other substantive questions that reporters asked him during his time at the podium, citing his newness in the role and need to get up to speed. Scaramucci’s defense of Trump’s dangerous, evidence-free voter fraud claim — one that more than 20 states have already cited in efforts to make it harder for eligible citizens to vote — indicates that while his delivery might be smoother than Spicer’s, some of the worst practices of the White House will not change."