This is a re-post of something I wrote on February 7th, the day #45 held a live “meet-n-greet” with sheriffs from around the country.  During that meeting Trump said that the US murder rate “is the highest it’s been in 47 years.”

“I’d say that in a speech and everybody was surprised because the press doesn’t like to tell it like it is,” Trump said during a meeting with US sheriffs at the White House. “It wasn’t to their advantage to say that. The murder rate is the highest it’s been in I guess 45-47 years.”

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“First in wins” — there is no undoing the damage of a lie released into the ecosystem.

Once a member of the Trump administration lies it does not matter what anyone else says thereafter; all followup is defensive.

Did Trump “intend” to misstate the current murder rates? Did, he just miss a “nuance word” when he said the murder rate was at an all time high in 47 years? How convenient that their “mistakes” and “missteps” all accrue to their advantage. A miracle!

The increase between 2015 and 2016 was the largest one-year increase in 47 years. But at 4.9 per 100,000, the murder rates are still 50% lower than the 1980 rate of 10 per 100,000.

But it does not matter. It doesn’t matter if you can understand stats. It does not matter if you care about finding the truth.

Trump released this lie on live national TV.

Why is this man given a platform to LIE? Where is  the 7 second delay used in live events to prevent obscenities from reaching the airwaves?

Enabling fascist propaganda strikes me as an obscenity far more pernicious than Janet Jackson’s nipple showing up at a Super Bowl.