President Trump tells a great many falsehoods. He embellishes. He exaggerates. He also lies.
But you would not expect his allies to admit to any of this. Rather, you’d expect them to state unequivocally that their guy is an honest fellow; always on the up-and-up.
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Unfortunately for Trump, some supporters are having a hard time getting around the possibility he has been deeply dishonest about his conduct regarding the federal investigation of Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election and his firing of former FBI director James Comey.
Fox News contributor Andrew Napolitano, for example, claimed Thursday that there is a “credible and compelling” case that Trump has not been forthright regarding his conversations with the former FBI director.
“Today certainly advanced the ball on the seriousness of this investigation and the breadth of its scope,” Napolitano said. “If you look [at] the big picture [you] get a very, very credible and compelling argument that the President of the United States has not been truthful with the American people; and ordered the director of the FBI to shut down an investigation.”
Napolitano doesn’t come to questioning Trump easily. He is so in favor of the current administration that he was willing to go to the mats over the still-unproven allegation that the British spy agency GCHQ worked with former President Barack Obama to have Trump Tower’s “wires tapped” during the 2016 election.
Napolitano, who has yet to provide any evidence of the charge, was disciplined by Fox News over his role in spreading this story, which, by the way, led to an international incident between the U.S. and the U.K. after White House press secretary Sean Spicer cited it during a briefing.
The former judge’s remarks Thursday came amid a larger discussion on Comey’s highly anticipated testimony before Congress. The former FBI director maintained that Trump tried to interfere in the Russia investigation, including suggesting the bureau abandon its probe of disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Napolitano, who has been unabashedly pro-Trump since at least the GOP presidential primary, explained Thursday that Comey’s testimony raises some serious questions about the president.
“Did [Trump] order it because he wanted to conserve Justice Department resources, or did he order it because he wanted to protect a friend? The former would be a legitimate order; the latter is arguably a corrupt order or corrupt intent,” the Fox News talking head said.
The White House, for its part, maintained Thursday that Trump is an honest person.
“I can definitively say the president is not a liar,” White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters. “It’s frankly insulting that the question would be asked.”
