Robinson: Trump’s lying should be an impeachable offense

Here is just one example: In June, Trump said, “The head of U.S. Steel called me the other day, and he said, ‘We’re opening up six major facilities and expanding facilities that have never been expanded.’ ” A few days later, he said, “U.S. Steel just announced they’re expanding or building six new facilities.”

Reporters called the company for details and learned that U.S. Steel has not announced plans to open any new domestic steel mills, period. End of story, right?

Wrong. More than a month later, at one of his campaign-style rallies, Trump declared that “U.S. Steel is opening up seven plants.” At another rally around the same time, he told supporters that “U.S. Steel just announced that they’re building six new steel mills.”

Six new plants, seven new plants, what’s the difference when neither is true and the real number is zero? In June, Trump’s claim might have been called a “misstatement” or a “falsehood” or an “untruth.” A month later, after the truth had been clearly established, that same claim could only be called a bald-faced lie.

And those are just a smattering of the more than 5,000 falsehoods from Trump since he took office. Trump clearly understands the benefit of flooding the zone. If he tells one glaring lie, that’s where all attention will be focused. But if he tells a dozen lies, it is all but impossible for critics to keep up.

He’s president — you’re not

In an interview broadcast Sunday, “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl offered a valuable lesson in how to pin Trump down. At one point, he was trying to leave the false impression that there is serious scientific debate about whether human activity has contributed to climate change. “They say that we had hurricanes that were far worse than what we just had with Michael,” Trump said.

“Who says that?” Stahl interjected. ” ‘They say?’ ”

“People say,” Trump responded. “People say …” Finally he claimed, without offering evidence, that “scientists . . . have a very big political agenda” — a dodge amounting to an admission that Trump had no factual basis for the claims he was making.

When Stahl turned to Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, and Trump said, “I think China meddled also,” Stahl again called him on it. Trump finally got so flustered that he said, “Lesley, it’s OK. In the meantime, I’m president — and you’re not.”

And that is the point.

When Trump insists on his own invented “facts,” he makes reality-based political dialogue impossible. His utter disregard for truth is a subversion of our democracy and a dereliction of his duty as president. The Founders considered themselves men of honor whose word was their bond. They left us the vague, encompassing phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors” for just such an emergency.