The Best Lies of the Presidential Candidates

By Jeff Cahlon

Politicians have never been known for their strict adherence to the truth, and the current slate of presidential candidates is unlikely to change that perception. Below are some of our favorite lies of the presidential campaign:

Carly Fiorina: Baby Brains

Fiorina is lagging badly in the polls, but for brazenly flagrant dishonesty, she is tough to beat. Her biggest whopper of the campaign has been her widely debunked claim of a Planned Parenthood video showing “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says, ‘We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.’” When confronted with the fact that no one has been able to produce such a video, she just doggedly repeats the lie, until her interviewer gets tired of refuting her.

Donald Trump: Muslim Par-Tay

Like Fiorina, Trump has a decidedly adversarial relationship with the truth. Trump’s most infamous lie of the campaign has been his claim that he saw “thousands and thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers on September 11. There is no documented evidence of any such celebrations, but in keeping with his “never apologize, never admit error” philosophy, Trump has simply doubled down. Even better, when an inkling of something unverified, but related to his comment, is found (as was the case with the Washington Post story here), he uses it as full vindication.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUTnu1MaeX0

Jeb Bush: I Got You Bro

Bush understandably has a blind spot with respect to his brother’s presidency. But his statement that “we were attacked and my brother kept us safe” doesn’t even require a fact-checker to determine its accuracy: it contradicts itself.

Bernie Sanders: Money is Always Bad

In keeping with his longstanding self-identification as a socialist, Sanders has a penchant for barking the cherished beliefs of the radical Left as if they were hidden truths only he is brave and incorruptible enough to expose. One of his favorites is that “Wall Street’s entire business model is based on fraud.” No doubt there are crooks out there, likely even at some of the biggest financial institutions, but wholesale dismissal of an entire industry, and one that represents around 8% of our annual GDP, that’s a little over the top (or at least we fucking hope so because that’s one big ass pyramid to come crumbling down).

Hillary Clinton: ISIS Loves Trump

Hillary is usually too smart, and too cautious, for the sort of near-fabrications routinely indulged in by Fiorina and Trump. But not always. In keeping with this election’s theme of candidates lying about videos, Hillary claimed in a recent debate that ISIS is using videos of Trump insulting Muslims as a recruitment tool. When challenged to produce any evidence of this, her campaign could only reply meekly that she didn’t have a “specific video” showing ISIS using Trump as a recruitment tool. Or any other kind.