Olivier Douliery/CNP via ZUMA

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This is not the first time Donald Trump has said something like this:

STAHL: You go out and you go to Mississippi….And you mimicked Professor Blasey Ford. You mimicked her.

TRUMP: Had I not made that speech, we would not have won. I was just saying she didn’t seem to know anything.

….STAHL: Do you think you treated her with respect?

TRUMP: I think so, yeah. I did.

STAHL: But you seem to be saying that she lied.

TRUMP: You know what? I’m not gonna get into it because we won. It doesn’t matter. We won.

Compare and contrast with Trump’s working motto:

People will just believe you. You just tell them and they believe you.

And yet his statements keep getting taken seriously. Why?

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

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