The cast of characters that the Trump administration has provided for our amusement as the country descends into Hell has, perhaps, no greater embodiment of its soulless complicity than White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway.
Despite her admission that shilling for Donald Trump made her “need a shower” (there ain't a loofah big enough for that job), Conway continues to mix up her special cocktail of lies, despotism, and cluelessness that are the gold standard for Trump flackery.
On the Democratic side, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) has emerged as one of a handful of legislators who have been willing to charge hard against the Trump administration, and over the weekend, he challenged Conway's assertion that news coverage of the president is “neither productive nor patriotic”:
Conway made that statement during a Friday appearance on “Good Morning America,” invoking patriotism while she defended Trump's misogynistic attack on a member of the free press.
So what did the person who literally invented a new synonym for lying — which will definitely be in the dictionary next to her picture by year's end — have to say in response? Conway responded with a Fourth of July-themed tweet that made Alanis Morissette's head explode:
And yes, true to form, Conway even put “truth” in scare-quotes.
Don't get me wrong, Donald Trump is a bad person, but people like Conway are arguably worse. Trump is, at his core, an unwitting dupe, sincerely convinced of his own infallibility. But Conway and her ilk know better, and if her “need a shower” quote didn't convince you, this should.
At an April forum at the Newseum, the crowd broke into spontaneous laughter when Conway made a similarly clueless statement about “truth,” and the knowing look on her face says everything you need to know:
You can turn on the TV — more than you can read in the paper, because I assume editors are still doing their jobs in most places — and people literally say things that just aren’t true. They’re not even disguised as opinion. [laughter] Yeah — they’re not even disguised as opinion.
On this Independence Day, there will be many folks who will try to lecture you about what constitutes “true patriotism,” something I wouldn't presume to do. But I damn sure know it isn't what Conway is doing, and to make matters worse, she seems to know it. Trump is a stain that won't wash off, no matter how many “alternative facts” you scrub it with.
This is a commentary piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.