What did Donald Trump do today?
He lied about protecting whistleblowers.
Trump has spent much of the last month demanding that the intelligence community whistleblower, whose report (now supported by about a dozen witnesses, and Trump's own carefully edited memos) spurred the current impeachment inquiry. The law says that whistleblowers are entitled to anonymity, and even though the whistleblower and his or her lawyers have received death threats, Trump has rarely missed a chance to insist that impeachment somehow doesn't count unless he can unmask the person he blames for getting caught.
Today, Trump tweeted, "To think I signed the Whistleblower Protection Act!"
The actual law protecting the intelligence community from Trump getting revenge on them was signed by President Clinton in 1998 after being passed nearly unanimously through a Republican-led Congress.
Trump has spent much of his time in office—including the time he spent extorting election interference from Ukraine—trying to undermine, weaken, or discredit the United States' intelligence agencies. It was their work that first brought to light Russia's illegal efforts to help him get elected.
How is this a problem?
- The only way this is not a blatant lie to the American public is if Trump is too senile to remember what bills he's signed.
- Innocent people don't try to expose witnesses against them to harassment and death threats.