As children, we are taught to value honesty. Punished for lying, we learn that truth is one of the most important values. Growing up, we develop a habit of telling “white lies” to avoid punishment or confrontation, further blurring the line between right and wrong. What may be commonplace throughout the country’s everyday households and workplaces cannot be the same standard set for the government, however.
Democracy depends on truth. Hence, the public should always be able to expect their government to tell the truth.
Trump’s presidency has proven that the government cannot always be trusted and that the public is gullible. As of October 14, President Trump has made 13,435 misleading or false claims, according to the Washington Post.
The impeachment inquiry started last August, when a whistleblower filed a complaint, saying that Trump withheld congressionally approved military aid from Ukraine in order to get the country’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to publicly announce an investigation of Joe Biden and his son. If Joe Biden, a frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, is chosen as the democratic candidate, it would politically benefit Trump during the next election.
After seven weeks of private investigation and research, the House Intelligence Committee started public hearings on November 13. As of December 10, there are two proposed articles of impeachment: high crimes and misdemeanors and abuse of the powers of the Presidency. These articles will be voted on by the House, and if impeached, a Senate trial will decide if he will be removed from office.
With the impeachment investigation in full swing, truth-telling has never been more important. Our country is built on the assumption that the truth will always be regarded with the utmost importance. However, as trusted witnesses testify and Trump tweets, there is no clear truth as both sides contradict each other. Trump and his team’s use of equivocations leads each person to believe false information.
Part of Trump’s credibility among his base stems from his supporters being told what they want to hear through Trump’s constant communication on Twitter and conservative news outlets.
Watching the impeachment trials, Trump and his team manipulate the information in order to convince the American public that Trump’s offenses were not impeachable. During the testimony of Marie Yovanovitch, a former US diplomat to Ukraine, President Trump tweeted “Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad,” attempting to discredit her testimony.
In reality, Yovanovitch was sent to countries in severe situations where she tried to help. No place “turned bad” because of Yovanovitch’s presence. Trump’s supporters blindly support his extensive claims and repeat his rhetoric. Demagogues, like Trump, tend to appeal to and arouse their fanbase. Once people believe his words, Trump has the power to obscure the truth and corrupt the impeachment process.
Trump’s strategy is working. In March, 2019, 35% of people surveyed in a poll done by Quinnipiac University thought Trump was honest. Through his executive power, Trump has manipulated the public into trusting him, even though he rarely tells the truth.
The official capacity of the hearings makes the public believe that everything said is true, even though both Democratic and Republican members of the committee, as well as the witnesses themselves, often twist words to present themselves and their party in a better light.
The manipulation of the witness’ words, both from the government and outside sources, make it difficult for everyday Americans to separate fact from fiction.
In the media, two distinct sides of the story are portrayed. The New Yorker, a known liberal news source, published an article on Fiona Hill’s testimony titled “The Extraordinary Impeachment Testimony of Fiona Hill.” However, Fox News, one of Trump’s biggest media supporters, titled an article on the same day, “Ex-NSC aide Fiona Hill clashes with GOP reps over Ukraine ‘fictions’ charge in testy hearing.”
As a community of journalists committed to telling the objective truth, we find our government’s blatant dishonesties particularly troubling. The people who can send our country to war, who have our future in their hands, do not adhere to the standards that we teenagers have set for ourselves.
The system is flawed. Both sides can present their accusations or defense as truth, yet their version of the truth is corrupted by their own agenda. Equivocations from Trump’s team further blur the lines of truth. Repeated falsehoods can lead to misunderstandings of Trump’s wrongdoings, hence defeating the purpose of the impeachment process and weakening our democracy.
The impeachment process is surrounded by lies, creating disharmony in society. As a country, we have experienced the detriments of lies or equivocations. Tobacco companies, who lied about the effects of smoking on the lungs, caused cancer for generations. Exxon, knowing the effects of the carbon industry on the globe, continued their work to profit themselves. We are dealing with the consequences of Exxon’s irresponsible behavior as we try to slow and reverse climate change.
Lying is always selfish. Trump is destructing the impeachment process so that his lies stand and the truth cannot be uncovered or validated. The abuse of power that we are seeing in the impeachment will only further the disintegration of our democratic system. Unable to trust the government, we wonder who we can trust, leading to a brittle and unstable society.
