The lies have to stop. Now.

As we keep hearing people like Dan Bovino, Stephen Miller, J.D. Vance, Kristi Noem, and Donald Trump lie over and over again when it comes to what happened today and each day recently in Minneapolis I think of a couple of things: a story told on the radio a while back from Pat Kreitlow about someone he knew saying that he knew Trump was always lying but he really wanted to believe the stuff he lies about. That’s MAGA in a nutshell. They so want the lies to be true so right now members of the federal government can stand up and lie about Alex Pretti, the man killed by ICE today, and know that millions will believe the lies.

Second I think of a quote made by Gerald Ford in August of 1974 upon taking the oath of office as President succeeding the disgraced Richard Nixon: “Truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our Government, but civilization itself.” Ford did much to help heal the wounds of Watergate in his 2 1/2 years as President. So much that in the aftermath of Watergate and Vietnam and everything else that was tearing our country apart, the U.S. was able to truly celebrate it’s 200th birthday in 1976. I can’t see how we can come together and, in anyway, celebrate the 250th birthday in 2026 without our leaders coming out (especially some Republicans) and saying “this is wrong.” That when Bovino just a little while ago shamelessly lies about Pretti: “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement”. He knows it’s a lie. Stephen Miller saying “A domestic terrorist tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.” He knows it’s a lie and revels in it.

Then there is Trump. A congenital liar his whole life that received the greatest gift that the American people can bestow on a citizen. Until elected officials of both parties and the people of this country begin to heed the words of the Ford quote and demand truth we will be lost as a country.

“Get it all on record now — get the films — get the witnesses — because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower, after visiting liberated concentration camps in April 1945