Steve Benen @ Maddowblog notes the Trump campaign has decided to question the honesty of various government agencies:
Late last week, as Donald Trump made claims about the U.S. crime rate that were demonstrably untrue, many began to wonder why the campaign was presenting fiction as fact. Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, said the FBI’s data may show a steady decline in the crime rate, but Americans shouldn’t necessarily trust the FBI. Federal law enforcement, Manafort argued, is “suspect these days.”
Three days later, Don Trump Jr. appeared on CNN in his official capacity as a campaign surrogate, and Jake Tapper reminded him that not only has the crime rate improved, but “unemployment is much, much lower than when President Obama took office. Trump Jr. wasn’t impressed.
“These are artificial numbers, Jake. These are numbers that are massaged to make the existing economy look good and make the administration look good when in fact it’s a total disaster.”
It prompted the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein to note, “So, to be clear, the Trump campaign trusts the National Enquirer but not the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
So – I know the Trump campaign surrogates are focused on winning the election and aren’t thinking beyond that – what happens a year after winning and they try to claim some achievement based on, say, the Bureau of Labor Statistics? Everyone just sneers and returns the same accusations?
This is a very divisive situation. The institutions that deliver stability and trustable information are crucial in today’s data-heavy society, and by implying, without solid information, that the numbers are not trustworthy is to drive another wedge between Americans. Now if they had some solid evidence then they’d be worth listening to, but if all they have are complaints that the numbers don’t match those predicted by ideology, as Steve reports, then perhaps your ideology isn’t sacred.
By assuming the government agencies which reported the terrible statistics of the Bush Administration are now handmaidens to the current Administration betrays a mindset similar to the Communists at their worst. Either put up the evidence, boys, or shut up.
