Every morning I wake up at 5 a.m. and on most of those mornings I try to go to the gym for an hour before I go to work. This daily ritual is punctuated by the televisions that blare their images and their closed captioned statements as I seek in futility to hold onto what little youth I have remaining by staying in shape.
Because of the area I live in? It’s typically FOX News that greets me. Personally I cannot stand this network, and for the first 2 years I asked to have the channel changed to something else but after a while my resolve caved. I am not there to watch news. I am there to work out.
But as it goes? Even in the background the wheels will turn and give thought to word. This morning I watched as Rick Perry was a guest on Fox and Friends (I have no idea what they were talking about). So while this is blaring in my face the thought hits me: “You know, here’s this guy who will fly to another state to appear on television, who will call any amount of talk radio stations, and who would endlessly post on social media, but the one thing he won’t do is walk down the street and testify under oath.”
We live in an era of disinformation and as far as malarky goes the President epitomizes it. He will tweet falsehoods hundreds of times. He will send out any number of lieutenants on talk shows to spin his narratives for him. He will even travel and spend millions of dollars hosting rallies all across the country to talk, and talk, and run his mouth.
But the one thing he won’t do is testify under oath.
This has been stated before, but now it’s so prevalent it’s hard to avoid as a sticky talking point. This morning IG Horowitz has to defend his report to a Senate Judiciary Panel full of people who have made statements but wouldn’t testify to them under oath yet they expect this man to be held to a higher standard. The same could be said for William Barr who criticizes any report that displays criticism for his boss but will not testify to his assertions under oath.
I suppose I can’t blame them. Their track record has been less than stellar in recent years. Any time an official or someone associated with the Trump campaign has been compelled to testify under oath it has led to at best revealed incompetence in their position (Ben Carson and former EU Ambassador Sondland come to mind), or at worse outright lies, perjury and criminality (Roger Stone, Paul Manafort).
Testimony under oath is no small matter. Bill Clinton learned this in 1998 over his own impeachment. It was ludicrous to seek to remove a sitting President over an extramarital affair but the precedent was that of testifying under oath. Inevitably he was not removed from office but the precedent was a reminder of how important testimony under oath is.
American citizens deserve to know the truth. The truth might hurt, but in 2019 the lies hurt even more because they are pursuing a permanent, bitter political divide that could potentially descend into violence if the gap is widened any further. And the only place where the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth can be attested to under fear of perjury is under oath. We are not served by those who refuse to testify under oath because they are trying to hide their lies, protect the lies of others, or avoid damage to their political careers by addressing the lies of others or their own lies.
And as best as I can tell? If someone isn’t willing to testify under oath it’s probably because they ARE lying.