The Republican Playbook

This morning’s Washington Post reported that Trump again repeated the false claim he has made more than 100 times in the past six weeks: that the whistleblower misrepresented the substance of Trump’s phone call with Ukraine president Zelensky last July.

Trump doesn’t just lie. He repeats lies again and again, always passionately, affecting indignation, fabricating attendant facts. It’s a technique straight out of the authoritarian playbook. Republican politicians, aware that Trump’s conduct has been indefensible, follow the same script. It’s their playbook too.