We've never had a president 'incapable of telling the truth,' says former Bill Clinton press secretary


The dishonesty of the Trump administration is unparalleled in American history, former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart argued on CNN's Reliable Sources Sunday.
"This has never happened before," Lockhart said. "We've had great presidents; we've had terrible presidents, Republicans and Democrats; but we've never had anything like this — where we have a president who is incapable of telling the truth." Lockhart worked in the administration of former President Bill Clinton, who was impeached along party lines for perjury by the House of Representatives and acquitted by the Senate.
Lockhart may be right that Trump's average of 6.5 false or misleading public claims daily, per The Washington Post's count, is unique. Still, as Politico documents, presidents have long lied about everything from their age to their opponents' religion to what they knew and when they knew it.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
See Lockhart's comments in context below. Bonnie Kristian

Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.