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The Big Lie The “Big Lie,” a term that originates with Hitler, became central to American political discourse after I applied it to Trump's claim to have won an election he had lost. The concept of the “Big Lie,” which I reintroduced into discussion in 2019 and 2020, helped millions of people see how mendacity of a certian scale affects politics over time, making democracy ever more difficult. Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands © 2022 Kwiple.com
The Big Lie Hitler says if you tell a lie that's of a certain scale that's big enough, people won't believe that you could deceive them on that scale. And since they believe it and take it in at first, they don't want to disbelieve it later on. It becomes part of their life; it becomes what we now call an alternative reality. It begins to shape politics. It begins to instantiate itself not only in memory, but in policy. You act as if it's true and you move on to do things as though it were true. So, in our example, if we pretend that Trump won the election in 2020, then we have an argument for suppressing votes because we can say, well there was fraud, therefore we should suppress votes. Timothy Snyder, April 29, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
The Big Lie On February 7, 2019, … Giuliani told  Ms. Dunphy, in her capacity as his employee, about a plan that had been prepared for if Trump lost the 2020 election. Specifically, Giuliani told Ms. Dunphy that Trump's team would claim that there was “voter fraud” and that Trump had actually won the election. This plan was discussed at several business meetings with Giuliani and Lev Parnas. From the verified complaint against Rudy Giuliani filed by Noelle Dunphy, his former Business Development director [February 7, 2019, was 635 days before the 2020 election held on November 3, 2020] © 2023 Kwiple.com
The Big Lie Two weeks after the 2020 election, a team of lawyers closely allied with Donald J. Trump held a widely watched news conference at the Republican Party’s headquarters in Washington. At the event, they laid out a bizarre conspiracy theory claiming that a voting machine company had worked with an election software firm, the financier George Soros and Venezuela to steal the presidential contest from Mr. Trump. But there was a problem for the Trump team, according to court documents released on Monday evening. By the time the news conference occurred on Nov. 19, Mr. Trump’s campaign had already prepared an internal memo on many of the outlandish claims about the company, Dominion Voting Systems, and the separate software company, Smartmatic. The memo had determined that those allegations were untrue. New York Times, September 21, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Liars A man arrives at the pearly gates and asks Peter about all the clocks he sees, each at a different time. “A clock measures the number of lies you've told,” said Peter. “If you never told any, it's at midnight. If you told just a few, like Abe Lincoln, it's a few minutes past midnight.” “Where's Trump's?,” asks the man. “Oh, his,” said Peter. “We're using it as a ceiling fan.” © 2017 Kwiple.com
Liars say … all the machines are infected with the software code that allows Dominion to shave votes for one candidate and give them to another and other features that do the same thing. Different states shaved different amounts  of votes, or the system was set up to shave and flip different votes in different states. … We're talking about the alteration and changes in millions of votes; some being dumped that were for President Trump, some being flipped that were for President Trump. Sidney Powell, Trump's lawyer, to Fox News host Maria Bartiromo © 2023 Kwiple.com
Liars say And to this day, I get people coming up to me, and they said,“You know what one of the most amazing things I've ever seen about you? Is that you predicted that Osama bin Laden had to be killed before he knocked down the World Trade Center.” It's true. Now, most of the press don't want to write that, but you know – but it is true. If you go back, look at my book, I think it was “The America We Deserve,” I made that prediction. and I – let's put it this way: If they would have listened to me, a lot of things would have been different. Donald Trump © 2019 Kwiple.com
Liars say During the meeting [on Jan. 4, 2021], as reflected in the Vice President's contemporaneous notes, the Defendant made knowingly false claims of election fraud, including, “Bottom line — we won every state by 100,000s of votes” and “We won every state,” and asked — regarding a claim his senior Justice Department officials previously had told him was false, including as recently as the night before — “What about 205,000 votes more in PA than voters?” United States of America v. Donald J. Trump © 2023 Kwiple.com
Liars say He [Ted Cruz] said I was in favor in Libya. I never discussed that subject. Donald Trump, who supported helping Libyans oust Muammar Gaddafi, saying, “Now we should go in, we should stop this guy, which would be very easy and very quick. We could do it surgically.” © 2017 Kwiple.com
Liars say Honest mistakes abound. Kellyanne Conway, a.k.a. “Progaganda Barbie,” claiming that the lie she told during an interview on February 2, 2017, about a massacre masterminded by two Iraqi men in Bowling Green, KY, was an unintentional mistake, despite having told it several times before © 2017 Kwiple.com
Liars say  I Am an Independent, Impartial Judge Brett Kavanaugh – belligerent drunk; boofer; bring-back-coat-hangers guy; credibly accused sexual predator; deemed tempermentally unfit for the Supreme Court by 2400 law professors; fawned on by Judicial Crisis Network; front man for U.S. Chamber of Commerce; member/product of the Federalist Society; poster boy for white male privilege; ranter; Republican Party hit man; self-proclaimed scourge of Democrats, liberals, leftists; serial perjurer whitewashed by FBI; Supreme Court justice! © 2018 Kwiple.com
Liars say I can assure you I have never made decisions on my mother's behalf on her foundation's board. Betsy DeVos, denying any role in her mother's foundations's donations of millions of dollars to the anti-LGBTQ hate group, Family Research Council, despite being listed as on the foundation's tax forms for many years as it Vice President, which she claimed was merely an oft-repeated “clerical error” © 2017 Kwiple.com
Liars say I did not know he took views on the Mueller investigation as such. Donald Trump, claiming he didn't know Matthew Whitaker, who he made temporary Attorney General to smother the Mueller investigation, which he now oversees, often publicly opposed it, including on Fox News, his favorite channel  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Liars say I did not support the war in Iraq. Donald Trump, who supported the impending invasion in an interview with Howard Stern in September, 2002, six months before the invasion in March, 2003 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Liars say I didn’t know practically what a subpoena was. Now I’m, like, becoming an expert. I have no choice because we have to. It’s a disgrace. Donald Trump billionaire New York real estate developer who'd been involved in thouands of suits prior to being sued by the DOJ, playing the victim card © 2023 Kwiple.com
Liars say I didn't realize it was the global elite. Steven Mnuchin, former Goldman Sachs executive, hedge fund manager and national finance chairman of Trump's election campaign; currently Secretary of the Treasury and leader – until Trump said he's going – of the 2018 American delegation to “it” – the World Economic Forum, the annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, of the world's richest and most powerful people from all walks of life © 2018 Kwiple.com
Liars say I do not decide cases based on personal or policy preferences.  Brett Kavanaugh – belligerent drunk; boofer; bring-back-coat-hangers guy; credibly accused sexual predator; deemed tempermentally unfit for the Supreme Court by 2400 law professors; fawned on by Judicial Crisis Network; front man for U.S. Chamber of Commerce; member/product of the Federalist Society; poster boy for white male privilege; ranter; Republican Party hit man; self-proclaimed scourge of Democrats, liberals, leftists; serial perjurer whitewashed by FBI; Supreme Court justice! © 2018 Kwiple.com
Liars say I don't know. Vern Buchanan, Republican representing Florida's 16th congressional district, explaining why he voted against a bill he co-sponsored to name a Florida courthouse after Joseph Hatchett, the first black Florida supreme court justice and first black state supreme court justice south of the Mason-Dixon line, following the circulation of a letter opposing the honor by Georgia representative Andrew Clyde — who's agaist the Emmett Till Anti- Lynching Act and recognizing Juneteenth as a federal holiday and called the January 6 insurrection a “normal tourist visit” — because Hatchett upheld the Supreme Court's ban on school prayer in a 1999 decision, leading to killing the bill © 2022 Kwiple.com
Liars say I don't need anybody's money. I'm using my own money. I'm not using donors. I don't care. I'm really rich. Donald Trump © 2019 Kwiple.com
Liars say I have no idea what a burner phone is, to the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term. Donald Trump © 2022 Kwiple.com
Liars say I LOVE TRUTH! Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump : Oct 28, 2022, 9:10 AM © 2022 Kwiple.com
Liars say I'm going to be a daughter. Ivanka Trump, denying rumors she'd be part of her dad's administration © 2017 Kwiple.com
Liars say I'm … I … I actually do not know that, sir, but I imagine that is the case. Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of Homeland Security,  answering Sen. Patrick Leahy, who asked her, “Norway is a predominantly white country, isn't it?,” after she claimed President Trump wants more immigrants from Norway rather than Haiti and African countries because they're more skilled and after he reminded her that being from Norway is not a skill © 2018 Kwiple.com
Liars say I'm not into coups! Donald Trump, July 15, 2021 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Liars say I'm okay with masks. I tell people to wear masks. CDC comes out with a statement that 85% of the people wearing masks catch it. Donald Trump  answering a question about COVID-19 during his televised October 15, 2020, town hall meeting © 2020 Kwiple.com
Liars say I'm very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for Democrats. They definitely don't want Trump! Donald Trump, 8:50 AM - 24 Jul 2018, after standing beside Putin in Helsinki as Putin admitted that he ordered Russian interference in the 2016 election to help Trump win, which puts this statement beyond mere lying and deep into the depths of scumbaggery © 2018 Kwiple.com
Liars say I must state that you, sir, under historic scrutiny, were proven innocent. Donald Trump, to Brett Kavanaugh during Kavanuagh's swearing in ceremony at the White House, even though Kavanaugh was never on trial and if he had been and had been found “not guilty,” it would only mean he had not been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, not that he had been proven innocent © 2018 Kwiple.com
Liars say I never threatened, or spoke about, to anyone, a coup of our Government. So riduculous! Sorry to inform you, but an Election is my form of “coup,” Donald Trump, July 15, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Liars say I try to stay out of politics. Ivanka Trump, special adviser to and surrogate for her dad, with an office in the White House © 2017 Kwiple.com
Liars say I've always known this is a real — this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic. All you had to do was look at other countries. Donald Trump, March 17, 2020, who called COVID-19 coronavirus a "hoax" © 2020 Kwiple.com
Liars say I was having meetings.  I was also with Mark Meadows and others. I was not watching television. Donald Trump, on what he was doing on January 6 while his supporters attacked the Capitol © 2022 Kwiple.com
Liars say The “Intelligence” briefing on so-called “Russian hacking” was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! Donald Trump, 8:14 PM - 3 Jan 2017, future “President” of the “United” States, lying about a meeting that was never delayed © 2017 Kwiple.com
Liars say It was a complete and total exoneration. Donald Trump, commenting on William Barr's letter quoting special counsel Mueller's findings about possible obstruction of justice: “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” © 2019 Kwiple.com
Liars say Many of those affected were firefighters, police officers and other first responders. And I was down there also, but I'm not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. Donald Trump, when signing a law extending healthcare for real first responders © 2019 Kwiple.com
Liars say Nothing more could have been done. Donald Trump, summarizing his administrations's response to the COVID-19 pandemic © 2020 Kwiple.com
Liars say Obama had a separation policy, but people don't like to talk about that. Donald Trump © 2018 Kwiple.com
Liars say One thing I can promise you – this: I will always tell you the truth. Donald Trump © 2017 Kwiple.com
Liars say Republicans will totally protect people with Pre-Existing Conditions, Democrats will not! Vote Republican. Donald Trump, 5:45 AM – 24 Oct 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Liars say They were incredible. When I went to the courthouse, which is also a prison in a sense, they signed me in and I'll tell you people were crying. People that work there — professionally work there — that have no problems putting in murderers and they see everybody. It's a tough, tough place. And, they were crying. They were actually crying. They said, “I'm sorry,” they’d say, “2024 sir,” and tears were pouring down. I've never seen anything like that. Donald Trump, on police and court officers' reaction to his arraignment in Manhatten on 34 felony counts © 2023 Kwiple.com
Liars say This has nothing to do with race. Donald Trump, on calling any NFL player who kneels during singing of the national anthem in protest of racial injustice in America a “son of a bitch” who should be fired  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Liars say This is going to cost me a fortune, this thing, believe me, believe me. This is not good for me. I have some very wealthy friends. Not so happy with me, but that's OK. You know, I keep hearing [New York Democratic Senator Chuck] Schumer, “This is for the wealthy.“ Well, if it is, my friends don't know about it. Donald Trump, on the 2017 Republican tax bill © 2017 Kwiple.com
Liars say That night [January 5, 2021], the Defendant approved and caused the Defendant's Campaign to issue a  public statement that the Defendant knew, from his meeting with the Vice President only hours earlier, was false: “The Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act [to overturn elections]." United States of America v. Donald J. Trump © 2023 Kwiple.com
Liars say There are no limits; you can be anything you want to be © 2018 Kwiple.com
Liars say Two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre. … It didn't get covered. Kellyanne Conway, lying about a massacre that never happened and was never attempted in order to justify Trump's ban on Muslims © 2017 Kwiple.com
Liars say THE UNITED STATES SENATE HAS ══════════════ NEVER ══════════════ BEEN ABLE TO END DEBATE WITH A SIMPLE MAJORITY Poster displayed by Joe Manchin as he announced he's siding with all Republican senators to preverve the anti-democratic requirement for 60 votes to end a filibuster, rather than preserve voting rights for millions of Americans by lowering it to 51, something that's often been done in the past, as when his was the 51st vote that put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court  © 2022 Kwiple.com
Liars say [W]e do not recall the President saying these comments specifically January 12, 2018, joint statement by Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and David Perdue (R-GA), claiming they can't remember whether Trump called Caribbean and African countries “shithole countries” at a White House meeting they had attended the day before © 2018 Kwiple.com
Liars say We don't have any tariffs. Donald Trump, Wall Street Journal, October 24, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Lies The broad mass of a nation … will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf © 2021 Kwiple.com
Lies [A] culture of lying leads to nihilism. When people believe in nothing, they can believe in anything. Edward Luce, Financial Times, October 11, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Lies “Don't be so overly dramatic about it, Chuck. You're saying it's a falsehood … Sean Spicer. our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that,” she said. — “Alternative facts are not facts. They are falsehoods,” replied Mr Todd. Financial Times, January 21, 2017, quoting an exchange between Kellyanne Conway, Trump's Minister of Propaganda and defender of Spicer, who, echoing Trump, had lied by claiming that turnout for the inauguration was larger than turnout for the protest march a day later, and Chuck Todd, moderator of NBC's Meet the Press © 2017 Kwiple.com
Lies Falsehood flies and the truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead. Jonathan Swift, The Examiner No. XIV (Thursday, November 9th, 1710) © 2021 Kwiple.com
Lies  He who is deceived is turned into a thing. Mikhail Bakhtin, 1943 Diary © 2021 Kwiple.com
Lies Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, told House investigators on Tuesday that her work for President Trump, who has a reputation for exaggerations and outright falsehoods, had occasionally required her to tell white lies. But after extended consultation with her lawyers, she insisted that she had not lied about matters material to the investigations into Russia's inter- ference in the 2016 presidential election and possible links to Trump associates, according to three people familiar with her testimony. New York Times, February 27, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Lies  I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do! “I Can't Believe What You Say,” Ike & Tina Turner © 2017 Kwiple.com
Lies If I ever thought of these as lies, I soon came to see them as part of the etiquette of poverty — a means of getting by for the poor and also a gift we give to the rich, a practice that lets us avoid talking about the uncomfortable differences between us. Over time, it becomes second nature. Observing this etiquette doesn't feel dishonest because its falsehoods recognize the deeper truth that many of society's institutions are hostile to the poor. Lying to the landlord keeps a roof over our heads. Lying to the social worker keeps our family together. Lying to ourselves allows us to believe it's all going to be OK, somehow, someday. Joshua Hunt, New York Times, July 13, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Lies If Trump had a dollar for every lie he's told, he would say he had a billion dollars. Stephen Colbert, Late Show with Stephen Colbert, 4/29/2019, commenting on the April 29, 2019, Washington Post headline reporting that “President trump has made more than 10,000 false or misleading claims,” on Trump's 829th day in office, for an average of 12+ per day © 2019 Kwiple.com
Lies In all democracies, politicians occasionally lie to cover up scandals or exaggerate their legislative accomplishments. In the United States, the rise of the right-wing news media in recent decades has tempted politicians to play to their own supporters without worrying whether their rhetoric is inflammatory or fair. But the construction of an alternate reality that obviates the very possibility of conducting politics on the basis of truth is a novelty in this country. And it is increasingly becoming obcious that it will serve a clear purpose: to prepare the ground for egregious violations of basic democratic norms. Yascha Mounk, New York Times, December 21, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Lies It's now clear that just because Trump is lying to us, that doesn't mean he's lying to himself. Michelle Goldberg, New York Times, September 13, 2020, on tapes revealing that Trump knew COVID-19 was "deadly stuff" in January, 2020, but continued telling Americans it wasn't © 2020 Kwiple.com
Lies A lie cannot live forever. Martin Luther King, Jr., March 14, 1968, before creation of the Internet or social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, FoxNews, or Donald Trump's cult of personality © 2022 Kwiple.com
Lies The lie outlasts the liar. Timothy Snyder, New York Times, January 9, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Lies Lying is the message.   It's not just that both Putin and Trump lie, it is that they lie in the same way and for the same purpose: blatantly, to assert power over truth itself. Mascha Gessen, New York Review of Books, December 13, 2016 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Lies The man from the BBC was laughing as he reported the White House's false claims about the size of the crowd at Donald Trump's inauguration. He should have been crying. What we are witnessing is the destruction of the credibility of the American government. Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, January 24, 2015 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Lies Mr. Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. He lied about it because he never expected to win. He also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the Moscow real estate project. Michael Cohen © 2019 Kwiple.com
Lies The moral effort to lie deliberately is beyond most people. It is much easier to deceive oneself. Peter L. Berger, An Invitation to Sociology © 2021 Kwiple.com
Lies Ordinary lying, knowingly telling untruths, is common. Big lying, peddling a full-fledged alternative reality akin to the Marvel Universe, is not. Big lies are  the territory of prophets and demogogues, people who hear divine voices themselves or play at divinity for others. They are self-contained intellectual paradigms immune from scientific falsification. Gideon Rose, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Lies The point of challenging a lie is not to convince the liar, who is likely to be too far gone in his or her dark purpose to be rehabilitated. But because ever liar has an audience, there may still be time to do some good for others.  Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth © 2019 Kwiple.com
Lies The Republican Party is no longer just obfuscating the truth or defending the president when he is accused of wrongdoing. Rather, Mr. Trump, Fox News and Republicans in Congress seem to be actively using falsehoods to prepare an assault on the institutions that allow American democracy to function. Yascha Mounk, New York Times, December 21, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Lies That's the great thing about having tiny hands: it makes it easier to pull stuff right out of your ass. Bill Maher, March 17, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Lies When the attorney general lies to Congress, it is a crime. When the president does it, it is the state of the union. Stephen Colbert, Late Show with Stephen Colbert, 5/2/2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Lying Once the internet was a magical wonderland where everything was true and no one was accountable. Now it is just a place where your lies are indelibly recorded, usually in language a jury finds it very easy to understand. If you want to turn the truth on its head, for goodness’ sake use long words and jargon, and if you must write it down, put it somewhere harmless, like your company’s annual report. Robert Armstrong, Financial Times, December 22, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Lying The safest way to turn indifference to truth and decency into money and power is to be a part of a whole class of people like yourself, not a single big shot. A whole class of financial executives walked away clean from the 2008 crisis because so many other people were acting out the same greed-driven fantasy. Giuliani’s downfall was not in pushing Trump’s nonsense so much as in pushing himself to the front, where all the cameras were.  Robert Armstrong, Financial Times, December 22, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
 
Lying Wherever possible lies should be told about classes of people (Republicans, elites, big business, the media, et al) not specific individuals. You start naming specific people and you are well into the territory of the provably untrue and, more to the point, concrete individuals are much more likely to sue your ass into the ground than are theoretical groups. Robert Armstrong, Financial Times, December 22, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com