Whitewashing lies: Glenn Youngkin shows how easily the media is manipulated to whitewash Donald Trump

When Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin appeared on CNN on Monday, he found himself in an uncomfortable situation. Host Jake Tapper asked the governor if he supported Donald Trump’s plan to use the military against people the former president labeled “radical left-wing lunatics,” such as California Rep. Adam Schiff.

Tapper tried to go easy on Youngkin by reading exactly what Trump said during a Fox News interview on Sunday. “I think the bigger problem,” Trump said, “is the people on the inside. We have some really bad people. We have some sick people – radical left-wing lunatics. I think it should be handled very easily by, if necessary, the National Guard, or, if it’s really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

Despite hearing Trump’s exact words, Youngkin insisted those words did not mean what they clearly said. “What I want to make very clear,” the governor said, “is that it is my belief that what former President Trump is talking about is the people coming across the border….”

Tapper tried again, drawing Youngkin’s attention to what Trump said about Schiff. So Youngkin then tried to turn the tables by accusing the CNN host of “misinterpreting and misrepresenting (Trump’s) thoughts. Again, I believe it all has to do with the fact that we have seen an unprecedented number of illegal immigrants come through in a casual, uninhibited manner…I don’t think he’s referring to elected people in America.”

“I read his quotes literally,” Tapper replied. “I’m literally reading you his quotes, and I played them before so you could hear that they weren’t made up by me. He literally talks about ‘radical left crazies,’ and one of those ‘crazies’ he mentioned was Congressman Adam Schiff.”

Youngkin asked his listeners not to take what Trump said literally and not to be persuaded by the truth presented to them.

As Tapper grew irritated, Youngkin simply repeated, “I don’t believe he says that.”

If Trump wins on November 5, it will be because people like Youngkin have the audacity to convince voters that “up is down” and “down is up” or that they shouldn’t believe what they hear. And it seems a lot of Americans are buying what Youngkin is selling.

One of the main means by which authoritarians come to power is by getting the Glenn Youngkins of the world to join them and convince people not to accept what the leader says at face value. Youngkin’s appearance on CNN is an example of this attack language and the way it ingratiates itself to the authoritarian strongman.

As Tim Young of The Atlantic notes, “Today’s Republican leaders are cowards, and some are even worse: They are complicit, as Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin proved… At least cowards run away…. Youngkin, however, smiled, dissembled and excused Trump’s hideousness with a kind of lowbrow shamelessness that made cowardice seem noble by comparison.

Nine years after Trump burst onto the national political stage, the news media still hasn’t figured out that highlighting lies doesn’t shame the leaders of the MAGA movement or erode the loyalty of Trump’s followers. That is a failure with profound consequences.

Journalists like Tapper still act as if they can push Trump loyalists to acknowledge even the most obvious truths. As Youngkin showed, they can’t.

But such loyalty comes at a high cost to those for whom lying is proof of loyalty. As political scientist Jacob Levy argues, “If you have to repeat an obvious lie, it becomes clear that you are powerless; it also makes you complicit. You are morally compromised. Your ability to stand on your own moral two feet and resist or denounce is lost.”

Of course, Youngkin is not the only one who does not take Trump “literally.” JD Vance has made an art of it, most recently claiming that if Trump returns to the White House, he will take politics out of the Justice Department.

Remember, Trump has made it clear on more than one occasion that he has no intention of doing so. As he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity last June. “Look, when this election is over, based on what they’ve done, I would have every right to go after them, and it would be easy because it’s Joe Biden. It is a terrible, terrible path that they are leading us down, and it is entirely possible that it will have to happen to them.”

Nevertheless, Vance, playing his role as the authoritarians’ running mate, like Youngkin, insists that these words do not mean what they say. “We really want the American people to believe that we have a fair and just administration of justice,” Vance said. “If that’s not the case, the whole kind of system falls apart. You need people who believe that when the attorney general prosecutes someone, it is motivated by justice and justice, not politics.”

“I’d like to see us,” Vance suggested, “just return to a system of law and order where we try to arrest people when they’re breaking the law, not because they disagree with the prevailing opinion of the time. here is a fundamental difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Donald Trump may agree or disagree on an issue, but he will fight for your right to express your opinion without the government silencing you.”

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But if we don’t take Trump literally, the disease of denial that Youngkin and Vance carry is now widespread in this country and not just among Trump’s surrogates and most devoted followers. This was amply demonstrated in a front-page story in the New York Times about Trump supporters who assume that when Trump says things that indicate his intention to undo our constitutional tradition, “it’s just an act.” They “rationalize his rhetoric by giving him the reverse benefit of the doubt. They doubt; he benefits.”

The Times quotes a man who plans to vote for Trump as saying, “I think the media is blowing things out of proportion because of sensationalism.” When asked if Trump wants to purge the federal government and fill its ranks with election deniers, this man said: “I don’t.” He explained that Trump said a lot of things “just for publicity…just to stir up the news.”

The Times summarizes the tendency of those who have grown accustomed to Trump’s brew of outrageous threats and outright lies: “People think he says things with effect, that he’s boastful, because that’s part of what he does, his bullshit. They don’t believe it will actually happen. ”

As Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager, explained after the 2016 election, the news media “took everything Donald Trump said so literally. Not the American people.” To Lewandoski that same year, Masha Gessen urged people to “Believe the autocrat. He means what he says.”

This year is like Youngkin’s, and his refusal to take Trump literally could pave the way for millions of voters to cast their ballots for the former president. It would be tragic if Americans only began to understand the high price they will pay for not taking Trump literally after he returns to The Oval Office.