Well, that’s convenient. Donald Trump’s habit of not telling the truth has led CBS to reassess Bill Clinton’s fondness for lying to the country and those close to him. On Wednesday’s Late Show, Stephen Colbert began by insisting that NOW lies are really troublesome for a president: “No one really looks to Donald Trump to say like, 'Oh, well I expect him to be truthful.'... We’re grading lies on a scale.”
CBS This Morning co-host John Dickerson was Colbert’s guest and he mentioned Clinton’s history of distortion: “We should still think that our president should tell us the truth about things. And when they don't, whether it's Bill Clinton or Donald Trump or anybody else, we should say that's a big deal.”
Dickerson highlighted how an unidentified “they” spun Clinton’s falsehoods: “And remember the scale they changed for Bill Clinton. When Bill Clinton was caught lying, they said, 'Look, he was just lying about an affair. People, of course, do that all the time. It's not a big deal.'”
The “they” in question could certainly be journalists. Dickerson’s ex-CBS colleague Dan Rather famously said in reference to Bill Clinton: “I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things.” This is the same Rather who would later resign for false reporting against George W. Bush.
On another occasion, referencing rape allegations against Clinton, Rather huffed: “... Maybe the American public has heard all they want to hear about this.”
Perhaps the liberal Colbert didn’t get the partisan reaction he was looking for. Odd since he set up the Dickerson interview this way: “Well, you are a journalist and you are a newsman and you are admirably even-handed in reporting things.” In 2016, however, Dickerson suggested that it’s “our jobs” as journalists to shift the conversation away from Bill Clinton’s past.
On Monday, a NBC journalist appeared on NBC’s late night show to decry the Trump administration as “ripping apart the fabric of society.”
A transcript is below. Click “expand” for more.
Late Show With Stephen Colbert
7/25/18
12:05
JOHN DICKERSON: We should still think that our president should tell us the truth about things. And when they don't, whether it's Bill Clinton or Donald Trump or anybody else, we should say that's a big deal. So it's not good, I should say.
STEPHEN COLBERT: Well, you are a journalist and you are a newsman and you are admirably even-handed in reporting things. But it seems like we no longer look to Donald Trump — no one really looks to Donald Trump to say like, "Oh, well I expect him to be truthful." We're grading lies on a scale, whether this is a lie that is it's "Oh, it's benign. It's not actually a crime. It's him lying about having an affair 10 years before, right after his child was born."
DICKERSON: Right and —
COLBERT: It's not betraying our country to a hostile foreign power.
DICKERSON: Right, exactly. Right, right.
COLBERT: That's the scale.
DICKERSON: And remember the scale they changed for Bill Clinton. When Bill Clinton was caught lying, they said, "Look, he was just lying about an affair. People, of course, do that all the time. It's not a big deal."
COLBERT: Sure.
DICKERSON: But what people rightly said at the time is we think about our presidency, it has always been founded around the idea of honesty. We called him "Honest Abe." The first story we tell about our first president — turns out it’s apocryphal, but that’s okay — is George Washington cutting down the cherry tree and saying “I cannot tell a lie.” The story is not true. But it says something about what we believe about our presidents.
COLBERT: So the first story of honesty is a lie.
DICKERSON: Yes.
COLBERT: But — Right, no, no. It's quite true. But it tells us something about what we want to believe about our presidents.
DICKERSON: Sure.
COLBERT: That we embed this in our for us president and have ever now, obviously, presidents have told lies here and there in a variety of different ways. and as you quite rightly point out this is not about a national security untruth. But it is a big deal. We should still think it's a big deal when the President says something and it turns out not to be the case. And back to your original question, when you're heard on tape saying — arranging this deal, that should be-- that should be a problem.
