CNN’s Chris Cuomo decried the widespread “culture of fear” that grips the White House and diagnosed its attempt to hide the USS John S. McCain from President Donald Trump during his recent visit to Japan as a “symptom of a sickness.”

On Thursday, Trump again denied any knowledge of the request — which the White House has confirmed — to to move or otherwise obscure the warship that bears the namesake of his hated political rival, the recently deceased Sen John McCain. But Trump, notably, did not condemn the request and instead called the gesture “well meaning.”

His response incensed Cuomo.

“Well-meaning? None of that is,” the CNN host said, incredulous. “The fact that someone in the White House meant well by hiding a ship’s name from the president is a symptom of a sickness. They won’t mention preparing for election interference or the problems with kids at the border or giving troubled information about foreign affairs. None of this is well-meaning. It has meaning. There is a culture of fear and catering to a POTUS who routinely chooses to lie like this.”

This institutional defensive crouch, he implied, was the driving force behind this White House’s systemic problem with spreading falsehoods, whether it’s the president himself consistently lying about Robert Mueller and Russia, his advisors lying about the real victims of China tariffs, or his spokesperson dissembling over the amount of border wall that’s being built.

“Attacking the truth is killing him politically,” Cuomo argued. “First of all, easily it’s an abuse of power and people know it. The biggest consensus about this president in this country is that he can’t tell the truth. 65%. Find another number that’s that high about him, and they happen to be 100% right.”

The CNN host urged the president to change his White House’s gross dysfunction when it comes to being honest with the American people. “Stop lying about what we know to be true,” he said. “Don’t lie about immigrants. Don’t blame Democrats for a problem that you lied about creating, you fomented, and claimed could be fixed by a fence. Push policies for more jobs and better trade, but don’t lie about our growth and the risk of tariffs. Don’t lie to farmers. I don’t accept that this president can’t do things differently.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

from Mediaite http://bit.ly/2YUpFgg