Trump’s vitriol set a destructive precedent. No major-party presidential candidate since Watergate had lied so consistently and boldly in the service of his own political goals. No major-party presidential candidate in modern times had ever before politically weaponized the deaths of four Americans who died serving their country. And no major-party presidential candidate had been rewarded so lavishly for such behavior. The damage, though, went beyond the erosion of political norms. Trump had flatly contradicted the findings of five exhaustive congressional inquiries conducted by his own
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