EDITOR NOTE: Part of every politician’s arsenal, regardless of the party s/he represents, is messaging, which often boils down to “spin.” There’s hardly anything that a politician would say that does not hold a certain degree of questionable truth. That’s a polite way of saying that, in politics, partial truths and partial lies abound. The problem is when a political legacy becomes a stain. Case in point: Trump. Fortune magazine is going after Trump’s press secretaries. The editor’s logic: if the Trump administration fed the American people lies, and if his press secretaries were instrumental to (if not entirely complicit in) this process, then any company that would hire these press secretaries might also be preferential toward spreading disinformation. The logic doesn’t hold. Not only because it just doesn’t work, but because all political administrations are, to some extent, guilty of disinformation. The editor should just spit it out: he wants to punish Trump’s PR people because he personally despises them. His warning to companies stems from pure vindictiveness. Yet, he doesn’t seem to have the balls to admit it. Instead, he dishes out a wimpy half-truth. As you can see, even he is guilty of lying to the public.
In the wake of Wednesday's siege at the US Capitol, Forbes' editor issued a warning to any companies thinking about hiring former communications officials from President Donald Trump's administration.
Businesses that choose to hire Trump spokespeople will, the editor said, be held to close scrutiny.
"Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie," the magazine's editor, Randall Lane, wrote. "We're going to scrutinize, double-check, investigate with the same skepticism we'd approach a Trump tweet."
In the article titled "A Truth Reckoning: Why We're Holding Those Who Lied For Trump Accountable," Lane reflected on the lies that spurred rioters to ransack the US Capitol.
The easiest way for American democracy to recover from the insurrection, he wrote, is to "create repercussions for those who don't follow the civic norms."
In the Forbes article, Lane called out by name Trump's press secretaries Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephanie Grisham, and Kayleigh McEnany as well as Trump's former White House counselor, Kellyanne Conway, a group to which he referred as "Trump's fellow fabulists."
Politico reported on Thursday that some White House staff members were worried about securing their next job.
Administration officials told the media outlet that they feared Wednesday's events would damage their reputations, finances, and future careers.
Lower-level Trump staffers are also "trying to save face for future employment," a source told Politico.
Several high-profile Trump officials have resigned since Wednesday, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos; Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao; the Northern Ireland special envoy Mick Mulvaney, a former acting White House chief of staff; Melania Trump's chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham; Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews; and the deputy national security advisor Matthew Pottinger.
Originally posted on Business Insider
