Spicer Is Back, with a Stunning Lie

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held his first press briefing in a couple of weeks, which ended with Spicer bickering with the press corps about "fake news" and then storming out of the room.

Obviously, I don't need to tell you that everything before that was the usual litany of mendacious swill, but even by Spicer's rock bottom standards, this was incredible.

Sean Spicer describes President Trump’s relationship with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as “fairly unbelievable” https://t.co/0bpHTxddac

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 30, 2017

I think the relationship that the president has had with Merkel, he would describe as fairly unbelievable. They get along very well. He has a lot of respect for her. They continue to grow the bond that they had during their talks at the G7. And he views not just Germany but the rest of Europe as an important American ally, um— [long pause] During his conversations at NATO and at the G7, the president reaffirmed the need to deepen and improve our transatlantic relationship.

What Spicer is saying here is worse than a lie: It is substituting Donald Trump's twisted version of reality—that he and Merkel are getting along great specifically because he bullies her—for what is actually real: That Trump's profound disrespect of Merkel, and leaders of other key allied nations, combined with his evident ignorance about foreign affairs and reckless indiscretion with foreign intelligence, has alienated the United States from the global community.

We are less safe because of the increasing isolation as a result of Trump's arrogance and incompetence.

That the White House Press Secretary tells the American people instead that everything is swell, and that the president is committed to alliances he's actively undermining, is a lie of unfathomable proportions.

And, yes, telling breathtakingly irresponsible lies in order to abet Trump's dangerous disloyalty to this nation is Spicer's job. But that doesn't absolve him of the responsibility for continuing to do it, day after day, the most visible minion of an authoritarian who campaigned to "make great again" a country he endeavors to weaken in every possible way.