USA Today editorial board rips 'inveterate liar' Trump and his Republican enablers over 'sh*thole' defense

The USA Today editorial board on Tuesday ripped Donald Trump and his Republican enablers in a scathing editorial admonishing party leaders for following in the footsteps of an "inveterate liar.”

“Five days after word leaked out that President Trump used bigoted and vulgar remarks during an Oval Office meeting on immigration, it's clear who's telling the truth,” USA Today wrote. “Spoiler alert: It's not the president and his enablers.”

The paper explained that Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have corroborated (in Graham’s case, privately) the events that transpired in that meeting.

“It defies credulity to think that anyone else who was in the room could forget such a remarkable exchange,” the editorial wrote of the president’s reported use of the term “sh*thole” to describe Haiti and other countries. “Yet the other participants have chosen to lie, develop amnesia, or go mute.”

Turning to Sens. David Perdue (R-GA) and Tom Cotton (R-AL), who have relentlessly disputed the much-agreed-upon account of that now-infamous immigration meeting, USA Today pulled no punches in its takedown of the Republican senators.

“Perdue, a churchgoer from Georgia, and Cotton, who served as an officer in a U.S. Army that requires soldiers ‘to do what's right, legally and morally,’ cast aspersions on Durbin and said they never heard Trump utter the vulgarity,” USA Today wrote.

“Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who was also present at the meeting and has a vested interest in not crossing her boss, testified under oath Tuesday that there was ‘tough language’ but she ‘did not hear that word used,’” the editorial board wrote. “Sure. Whatever.”

Noting that “Trump lies effortlessly is beyond debate,” the paper went on to implore Trump’s enablers to consider the impact of their lies.

“Truth is the great leveler,” USA Today wrote. “The nation can discuss the right number of immigrants admitted because of their skills compared with those admitted because of family relationships. But no legislative priority is worth sacrificing your credibility to protect a president with so little regard for decency and honesty.”