How many Trump supporters do we have on a2k?

Trump has "perfected the outrageous untruth as a campaign tool," said Michael LaBossiere, a philosophy professor at Florida A&M University who studies theories of knowledge. "He makes a clearly false or even absurdly false claim, which draws the attention of the media. He then rides that wave until it comes time to call up another one."

PolitiFact has been documenting Trump’s statements on our Truth-O-Meter, where we’ve rated 76 percent of them Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire, out of 77 statements checked. No other politician has as many statements rated so far down on the dial.

In considering our annual Lie of the Year, we found our only real contenders were Trump’s -- his various statements also led our Readers’ Poll. But it was hard to single one out from the others. So we have rolled them into one big trophy.

Trump has "perfected the outrageous untruth as a campaign tool," said Michael LaBossiere, a philosophy professor at Florida A&M University who studies theories of knowledge. "He makes a clearly false or even absurdly false claim, which draws the attention of the media. He then rides that wave until it comes time to call up another one."

PolitiFact has been documenting Trump’s statements on our Truth-O-Meter, where we’ve rated 76 percent of them Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire, out of 77 statements checked. No other politician has as many statements rated so far down on the dial.

In considering our annual Lie of the Year, we found our only real contenders were Trump’s -- his various statements also led our Readers’ Poll. But it was hard to single one out from the others. So we have rolled them into one big trophy.

Amos Kiewe, a professor of communications at Syracuse University, has written books about the rhetoric of Ronald Reagan and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He said Trump relies on bluster to make points. "In a roundabout-way, it reminds me of rule No. 7 of persuasion," Kiewe said. "If the facts are on your side, then hammer the fact; if the opinions are on your side then, hammer the opinions; and if neither the facts nor the opinions are on your side, then hammer the table."

All politicians lie and exaggerate. I can link to copious pages of Clinton and Sanders and Cruz and Rubio and Obama lies.

MADDOW (HOST): Now is apparently the time in the race for the presidency where we get the white supremacist robocalls on behalf of Donald Trump. And I don't mean that as hyperbole. I don't mean there's some new vaguely racist-sounding thing coming out of the Trump campaign. That's not at all what I mean. No, these robocalls are not from the Trump campaign. And I'm not saying they just sound a little racist. They are overtly by white supremacists who are endorsing Mr. Trump for president on the basis of his presidential campaign platform.

ROBOCALL 1: I'm Jared Taylor with American Renaissance. I urge you to vote for Donald Trump because he is the one candidate who points out that we should accept immigrants who are good for America. We don't need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people who will assimilate to our culture. Vote trump.

ROBOCALL 2: I am William Johnson, a farmer and white nationalist. Support Donald Trump. I paid for this through the super PAC. 213-718-3908. This call is not authorized by Donald Trump.

MADDOW: That indeed was not authorized by Donald Trump. But that exists. These white nationalists, white supremacist groups say they have already started rolling out these robocalls to homes across Iowa. Now tonight they say they plan to start running them nationwide. And again, this is not Donald Trump running ads, running robocalls featuring white supremacists. This is the white supremacists, this is the white nationalist movement in America doing this on their own initiative on behalf of a candidate who they truly admire. Happy 2016 Republican presidential primary. This year the white supremacists have got their guy in this race.

Within hours of that news breaking, Jones and his website — predictably — were hosting discussions of how San Bernardino, like Newtown, like the Boston Marathon bombing, and of course like 9/11, was a hoax.

mmmmm... freedom. Good for everyone!