Powell states boldly what is true across American political spectra. Politicians lie. People expect politicians to lie. You shouldn’t hold politicians and their teams responsible for lying, because that’s how the system works.

Yes, things came to a serious head during the Trump administration with basic honesty becoming more than scarce. But still, politicians warp and distort the truth every minute of every day.

And holding them to account is difficult. People who are loyal to particular politicians don’t like it when their guy gets called out. People have raised hell and worked me over for calling out Biden on breaking campaign promises and making public statements that were in many ways fundamentally dishonest.

I like Biden. I can get behind almost everything he’s doing as president. One thing I can’t do in the eyes of his supporters is speak up when he says something dishonest in that American political way that is so normalized.

And that’s what brought us to Trump and Powell. Because politicians lying really is what we expect.