But he was merely repeating the truth as he knew it. That he was in on it is not the thing. The thing is that “Carney” was like a car speaker relaying the sounds from the admin. “HE’ did not lie.
The proper question to carney is “Did you knowingly repeat things you personally knew to be false.”
Now of course, a sane person knows that carney lied daily. But that is our world. In their world he did not. Thats the difference.
Sorry, Norm, that’s just too nuanced for me. Carney is a liar AFAIC. ;-)
Do that long enough and often enough and you can get out of answering questions without technically having to lie.
You see that with the new guy, too: "You've never heard of a computer crashing before?"
I suppose they actually do lie a lot, but it's those zingers that convey false ideas without technically being lies that get people's attention, and allow press secretaries to maintain that they don't literally lie.