Opinion: Trump, the former associate of arch-McCarthyist Roy Cohn, calls Obama a McCarthyist. That’s rich.

To the editor: Over the weekend, President Trump accused his predecessor of using “McCarthyism” tactics against him. This baseless accusation asserts that Trump’s offices had been illegally wiretapped by President Obama during the campaign. (“FBI director asks Justice Department to publicly reject Trump’s wiretap claim,” March 5)

There is no evidence that this occurred, and the FBI director wants the Justice Department to say that this assertion is false.

It should be pointed out that Trump’s lawyer and mentor at the start of his real estate career was Roy Cohn, Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s chief advisor during the anti-communist hysteria of the 1950s. Trump’s accusation reeks of irony, especially because this wild accusation is a textbook example of McCarthyism, meant to arouse fear and suspicion for political gain.

Mark Green, Pacific Palisades

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To the editor: The press was fond of calling Ronald Reagan “the Great Communicator.” Isn’t it time for the honest press to start calling Trump “the Great Prevaricator”?

Larry Markes, Hollywood

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To the editor: The Trump propaganda strategy is now becoming clear:

- An unhinged right-wing talk show host makes a wild accusation.

- Breitbart picks it up and presents it as “news.”

- Trump reads it and sends out angry tweets.

- When challenged, Trump’s people say, “It’s being reported on several news outlets, so it deserves to be investigated.”

- All of the Sunday morning news shows dropped their plans to focus on Trump and Russia and instead invited several Trump loyalists to talk about Obama’s alleged wiretapping of Trump Tower. Now they are demanding a congressional investigation.

Moral of the story: Most legitimate news organizations will ignore Breitbart unless Trump tweets it. What power.

Since it can be very hard to prove a negative — that the Obama wiretapping or the 3 million illegal voters did not happen — such lies can have a long life.

Alexander Astin, Los Angeles

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