Why isn't potus lying knowingly to the public an automatic felony?

[lindysalsagal]

Why is he allowed to just make anything up and not get checked? Is this the only way to hold the office? Is this our future?

[Kurt V.]

1. K&R this is a great question.

[Voltaire2]

2. Lying, in general, is not a crime.

But aside from that, who would determine that the president uttered a lie? And would anything the president says, regardless of circumstances or context, that was not true subject the president to this “automatic felony”?

[manor321]

3. Because only lying under oath is a crime

[at140]

4. Politicians are notorious for lying in general

Unless they are lying under oath, they usually get away with it.

[tritsofme]

5. For starters, there is no such thing as an "automatic felony" Second, who decides what is a "lie"?

Not a very well thought out idea.

[MichMary]

6. Because they all lie.

I read a book by Vincent Bugliosi (I think) in which he said that when Jimmy Carter told the American public that he would never lie to them, that was his first lie.

There are times when they HAVE to lie.

[UniteFightBack]

7. We would have no Presidents then.

[treestar]

8. There has to be an oath.

For example, the Delaware code (based on the Model Code, which a lot of states have):

§ 1221 Perjury in the third degree; class A misdemeanor.

A person is guilty of perjury in the third degree when the person swears falsely.

Perjury in the third degree is a class A misdemeanor.

That's the lowest crime on the scale.

It shows what we have come to. Used to be if you were shown to be lying it would make you look bad. Now it seems no one cares.