Rather was forced out at CBS for his disastrous reporting on George W. Bush’s National Guard service, in which he relied on fabricated documents to allege that Dubya got special treatment and that his superiors had been ordered to lie about his record.
As all the follow-up reporting showed, it was utter nonsense.
I copied that from the NY Post, I forgot the details of it. To me, that was egregious, and he should have been fired, as he was.
Now imagine Bush's political opponent said these things. They say a lot of things, I think "we" should know that by now. Mansfield claimed Romney? never paid taxes. He was lying about that, well, OK, he's a politician, it was a campaign tactic. I think Trump said or hinted that Kamala wasn't a US citizen, or somesuch. That to would be a lie, nearly as I can determine, and it's from a politician.
Maybe we should hold politicians to a higher standard, fine with me, we'd not have many in office if we did. But we don't. We should understand that they lie.