Disgraced former Republican congressman George Santos’ attempt to explain away President Donald Trump’s many, many lies to Bill Maher is so dubious it may become the new “alternative facts.”

In an interview on Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, Maher noted that the president has “told more lies than all the presidents combined,” but Santos pushed back.

“I don’t know that that’s true, though,” said Santos, who was elected to Congress in 2022 after campaigning on a personal history that was mostly false.

Maher immediately pushed back.

“Well, you do know it’s true,” Maher snapped. “You know that even his fans say, ‘We take him seriously. Not literally,’” before pointing out that Trump “just pulls stuff out of his ass whenever he wants to.”

Santos then tried to explain away Trump’s constant lying as something more than spouting B.S. as a matter of habit.

“How about this? Is it a lie, or is it a strategic, like, disruption of the matrix, right? Like I feel — and I’m not making excuses — but I’m going to throw this at you.”

Although “disruption of the matrix” seems like a worthy successor to “alternative facts” (the term dubiously coined by former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway in January 2017, to justify the Trump administration’s differences with actual reality), Maher wasn’t buying it.

“Try that in a relationship,” Maher said before adding, “‘Honey, I’m not fucking the cocktail waitress. It’s a rupture in the matrix.’”

Santos tried to explain further, but Maher stopped him, saying, “We’re redefining lying now.”

You can see the whole episode below.

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