The world leaves most of us perplexed daily. Nobody has the time, energy, capability and/or interest to understand it all. Mike Lawler loves to take advantage of our perplexity and tell us how it is. But is it?

Yesterday, I decided to take advantage of the Perplexity Artificial Intelligence engine to ask if a statement that Mike Lawler made on the House floor was true. I typed it in verbatim. Perplexity’s answer:

Mike Lawler’s statement contains several claims that are either inaccurate or misleading when examined against available data and expert analysis.

Well, this certainly sums up my experience after almost 4 months studying Lawler’s public statements.

Mike Lawler is not the first politician to play fast and loose with the facts, but he is one of the most artful. Bipartisan Mike is pretty straight with the facts on inconsequential matters — namely the slew of bills he introduces to run up his bipartisan creds. But on the issues that matter, MAGA Mike rears his head and the misinformation flows.

Yesterday was a master class in Lawlerisms as he hit all the major cable news networks and social media streams. The 3 major issues of the day: Iran, the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB), and Fed interest rates. All three brought out the MAGA in Mike.

First up, what is now called the Great Big Beautiful Bill. Trump is on his way home from the NATO summit, ready to pressure Lawler and company on the BBB. He posted, “Now that we have made PEACE abroad, we must finish the job here at home by passing ‘THE GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’…” He wants it passed by July 4, so “NO ONE GOES ON VACATION UNTIL IT’S DONE.”

Duly inspired, Lawler went at it on Morning Joe. Gutting Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for billionaires, as the critics say? “Not even close to what the bill actually does,” says Mike.

I asked Perplexity, is Lawler right? Perplexity said:

[The BBB’s] core structure involves deep cuts to Medicaid and SNAP to help pay for tax breaks that disproportionately benefit the wealthy. Lawler’s claim that the criticism is “not even remotely close to what the bill actually does” is contradicted by the bill’s own provisions and independent analyses.

On Medicaid, it’s just “slowing growth” of the program to make it sustainable, says Mike. Tell that to the CBO-estimated 11 million people likely to lose health insurance under the BBB. “They’ll get over it,” says Mitch McConnell.

As Lawler pushes to raise the cap on State and Local Tax Deductions, which will cost more than the savings from these Medicaid cuts, just to provide incremental wealth to the wealthy.

Lawler’s other mantra: if we don’t pass the BBB, it will result in the largest tax increase in American history. Hmm, might there be a choice other than passing the BBB or doing nothing? Consider “Moderate Democrats offer counter tax program” for just one example of another path.

From Morning Joe, Lawler moved on to grilling the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, who appeared before the House Financial Services Committee. Trump, unhappy that Powell hasn’t lowered interest rates faster, gave Lawler his assignment: “I hope Congress really works this very dumb, hardheaded person, over.” So Lawler did.

Lawler chose as his theme that Powell reacted late to inflation under Biden, but under Trump he’s been overly conservative. Another MAGA Mike reflex, by the way — harping on the horrors of the Biden years. Lawler foamed, “Back in the beginning of the Biden administration, OK, when we talk about inflation, they increased federal spending by $2.5T each year, $5T in new spending. That’s what gave us inflation, by printing all of this new money and borrowing.” Perplexity called this statement inaccurate and misleading, as quoted at the top.

Have a look at the data on federal spending from the Treasury Department, noting that Trump was President in 2020 when it spiked during the pandemic. Try to make sense of Lawler’s statement as you look at this graph. You can’t.

But mission accomplished. The press gave him coverage as MAGA attack dog of the day.

Lastly, the topic of Iran, where Lawler has been Trump’s biggest fanboy, breathlessly filling the airwaves with gushing reviews. He got into it with Marjorie Taylor Greene again since she opposed the bombing, telling Kaitlan Collins on CNN, ““Marjorie is certainly entitled to her own opinion. She’s not entitled to her own set of facts.”

Neither are you, Mike. You say, “Obviously, they were at the closest point to having a nuclear weapon.” Perplexity says:

Mike Lawler’s statement is partially true in the sense that Iran’s nuclear program had made significant advances and was closer than ever before to a potential “breakout” capacity, but it is not accurate to say Iran was on the verge of having a usable nuclear weapon

You say, “Congress was notified.” You say it twice for emphasis. Perplexity says:

Mike Lawler’s claim that “Congress was notified” is partially true in a technical sense—some notification occurred after the fact or was selectively given to certain members—but it does not reflect the full, bipartisan notification process typically expected for such sensitive military actions.

And of course on Newsmax, Lawler went further to suggest that Democrats can’t be trusted with this kind of sensitive military information.

Lawler used his favorite sentence-starter — “the fact is” — 6 times during the 5-1/2 minute interview on CNN. So about his normal average of once a minute. Combined with his second favorite, “obviously,” which he tossed in 3 times. But who’s counting?

So there you have it. Perplexity rates Lawler’s performance yesterday as inaccurate, misleading, contradicted by independent analysis, and partially true in a technical sense.

I suggest that when you’re perplexed, embrace Perplexity rather than Lawler. And kids, always verify your AI. And floss.