Donald Trump has no issue calling his opponents liars. First it was Lyin’ Ted Cruz, but after he defeated Cruz in the primaries he transferred the moniker to Lyin’ Hillary Clinton. Give Trump credit – he states it very plainly and clearly.

Washington’s media and political class, however, cannot seem to bring themselves to use the word “lie”. Instead, they use alternatives like:

• Factually incorrect
• Misstatement
• Untrue
• Falsehood
• Fabrication

Why not just call it a lie? All of these euphemisms make a lie sounds like not such a bad thing. It signals that the speaker does not have the guts to tell the unvarnished truth about a lie. Trump’s supporters, and in fact everyone, have very good ‘gutless’ detectors. Until the establishment media and politicians can get over their aversion to using the L word, they will be at a disadvantage.

In recent history, there were two times that the press and politicians called the president a flat out liar, and not just a misstater of the facts. One was when Richard Nixon denied having anything to do with the Watergate break in. The other was when Bill Clinton denied having an extramarital affair. In both cases, the president was impeached.

If everyone starts using the L word about Trump, he could be in for a rough ride.