Aesop's Viper …

There are many variations on the Aesop fable “The Farmer and the Viper” but, basically it is the story of the kindly old farmer who feels sorry for a snake who appears to be freezing to death. He picks it up and cuddles it under his warm jacket only to be repaid by a lethal snake bite as soon as the reptile recovers. As the farmer lays dying the last words he hears are these: “Don't blame me,” says the snake, "You knew what I was when you picked me up." 

 

The reason I was interested in this fable had to do with an article that I read in today's “Time” magazine. It was about Trumps reaction to the FBI director Comey's statement that no evidence backed up his tweet about Obama tapping his phones. Here is the paragraph as written by Michael Scherer: “The statement was concise, direct and damning. The President of the United States had been marked as a fabulist by one of the top officials in government charged with finding the truth. And yet, for the man being called out, the rebuke was nothing of the sort.”

Of course I had to look up the definition of fabulist and this is what it says in the Oxford Dictionary.
1.  A liar, especially one who invents elaborately dishonest stories. 'a born fabulist with an imagination unfettered by the laws of logic and probability'.


Need I say more?