Would it be better for American politics if a law is passed making it illegal for people running for office to lie in public?

How would it be enforced? Who decides what is a lie (versus an innocent error)? What’s the penalty?

^^But would it be better? Assuming your questions get good answers.

It would but never going to happen.

I’m with @elbanditoroso on this one. Who would decide what is a lie? Yes, I know everyone thinks about Trump on this one. But look at Biden. Let’s take fracking as an example. He stated, during his run for POTUS, that he wanted to do away with fracking and fossil fuels. He stated he was fully in support of fracking. He stated that he didn’t want any new fracking. And depending on the audience, He stated that he never said any of the other things. Somewhere along the line he was lying. You can’t possibly want all of those things.
Or look at Trump. He wanted to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it. He did get some of a wall built, but Mexico didn’t pay for it. They did other things, but not that. And the wall was not along the entire border. So was that a lie? Suppose you then consider that his political opponents fought him tooth and nail for funding the wall. So while he wanted it, he couldn’t get the entire thing. Is that his fault? Was it a lie?
So let’s say it is illegal. What’s the penalty? Is he automatically withdrawn from the race? If he is already in office, is he automatically ejected?
While it is a lovely idea that we should have honest politicians, they are, after all, humans. And we all lie at some point.

There are some laws against false advertising.

I don’t understand why people perceive the hopes and ideas of political candidates as promises. Unless it’s something that can be done by executive order.

Politicians twist things. They omit pertinent details. They give vague answers. It’s not black and white.

@JLeslie Seems not enough teeth on false ads and/or false broadcast laws? Unless there’s immediate harm to people…non-journalists entertainers like Hannity and Tucker Carlson(?) can entertain trump supporters and dangerous clowns like trump ( who is a big entertainer himself ) all the way to hell and back.

@mazingerz88 I completely agree. We maybe could enforce existing laws more, but in America it’s almost never pursued except when it can cause harm, which is usually related to physical health and medicine.

Sure, so change the laws.

Normally I would say you can’t legislate morality due to being subjective. Political ads are exclusively the purview of the candidate and require certain components laid out by Ethics Committees, such ad ‘paid for by….’, etc…