Tag Archives: Interview
Direct Answers
If there is one thing I’ve learned that one should never do in politics, is fail to give a direct answer to a question that could make you look guilty. I initially learned the lesson when Rex Tillerson refused to say that he called Trump a moron by dancing around the question. When you fail to actually say you didn’t do something, there WILL be a significant group of people who will ask if that means you did do it. Donald Trump didn’t learn that lesson as shown last weekend, when Jeanine Pirro asked if he was a Russian agent. Instead of just saying “No” or “of course now”, he went with the dance, suggesting that the question was offensive. Especially considering the recent reports that suggest there is a good reason to believe that Trump may be hiding a lot in regards to his relationship to Putin. It’s worrying to hear that he’s been hiding the transcripts of his interactions with the despot, and it doesn’t do anyone any good for Trump to drop the “offended” card, which is weird given his and his supporters penchant for making fun of people for taking any kind of offense.
Makes Total Sense
Watching Trump lie is an interesting thing. Because he’s not good at it. Especially when it comes to things that where he has to come at it from multiple angles. If you want a good example of it, look no further than his most recent interview with Fox News (or as S.E. Cupp called in on a CNN, his “infomercial”). Watching him explain why he’s not responsible for the commission of crimes gets almost uncomfortable as he can’t seem to find an avenue to lie that doesn’t force him to almost immediately backtrack and try to move forward. He starts off by trying to claim that he’s not involved with the tabloid that paid off Karen McDougal, but if he was, he didn’t know or didn’t authorize it. But then even if that isn’t the case, what happened wasn’t a campaign finance violation. But if it was a campaign finance violation, than it was Michael Cohen’s fault, not his. But even if it is his fault, why is it a big deal, because Obama did it. But if you don’t believe ANY of that (which you obviously shouldn’t, because literally not a word of it is true), then it’s all fine anyway because all (read: very few) campaign finance lawyers agree that he didn’t do anything wrong. It remarkable to watch in the moment, him caveating each lie with another, trying to hedge his bets, but the problem then becomes that each subsequent lie weakens the previous one, making the whole shebang a weird incoherent mess. At a certain point, Trump might just want to invoke his right to remain silent…
A Very Busy and Important Schedule
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Trump’s legal team is saying one of the key reasons why Trump may not be able to give an interview to Mueller is because Trump simply doesn’t have the free time to give! After all, the day in the life of a POTUS is highly regimented and scheduled. Down to the minute! I mean, he has to keep his mornings wide open so he can watch Fox and Friends, and maybe call them and have a friendly chat. The truth is that if even half the reports we’ve heard regarding the day to day within the White House, the President shouldn’t find himself too hard pressed to find a few minutes to give an interview without giving up on some meeting that will determine the fate of the world.
Rudy Giuliani: Ace Attorney
Trump is shaking things up with his legal team. He’s brought on an old White House bulldog of a lawyer, Emmet Flood, who could potentially be quite a benefit to the Trump legal team. So to balance out that intelligent move, he made a crazy, possibly suicidal move to really keep us all on our toes, by bringing on Rudy Giuliani as well. I know that Giuliani has a good reputation during his time as mayor in New York, but in recent years, the man has kind of gone off the rails. Naturally, the first thing he does as soon as he’s appointed is to go on Sean Hannity to torpedo Trump’s cases. Among the fun things revealed in that interview, he said that Trump did in fact reimburse Michael Cohen for his $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Despite his backtracking immediately after that statement, there is no way that revelation, or any of the others that Giuliani continues to unleash off the cuff, could benefit Trump’s position. I think it’s time for Rudy to officially retire from being the crazy old Republican bullhorn.
Battle of Wits
So the New York Time released a possible list of questions that Mueller reportedly gave Trump’s legal team. Now of course, that situation has created a firestorm of stories and questions. Who leaked the list? Why? Who aims to benefit? How many tweets was Trump going to devote to it? How many times would he say “Collusion” or “Witch Hunt”? But what has been noted is the phrasing behind the question. Their design seem intended to appeal to Trump’s love of explaining things as opposed to short, succinct, yes or no answers. Now, critics of the investigation say that the point of these questions is to catch Trump in a lie. I say any question, no matter how it’s phrased, is likely to have that happen, because the man publicly lies, on average, 5 times a day, and that’s not hyperbole. The funny thing is, I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump went and answered these questions anyway, because all the people around him are almost certainly telling him not to, and Trump a) doesn’t like being told what to do, and b) thinks he’s too intelligent to be tricked. Gotta love his confidence, right?
The Deafening Silence of Fox News
So, Fox News didn’t mention Stormy Daniels at any point during the day on Monday. The day after a quite devastating interview that puts a pretty negative light on their Meal Ticket, and they don’t even mention it. They spend some time bashing Hillary, but they don’t dignify the affair of their Savior or the prospect that he might have had her threatened to keep her from telling people about it with any kind of response. Now, they might argue that an alleged affair that Trump denies is personal business, and not “real news”, but the fact that he has taken steps to keep it quiet, while possibly authorizing someone to threaten her definitely is. I suppose there’s a reason Fox News doesn’t label themselves as “Fair and Balanced” anymore.
Roy Moore Goes To Washington
Mind the Exit 