NY Times Interview Questions For Trump Apparently Prepared By Fox News
Donald Trump’s interview with the New York Times and his threats against Mueller and almost every top official in the Department of Justice are one of the big stories today. If anything, the interview shows just how vague and unfocused Trump is and how he must show himself superior to at least one other person on almost every issue that comes up.
But a closer read of the interview shows that the Times approach to the interview was to simply have a breezy little chat and allow Trump to ramble wherever his mind let him. It was hardly a hard-hitting interview and, in fact, had as many softball questions as something you might see on Fox News.
Kevin Drum kindly put together a representative sample for us:
- How was your lunch [with Republican senators]?
- You are generally of the view that people should have health care, right?
- Did the senators want to try again [to pass health care]?
- Where does it go from here, do you think?
- How’s [Mitch] McConnell to work with?
- Will you go to Britain? Are you going to make a state visit to Britain?
- A lot of people are curious about your conversation with President [Vladimir V.] Putin at dinner. Not surprising. But what did you all talk about…?
- You asked them [Republican senators] about it [Don Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer] at lunch?
- Sorry to interrupt. The email, though, said something I thought was really interesting, and I wonder what you thought of it. It said this “is part of Russia and its government’s support of Mr. Trump.” So whatever actually happened at the meeting—
- So, what do you interpret that to mean, now that you have seen it?
- I do want to come out, on the email, now that you have seen that email that said Russia’s government — I mean, how did you — did you interpret it that way?
- Given what’s happened since then, though, was it a political mistake to have fired him [James Comey], given what’s happened?
- But look at the headache it’s caused, you know?
- Do you wish you had done it on Day 1?
- What would be the line beyond which if Mueller went, you would say, “That’s too far, we would need to dismiss him”?
- Did you shoo other people out of the room when you talked to Comey?
- This is why I want to come back to that email, because, like — does it concern you? Let’s say that the election didn’t change because of anything Russia did, which has been your point, right? You point —
- But did that email concern you, that the Russian government was trying something to compromise—
- Last thing, if Mueller was looking at your finances and your family finances, unrelated to Russia — is that a red line?
It is clear that Trump does not understand most federal policy and the press knows that, which perhaps makes them reluctant to pursue that line of inquiry because it will come to nothing. But it might be helpful to some less politically aware Americans to see just how ignorant and dangerous their President actually is.