By Dick Polman
Journalists have been debating how to most effectively cover a defeated ex-president who lies as he breathes and aspires to restore his reign by any means necessary.
Donald Trump has an iron grip on his cultish party, so it’d be a dereliction of duty to ignore him – and the existential threat he represents. But by indulging him in an interview, does that not give him more oxygen?
I’m happy to report that Steve Inskeep at NPR found a way Monday to thread the needle. The solution is to over prepare, give the listeners and the readers as much context as possible, and push back in real time whenever the liar lies.
For instance:
TRUMP (still obsessing about the 2020 election): You look at the findings. You look at the number of votes…Look at Philadelphia. Is it true that there were far more votes than there were voters?
INSKEEP: It is not true that there were far more votes than voters.
Inskeep gave Trump air time to recycle his lie that he actually won Arizona but that it was stolen by voter fraud. But instead of letting the lie stand unchallenged, NPR checked in with Arizona’s Republican election officials – who recently conducted a ballot review and reaffirmed Joe Biden’s statewide win. The posted NPR story says this:
Republican officials in Maricopa County (the most populous and pivotal county) debunked the characterizations of Trump and his allies in a 93-page rebuttal issued last week. “The people who have spent the last year proclaiming our free and fair elections are rigged are lying or delusional,” said Bill Gates, the GOP chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
At another point in the interview – which NPR had sought for the last six years – Inskeep reminded Trump that he lost all of his post-election court cases. This exchange was revealing:
INSKEEP: Let me read you some short quotes. The first is by one of the judges – one of the 10 judges you appointed – who ruled on this. And there were many judges, but 10 who you appointed. Brett Ludwig, U.S. District Court in Wisconsin, who was nominated by you in 2020. He’s on the bench and he says, quote, “This court allowed the plaintiff the chance to make his case, and he has lost on the merits.” Another quote, Kory Langhofer, your own campaign attorney in Arizona, Nov. 12, 2020, quote, “We are not alleging fraud in this lawsuit. We are not alleging anyone stealing the election.”
TRUMP: When you look at Langhofer, I disagree with him as an attorney. I did not think he was a good attorney to hire. I don’t know what his game is…
He maligned one of his own lawyers, and didn’t even bother to address the fact that 10 of his own judicial appointees had ruled against him in case after case (including his Hail Mary in Pennsylvania). All told, NPR accurately observed: “Repeatedly in the interview, Trump presses his party to adhere to his point of view and false claims…That’s a typical strategy among purveyors of disinformation and misinformation.”
And this was a fun exchange, Trump being unable to fathom how Biden won without drawing huge crowds in the midst of a pandemic:
TRUMP: How come Biden couldn’t attract 20 people for a crowd? How come when he went to speak in different locations, nobody came to watch, but all of a sudden, he got 80 million votes? Nobody believes that, Steve. Nobody believes that.
INSKEEP: If you’ll forgive me, maybe because the election was about you.
The interview was scheduled to last 15 minutes. But at the nine-minute mark, when Inskeep started to bring up the Capitol insurrection, Trump hung up. Inskeep exclaimed, “Whoa whoa whoa, I have one more question!” Alas, his guest had cut and run to the MAGA cocoon.
Granted, the MAGA crowd doesn’t listen to NPR or read its website. But journalists who have a laudable bias for facts have no rational choice but to do their jobs.
As veteran Washington reporter Barton Gellman said recently, “What we’re for as journalists is truth. And what we’re for as journalists is democracy. We are unambiguously in favor of our democratic system and of allowing the people to choose their own leaders. And the conundrum is that right now we have a political party that is bowing to authoritarian forces, that is systematically lying about the political process, about the election process itself.”
The only way forward – as Inskeep demonstrated – is to hold those forces accountable.
Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at [email protected]
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David Schaefer says
Trump will always be remembered as a lying SOB.
Mark says
Let’s hold the Russia, Russia, Russia forces accountable while we are at it.
Anonymous says
Still talking about Trump? Drop it already and report on the current President, inflation, all the illegals crossing the border. We have bigger fish to fry, yet the Liberals can’t seem to let go of Trump, of all people; Trump.
makeitso1701 says
Seems to me that trump is the one that just can’t let it go. He can’t accept the fact that he lost. That’s the reason why people are still talking about the idiot. trump should move to Russia and be with his man crush Putin.
Nih Girbalsak says
Neither could Hillary:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clinton-trump-is-an-illegitimate-president/2019/09/26/29195d5a-e099-11e9-b199-f638bf2c340f_story.html
DaleL says
Seems to me that our current president has not even been in office for a full year. Plus, his taking over was rushed because number 45 had his appointees interfere with the transition. Number 45 was no better at controlling illegal immigration than his predecessor, Mr. Obama. The current jump in inflation has its roots in the Republican tax cut for the wealthy, COVID pandemic (supply), and the stimulus money (demand with 2 under Republicans and 1 under Democrats).
As the NPR interviewer Inskeep said: “If you’ll forgive me, maybe because the election was about you.” That’s right, number 45 lost in elections in which actual Republicans won. Number 45’s “help” in Georgia lost the Republicans control of the Senate.
Ronald Reagan famously said: “Gaylord Parkinson, postulated what he called the Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican. It’s a rule I followed during that campaign and have ever since.” Number 45 has violated every single one of the Ten Commandments either in spirit or in fact. He has also violated the “Eleventh Commandment”. It is long past time for the Republican Party to put number 45 in the past instead of continuing to pay his legal bills.
Farmer Bill says
No more of a liar than Biden, Pelosi, or any other politician.
Wouldn’t a more productive use of the authors time than writing a “who cares” article be covering the 40 year high inflation number and how it more negatively effects the the majority of those visiting this website – elderly on fixed income, unemployed, and minorities?
Damien says
Well spoken Sir.
DaleL says
Big lies matter. Number 45 has made it a litmus test for Republicans to back his big lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. That is a blatant lie. His own appointees (Attorney General Barr, FBI Director Wray, and Homeland Security Cyber Security Director Krebs) all are on the record as saying it is false. Inciting a mob to attack our Nation’s Capital is not something that Biden, Pelosi, or any reasonable person, let alone any previous president, has ever done.
Biden has not even been president for a year and he is being blamed for …. everything. Inflation is the result of supply and demand. The COVID pandemic has reduced supply and three rounds of stimulus money (2 while Trump was president and 1 with Biden) created excessive demand.
Here is the real issue. It is that Trump is an authoritarian. He is dangerous. He lost while actual Republicans in House races won.
Kafantaris George says
“I think Sen. Rounds told the truth about what happened in the 2020 election. And I agree with him,” said McConnell.
The “truth” that Rounds succinctly spoke was this: “The election was fair — as fair as we’ve seen. We simply did not win the election as Republicans for the presidency.”
If others do not acknowledge as much, Trump will indeed succeed in pushing the GOP into the abyss. Should they need more motivation to speak up, they need only reflect on the obvious: Trump’s hold on the Party is but a desperate effort at self-preservation. Time to strip him of his cover.
makeitso1701 says
Not only is trump a liar, con man, sore loser, but he is also a COWARD. melania probably had to change his soiled diaper after the NPR interview.
Joe Biden 2024!!!
LetsBeReal says
Donald Trump a coward? LOL. Joe Biden is the one walking away from reporters and not answering questions. Joe is weak and the whole world knows it including China and Russia. The Democrats don’t even want Joe Biden to run in 2024 because he has already done enough destruction to this country. There is talk that Hillary Clinton should run in 2024. In fact, as she watches President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris continue their catastrophic collapse, that old blonde ambition seems to be burning again.
Sherry says
@Farmer Bill- You are quite wrong when you claim that trump has not lied more than President Biden!
Former President Donald Trump made over seven times as many “false and misleading” claims in his first 100 days in the White House than President Joe Biden, according to the Washington Post’s fact-checker.
An analysis of every speech, statement, tweet and interview made by the two presidents found that Trump made 511 false or misleading claims in his first 100 days, while Biden has made 67 as of Monday, or Day 96.
Sherry says
Truth Matters! Words Matter! Trust Matters! FACTS Matter!
bob says
trump the rump of the usa
Steve says
The orange stain will go down in History as just that. Vote Accordingly