Axios: Scoop: Trump stalled Black journalists interview over fact-checking
"I was prepared to go on stage to craft a statement, saying he decided not to go on stage because of fact-checking... we couldn't compromise on that."
As [NABJ president Ken] Lemon was preparing that statement, Trump walked onto the stage.
"[Trump's team] said, 'Well, can you not fact check? He's not going to take the stage if you fact-check,'" Lemon said.
Amazing.
"Can't you just let him go out there and lie to everyone? Come on, aren't you negroes team players?"
you know it's a cult when the leader says "i'm not going to speak unless i can lie with impunity" and people STILL support him
Yes, that is the GOP candidate for President: a guy who doesn’t want to talk to you if you’re going to research whether what he says is true or not.
What a weak man. Donnie needs his own little safe space to make sure he doesn’t have to deal with actual reality.
And a weird man. He's just weird. Many people are saying so.
And then immediately complained that he was made to wait. What a weird rube.
That is downright bizarre!
"Between the lines: In the aftermath, members remain divided on whether it was right for NABJ to extend the invitation and give a platform to Trump. Some said it was embarrassing; others praised the interviewers for their tough questioning.
Brittany Cummings, a communications professional, was among the members who didn't think the organization should have extended the invitation to Trump. "I'm not sure that any group of journalists has the 'secret sauce' to make him tell the truth and speak as a normal candidate would," she said. "He's not a normal candidate, so we can't treat him as such." "During the actual discussion, he was disrespectful, and I don't think there was anything new to learn.""
While their concerns about platforming him at all are totally valid, I feel like it did serve the greater good to put him on camera and let him make a racist fool of himself. i.e. it was a gamble that paid off.
Re-purposing a comment I made to another post a day or so ago:
Facing three Black women, he insulted the first Black woman on the top of a major-party ticket and seemed perfectly comfortable disparaging his hosts, even as he tried to appeal to Black voters as their best choice for safeguarding Black well-being.
-- Trump Questions Harris’s Racial Identity, Saying She Only ‘Became Black’ Recently
"Never interrupt your opponent while he is in the middle of making a mistake."
As someone who follows politics mostly through late night shows and memes, that event was one of very few times I've seen journalists push back on the guy. This revelation makes pretty clear that 'no fact checking' is a routine demand that media orgs routinely cave to, and I now have a ton of respect for NABJ, which I had never previously heard of.
That is downright bizarre!
Almost as if Trumpublicans are weird. I mean, everyone is saying it.
...others praised the interviewers for their tough questioning.
I actually think they more or less missed an open goal here, to be honest. Sure, the overall appearance was probably a net negative for Trump, but it could have been way worse. They got him off balance from the start, but afterwards failed to push back when he started walking all over them in his responses.
It's clear neither of the hosts could handle either holding him to his statements based on facts, or pushing back against his loudness and personal attacks. They let him control the narrative way too much with stuff like "millions and millions of illegal immigrants swarming in from insane asylums" going unchecked and loud "nasty woman" rants bulldozing over the hosts.
Not only does this make sense, it was also corroborated by NBC Chicago and the deputy editor from HuffPost:
Hah, he spent like 5 minutes on stage railing about them "being 35 minutes late". I assumed it ws him being late, but glad to see that backed up by reasons (his lack of faculty to tell the truth).
That journalist interviewing him should have called him out on that on the spot.
Agreed. The kid gloves need to come off.
And I'm sure this was the actual reason for the delay, not the host's equipment failure that Trump was rambling on about.
This is how everyone should play it.
Won't debate on ABC? ""Trump won't debate on platform where he will be fact checked."
Will debate on FOX? "Trump will only agree to debate on platform where he has historically not been fact checked."
What a weird, old coward...
*At the time, President Trump blamed the delay on audio problems. -Lemon told Axios, "There were audio problems, but they were resolved very quickly." "The bigger problem was his threat not to take the stage when he had agreed to go on. He did not want to be fact-checked, but we could not let him on the stage without fact-checking," Lemon said. Behind the scenes: The stalemate was so prolonged that NABJ leaders were prepared to explain to the audience of nearly 2,000 people why Trump would not appear. "I was prepared to go on stage to craft a statement, saying he decided not to go on stage because of fact-checking... we couldn't compromise on that. As Lemon was preparing that statement, Trump walked onto the stage.
He didn't stall - he just had a senior moment. It's completely fucking obvious he was intimidated by the journalists and just decided not to answer... actual stalling is slickly redirecting the conversation, he utterly failed to do that.
Give him the rope...