Dumb and dumber
I admit that journalists sometimes deliberately formulate leading questions for politicians, questions that are calculated to be too dangerous to answer with a simple yes or no. MAGA Republican politicians, on the other hand, too often lead lives so full of hypocrisies, contradictions and despicable behaviour that almost ANY question put to them, no matter how benignly intended, can be dangerous.
Enter Fox News, Newsmax and OAN, ordinarily the homes of low octane softball non-questions for MAGAs with, er, certain histories. Those networks exist to provide propaganda cover for Donald Trump. But not always.
On Tuesday, in a departure from the usual MAGA-friendly questioning — and on Newsmax of all places — anchor Rob Finnerty gave South Dakota governor Kristi Noem a metaphorical black eye. Finnerty said, “Governor, if you asked me a month ago who is at the top of the list to run with Donald Trump I would have said your name. If you asked me that same question this morning I don’t even think you’re on the list.”
Noem didn’t see that coming. She clearly didn’t like that. But it didn’t end there. Finnerty challenged her in her claim in her book that she met Kim Jong un. “Governor,” he said, “that never happened.” Noem “defended” her position with a breathtakingly weak reply, ”I’m not going to talk about my conversations with world leaders.” Including, presumably, those conversations she never had. She then added, with laughable deceit and hubris, that she has been “very forthright” and that a “typical politician wouldn’t be that honest.”
But Finnerty wouldn’t let it go. “I don’t think the meeting happened,” he said. Noem had lied in her book, and he was going to hold her feet to the fire. The puppy murderer refused to address the question, continuing to fall back on the amazingly weak refrain that she wasn’t going to talk about her conversations with world leaders. So there.
Then there’s Kristen Welker, the latest moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press. For once she did her best to pin down that other odious member of Trump’s shortlist for Veep, the junior senator from South Carolina, Tim Scott. On Sunday she asked him if he would state unequivocally that he would accept the results of the 2024 presidential election no matter who wins. That’s an easy question to answer. The only right answer is, “Of course,” and move on.
But apparently not for Tim Scott. Welker asked the question several times in several different ways, but Scott still refused to give a straight answer. Clearly he couldn’t come right out and say the quiet part out loud, that he would accept the results of the 2024 election only if Trump wins.
Of the two, I hope Trump picks Noem for his Veep. She is so vile and so stupid and so evil that she will make Trump look even worse than he already does, if that’s possible. Scott is only mildly dreadful by comparison.
I hope Noem gets it so she can drag Trump’s failing candidacy down into the nearest gravel pit and shoot it in the face. Donald Trump and a murderer of puppies would be the perfect pairing for America’s worst presidential campaign. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.