Slate "It Took Savannah Guthrie 19 Minutes to Give Trump His Toughest Grilling in Years" [View all]

[NRaleighLiberal]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/10/savannah-guthrie-trump-town-hall-grilling.html

(This is a great read, esp for those - like me - that refuse to watch the orange asshole)

Rather than face former Vice President Joe Biden in a town hall debate on Thursday, President Donald Trump took questions from voters in a one-hour special on NBC. Before the Miami crowd got its turn, however, host Savannah Guthrie interviewed Trump directly, appearing to respond to criticism of the network’s decision to hand Trump air time by giving the president one of the most intense grillings of his four years in office.

Guthrie pressed the president on details related to his own experience with COVID-19, his baffling evasiveness when asked to condemn white supremacy, and the QAnon conspiracy theory, which Trump declined to condemn but did say, “I do know they are very much against pedophilia, they fight it very hard.” While Trump tried to fall back on his usual bluster, Guthrie was a cheerful but firm interviewer, returning again and again to the facts and details of Trump’s answers. As usual, Trump attempted to lie through the barrage of tough questions—and almost every time got pinned down by an interviewer who didn’t back off. At one point, after Guthrie parried one of Trump’s attempts to undermine a question’s premise, the president replied, “So cute.”

Quite a lot happened in 19 or so minutes! Let’s take it topic by topic.

COVID-19
Guthrie wasted no time in launching into Trump’s inconsistencies. After introducing herself, explaining the situation behind the competing presidential town halls, and wishing the first lady and their son good health, she asked Trump to explain his unusually intense medical treatment.

Trump responded that he “didn’t feel good” and that he had a temperature, and that “all I know is I felt good the following day.” Guthrie wasn’t satisfied with the answer. “Did the doctors ever tell you that they saw pneumonia on your lung scan?”

Trump: No, but they said the lungs are a little bit different, a little perhaps infected, and—

Guthrie: Infected with?

Trump: I don’t know. I didn’t do too much asking. I really felt good. I didn’t have much of a problem with the lungs. I did have a little bit of a temperature. Obviously I felt there was something missing. And then I tested, you know, I tested positive.

Guthrie then tried to pin Trump on the dates of his infection, a topic for which the White House’s explanations have shifted. “Your first positive test was Thursday, Oct. 1, OK? When was your last negative test? When did you last remember having a negative test?” Trump didn’t give a definitive answer, but thanks to Guthrie’s persistence he offered a bit more detail—and made a revealing obfuscation:



snip - LOTS more at the link