When you book a Trump surrogate to come on your show, the one thing you should always expect is lies, lies and more lies. The president never encouraged violence, the president never praised a dictator, the president never said what everyone heard him say. Nowadays, I’ve noticed a shift to things Obama or his people have been accused of doing: don’t you remember when Obama ripped apart migrant families and put them in cages?
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I am almost always more upset with the interviewer than the Trump surrogate presenting “alternate facts". The interviewer will ask a question, the surrogate will lie... and then the interviewer will politely say "let's move on." Once in awhile, they'll push back a little, but the surrogate will act indignant and the interviewer will leave it as "let's agree to disagree".
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Making things up to help defend your position, as well as trying to exploit the interviewer's politeness, are two documented tricks used by surrogates. You can see them in action with Kellyanne Conway at the 3:30 mark and the 4:15 mark:
It’s frustrating.<p>
Finally, FINALLY, someone—on CNN, no less—stepped up to the plate. Amy Kremer, founder of Women for Trump, went on CNN to defend the vile family separations. (That in and of itself is telling: no Trump official—not Kirstjen, Huckabee, or even Kellyanne—wants to try to defend this anymore.)
The entire interview is refreshingly good, but there was one moment that surprised me. When Amy flatly lies about Obama’s former DHS secretary and claims that he said THE EXACT OPPOSITE of what he said, she was expecting the obligatory push-back and then the “let’s move on”.
Victor Blackwell wasn’t having it. He demanded the control room find the clip. And Ouch:
Thank you, Victor.
Please give a workshop to your colleagues.
The video in the tweet above cuts to the quick, but if you want to see the whole interview, check it out: