Politico’s White House Bureau Chief, Dasha Burns, managed to land a one-on-one interview with Donald Trump. Ms. Burns, just 33-years-old, was, naturally, very excited to score this coup, a sit-down with the leader of the free world. She filled her social media with gushing announcements of her interview.
Call me a glutton for punishment, but I watched all 44 minutes, 39 seconds of this train wreck (YouTube video).
To say that Dasha Burns was unprepared for the torrent of lies spewed by Trump is the understatement of the year. Burns not only failed to call out even a single lie that passed Trump’s lips, her obsequiousness was disgusting, embarrassing and humiliating. How is Burns the “White House Bureau Chief” for a publication that insists on being taken seriously for its political journalism? (I know, I know… Politico should never be considered “serious journalism.”)
Burns appeared to have done no prep for the interview other than formulate questions. Trump steamrolled her with incoherent gibberish and blatant lies without Burns offering a peep of resistance in the form of facts or reality checks. Sure, Trump has done this to other journalists in the past, but Burns doesn’t work for Fox News or OAN. She should have known better. How she could come into this event so unprepared is mind-boggling.
Trump wandered all over the map in the interview. He was as incoherent and insecure as ever, touting his (false) “achievements,” and blaming all of his failures on Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Most of the words that tumbled out of Don’s gaping maw made absolutely no sense — when they weren’t blatant falsehoods.
Burns is a native of Ukraine, emigrating to the U.S. when she was eight-years-old. That fact makes her servile acceptance of Trump’s dismissive insults of Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people all the more egregious. She should be ashamed of herself.
Politico, of course, cleans up Trump’s inane incoherence in their published story on the Burns interview. The story ignores Trump’s idiocy and presents what he uttered as “news” when it was anything but. Other news organizations have since regurgitated this whitewashed nonsense as somehow revealing breaking news from our befuddled president. All media, not just Politico, is guilty of this malpractice.
I quit reading Politico a long time ago because it was obvious that the folks in charge were more interested in access than actual journalism. I saw mentions of this interview elsewhere, so I decided to have a look. Yes, none of this is new. It is not surprising. It is not revealing any new truths.
But any young person seriously considering a life in journalism should take note: This is NOT the way conduct an interview, especially when one knows in advance that the subject is an inveterate liar. This is worse than malpractice or sycophancy. This is aiding and abetting malevolent propaganda.
Put this down as a black mark on the careers of Dasha Burns and the leaders at Politico. This is an inexcusable and egregious journalistic failure. Shame on all of you.
