A bit of advice to all of the journalists and news anchors who are interviewing Donald Trump (or any other politician):
When Trump says makes a wildly false assertion and then adds, “I know it. You know it. Everyone knows it,” it’s perfectly acceptable and even advisable to say something like:
“Actually, Mr. President, I don’t know it. And I know a lot of people who also don’t know it.”
Trump uses this amateurish tactic with journalists constantly, and I have yet to hear a single one challenge his assertion. I assume that it’s because they don’t want to derail their interview by provoking Trump to anger or placing themselves at the center of the conversation, but you can’t simply allow the subject of your interview to push his beliefs onto you and then use those supposedly shared beliefs to defend himself.
Please, journalists. Push back. Most of the time, you don’t “know it.” No one except Trump knows it. Don’t allow him to normalize his lies by allowing him to pin them upon you as well.
