No. Trump (to use your analogy) didn’t say Five Guys cheeseburgers are the best. He said they would give you minty-fresh breath.
Conversely, if Trump had spoken like your analogy, he would have said that the caravan was “the worst.” He didn’t say that; he made a specific claim about it. “Invasion” isn’t an opinion word. It’s a word with a meaning; and in this case it’s an objectively wrong meaning.
I agree here. He should have just asked: “How can you realistically justify the term ‘invasion’ for a situation that even your own military describes as a minor occurrence of minimal importance, and if you really believed it was an invasion anyway, why have you suddenly minimized your references to it?”
Do you really believe he could have gotten that sentence out without being interrupted by Trump?
Guizot’s rephrasing is fine, but unnecessary, IMO: as I showed, Trump could’ve given either a cogent-but-racist answer, or an answer that provided new information. Even, if he knew what a metaphor was, he could have explained a little bit about rhetoric.
And if we want to go crazy here, he could have given an honest answer in which he explained how his inflammatory rhetoric was designed to get racist voters out to the polls.
The fact that he didn’t have any options for answering the question that made him look good is certainly not the fault of the questioner.
Acosta’s premise to the question was weak because it was just setting up a he said-he said argument… even though I agree with the premise of Acosta’s question! With a setup to the question like that, there’s no chance one could get a substantive answer out of anyone, Trump or whomever.
Back to your point, even if you said that cheeseburgers give you minty fresh breath, just making a bare assertion that they don’t, is not a productive rebuttal of an error.
Whether he did or did not, it would have been a better question. You might have noticed, that Trump’s propensity to interrupt reporters has virtually nothing to do with the quality of the question.
By the way, why are you making criticism of Acosta such a big deal? I don’t think anyone’s saying he’s a bad journalist. Some other people and I have simply said that it was a poor question. You seem to be acting like we all just kicked your dog.
By the way, why are you making such a big deal about the same subject?
Speaking very quickly it’s sometimes possible to squeeze in questions like this with Trump. It depends on his frame of mind at the moment–whether he’s in a childishly peevish mood or not, and planning to interrupt, which he often is. With Acosta he probably was bound to be that way, but that question is not much longer than what he was trying to ask anyway.
Of course he asks reasonable questions. I could link to others.
And certainly the president is there to inform. But more important, he is there to answer questions.
Every day reporters ask follow ups and at times try to hold onto the mic when the president doesn’t answer. I’ve seen plenty of them, I know. Are you not just singling out Acosta because the press pass issue involves him?
I agree that is not much of a question and Acosta should not have tried to determine Trump’s definition of “invasion” for him. But that is just one example from you. In the same press conference, he asked Trump directly if he thought he demonized immigrants and if he was worried about the Russia investigation.
Yes, Acosta used the word “challenge”. That alone doesn’t mean Acosta did NOT ask questions, which he clearly did.
When was the last time a reporter called Trump the “enemy of the people”? I don’t recall them “treating” Trump in this way.
Yeah great question. “Hey you know that caravan that you called an invasion? Why you do dat?” His follow up question was “Soooo, you afraid of Mueller indictments?” He was just trolling Trump not asking meaningful journalistic questions.
It’s a topic in the news. There’s other threads touching on the topic that I haven’t participated in, but you can’t stay away from them. I’m wondering why.
You keep repeating that claim, without addressing any points raised against it. Spiffy.
I’ve already given my opinion of the invasion question.
Seems like a perfectly legitimate question to me. Trolling suggests a deliberate attempt to get a rise out of someone. Trying to get at the mindset of a President who is being investigated is of interest to the American people.
Send me a list of conversations I should stick to, and I will give it all the attention it deserves.
I suppose it’s “legitimate” in the weakest sense, the Mueller investigation is a legitimate news story. But we all already know what Trump is going to answer. “No”. So we can all agree that the question is not being asked to illicit new information. Even if he answers “yes” what does that even matter? There’s a bunch of substantive questions one could ask about the president’s position and intentions wrt the investigation. “Are you worried?” is not one of them. It’s only purpose is to make Trump squirm.
Boy - at least Trump answers some questions. He’s got one on you there.
Right I forgot about the litttle “As you know, Mr. President, it was not an invasion.” As you know.
That is straight up calling the President of the United States a liar in the White House at an event that he has no obligation to be at.
Of course, you guys on here would gladly call Trump a liar, no President should have to allow his press conferences turn into personal insults. If the roles were reversed (Dem President and Fox News Reporter) I would have no objection at all to the Dem President not putting up with such a thing after the 100th time it happened.
Since the original question seems to have been abandoned entirely…
The White House did not cite Acosta’s “disrespectful” questions, when they yanked his press pass. They claimed it was because Acosta was "placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable.”
Cite. That was, as all who saw the unaltered video can attest, complete malarkey.
Going back to the OP, then yes, Trump is absolutely trying to undermine the role of the press. Accusation of “fake news”, calling the press “the enemy of the people”. C’mon.
All of this going back and forth over Acosta’s conduct is no more than diversion from the question posed by the OP.
So FOX News should have been banned from the White House at the point where their birther questions were such a joke when asked they had the rest of the press room laughing?
When I go through your posting history I’m sure I’ll find your objections to poor questions from the press back then.