We already know Patel won’t cooperate with the Dems, so they could take some time to at least make him a little uncomfortable. Like asking him about investigations into the countries that are emptying their insane asylums into the US. Which countries are these? Have those patients been accounted for? How many are there? Isn’t this a real security risk?
Would he say the president was mistaken? Then why can’t he be set straight? He’s still claiming it!
“Those are foreign countries, the FBI focuses on domestic crime, like that which has overrun LA and Portland. You should ask the CIA these questions!”
CIA: “We’re not going to discuss ongoing investigations to protect our ‘sources’.”
All those foreign undocumented lunatics flooding our cities is a domestic problem. I mean, if it was true.
“I’ve answered that question already!”
And when he stonewalls, or pontificates, or changes the question, or flubs the answer… then what? Republicans don’t care. Anyone that cares if Trump is lying or delusional already isn’t voting for Trump or MAGA.
This is a long-standing issue with the current iteration of the Republican party. They get to say anything - the more outrageous and fact-free, the better. And the press (most of the time) just sits there, stunned, and assumes what was just said is so crazy-town that no one would accept it at face value anyway, so they don’t press for details. Trump gets away with it all the time - he says “…experts are saying…” and no one bothers to follow-up with “Who? What experts? So, ya know, we can go ask them.” “Polls are saying…” What “polls” are saying that? I know if the press asked these sort of follow-up questions, they would 9 times out of 10 be ignored, but you gotta try!
They never ask follow-up questions and it drives me crazy. If trump just jumps to another reporter, then that reporter could ask the follow-up question. There was recent scene where somebody not American was rebuffed by Leavitt, and the guy next to her said that he was American and would like an answer to her question. He had her back, and that’s how it should be.
He will lie, divert and smirk, and his questioner(s) will do nothing but utter angry words.
And did she bother answering that follow-up? And is that second reporter still working?
The problem here is, we’ve seen what they do when pressed for a real answer. They dodge, they deflect, they claim to have already answered that, they attack the reporter, calling them “nasty women” or “fake news”, they walk out of the room, they ban the reporter from the press pool, they throw them off the plane, they do everything except answer the goddamned question.
Trump has set the tone from the top, and all his cronies are following his script, safe in the knowledge that so long as they’re doing exactly what he wants, no one else’s opinions on their behaviour matter.
We could have a line of replacement reporters stretching all the way down the hallway, and all we’d get is a few dozen more nasty women being banned.
I remember nothing about it at all except for being glad he backed her up, and was hoping for more of the same.