“I know nothing about QAnon.”
President Trump’s all-purpose excuse
In President Trump’s October 15 Town Hall meeting hosted by Savannah Guthrie, he once again claimed that he knew nothing about the ever-present QAnon conspiracists at his rallies, or whether there is a “satanic pedophile ring.”
We have all become numb to the demonstrably illogical, embarrassing, and ridiculous arguments that nobody but Trump’s most deluded fanatical supporters believe. A few reporters and interviewers have made polite attempts to hold him responsible, but are usually intimidated by Trump’s bullying and name-calling, the potential for exclusion or loss of access, their professional ethic to avoid “becoming the story,” and their network’s or paper’s fear of bias accusations.
Guthrie got quite a bit of praise for her “tough” questioning of Trump’s QAnon answer. But as usual, many listeners were left begging her to press on, such as by asking:
“Mr. President, please explain to the American public watching… how is it you don’t know? You’re the president of the United States! You have at your fingertips the world’s best-equipped and best-funded intelligence services. You have access to daily briefings and many advisors. QAnon supporters are at every one of your rallies displaying and waving their Q symbols. You watch cable news religiously. You get asked about them constantly. High-ranking Republican members of Congress have condemned them. Many QAnon supporters are running for office in this election. Aren’t you in the least bit curious about these fanatical supporters of yours? Don’t you care to learn about the shocking claims they make or their growing influence in your Republican Party? Do you honestly think your answer is believable?”
A reporter in a press event might have a difficult time getting through that whole question without being interrupted or intimidated, but surely Guthrie could have done so, even if it required patiently continuing after his interruptions and protestations in the same way Chris Wallace did in the first debate.
We often ask how it is that so many Americans accept Trump’s incoherent responses. Perhaps part of it is the failure of the press to truly call him on these nonsensical answers. When he avoids a serious follow-up at a press event, there’s an incentive for the next member to move on with a new question that Trump will actually answer, rather than repeat one he won’t. Of course, Trump knows this and uses it. But whether he actually answers the follow-up is not the only point. Without it, supporters naturally give him the benefit of the doubt and other marginal “low-information voters” assume his answers must be making sense. Hmmm, I guess if the reporters are moving on, it must not be that big of a problem after all.
I’m grateful Guthrie challenged him about his retweet of a baseless conspiracy theory that US Navy Seals were murdered to cover up the failure of Biden and Obama to kill Osama bin Laden… to which Trump replied: “That was a retweet, I’ll put it out there. People can decide for themselves.” So once again, he doesn’t know? Why no follow up, such as:
“Mr. President, do you bear no responsibility for your words and actions? If you found heroin and explosives on a school playground, would you just ‘put it out there’ and let the students ‘decide for themselves’? Is it morally acceptable to assist in someone else’s dishonesty or wrong-doing? And are you saying it is acceptable for the Biden campaign to retweet a groundless conspiracy theory about you?”
In the last few weeks he’s told us he doesn’t know about foreign governments’ interference in American election campaigns, about the Proud Boys or other dangerous white nationalist “militias,” about bounties on American soldiers, about Giuliani’s involvement with Russian intelligence operatives, about his disbanding of the pandemic office of the National Security Council, whether COVID is a serious threat, about the efficacy of face masks, whether he had a test on the day of his debate with Biden, how his children are running his businesses, and whether he owes money to foreign banks and how much.
He does know however, that 3–5 million illegal aliens voted for Hillary Clinton, that the Russians didn’t help him get elected, that Antifa is a violent revolutionary organization, and many other things that the intelligence community has already refuted. And he just learned that thousands of ballots “with his name on them” (huh?) were found in some undisclosed river. More to come.
Trump also doesn’t really know most of the people that used to work directly with him after they were indicted or found guilty, including his own personal lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen, his Senior Advisor Steve Bannon, his 2016 campaign chair Paul Manafort and assistant Rick Gates, his National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, his sleazy henchman Roger Stone, his foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, the fundraisers for the fraud-ridden “We Build the Wall” project, and his big money contributors.
And what about the many former Trump administrators, especially in national security, military, and intelligence roles? Kelly, Mattis, Tillerson, McMaster, Coats, Scaramucci, Bolton, Comey, McCabe, and the many officials involved in the Ukraine scandal have almost universally condemned him now. It’s hard to claim he doesn’t know them… but anyway, they are losers and incompetents that couldn’t do their jobs. (Not to worry; Trump “will only appoint the best.”)
From the beginning of his campaign Trump has played Sergeant Schultz, the WWII German soldier guarding Hogan’s Heroes who didn’t want to be responsible for anything. It would be wunderbar if someone actually called him on it before this election.
