When Fox gives out its year-end bonus for the biggest Donald Trump sycophant playing a news host on TV, Maria Bartiromo should be a contender. It’s a wonder she managed not to swoon during her lengthy interview with Trump that aired today.
Bartiromo allowed Trump to repeatedly dissemble without challenging a word.
For example, The Washington Post noted this exchange in its annotated transcript:
BARTIROMO: You’re under staffed.
TRUMP: Hundreds and hundreds of people. And then they’ll say, why isn’t Trump doing this faster?
You can’t do it faster, because they’re obstructing. They’re obstructionists.
Reporter Aaron Blake’s annotation: A big reason this process is so slow is not obstruction but the fact that the Trump administration simply hasn’t nominated people. Republican senators are reportedly impatient with the slow pace of the White House’s nominations.
Bartiromo didn’t ask a single question about Trump’s ties to Russia. Instead, she suggested that FBI Director James Comey, who is investigating whether the Trump campaign committed treason, should be the one to get the boot. “Was it a mistake not to ask Jim Comey to step down from the FBI?” Bartiromo asked. “Is it too late now?”
Trump also claimed that people are telling him he was right about Susan Rice. “Perhaps I didn’t know how right I was,” he boasted.
Blake’s annotation:
Trump is now taking things a step further in claiming vindication on his Obama-wiretapped-me claim.
But nothing about Susan Rice’s unmasking of Trump associates in incidental surveillance reports proves Trump’s claim that President Obama targeted his campaign for surveillance. CNN reported Tuesday night that House investigators have found nothing unusual or illegal about what she did.
Trump complained about the “incredibly divisive” atmosphere in Congress. So what does Trump plan to do to get past this and/or heal some of the divisions? Bartiromo didn’t ask. Her concern was how it “has gotten in the way of getting things done.” It was a suggestion that Democrats should do all the yielding.
Trump ridiculously claimed that “many” Democrats think Trumpcare is “an incredible plan.” It was incredible alright. So incredible, it had a 17% approval rating, the CBO predicted 24 million Americans would lose their health insurance and he couldn’t even get the plan through the Republican House. Blake called this claim “ludicrous.”
But perhaps the most jaw-dropping part of this jaw-dropping interview was the exchange about Syria. The New Republic has a write up that can’t be beat (my emphases added):
Bartiromo … gave a master class in how to butter up the president, who reciprocated by divulging intimate details of what it was like to order last week’s strike against a Syrian airfield. (“I will tell you, only because you’ve treated me so good for so long,” Trump said, making the transactional nature of the conversation explicit.)
[…]
Trump: We had finished dinner, we’re now having dessert, and we had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen [indicates size with hands: it’s a big cake], and President Xi was enjoying it, and I was given the message from the generals that the ships are locked and loaded—what do you do? And we made a determination to do [it]. So the missiles were on the way. And I said, “Mr. President, let me explain something to you.” This is during dessert. “We’ve just fired 59 missiles,” all of which hit by the way, unbelievable, from hundreds of miles away, all of which hit, amazing...
[…]
Trump: We’ve just launched 59 missiles, heading to Iraq.
Bartiromo: Well, you, ah, headed to Syria.
Trump: Yes, heading toward Syria.
Trump can remember the size of the chocolate cake he was eating and how good it felt to squeeze off a few missiles at the hazy area off the coast of his mind known as the Middle East, but he can’t remember the actual country he bombed. Bartiromo swooped in to help, but her face registered a 2 on the sycophancy scale.
During a discussion about North Korea, Bartiromo asked if its leader, Kim Jong-Un, is “mentally fit.”
But after watching this interview, a more immediate question is whether Trump is any fitter.
Watch the full interview below, from the April 12, 2017 Mornings with Maria, on Fox Business Network.
What I find so infuriating is know-nothing Trump who was so arrogantly confident during the campaign now says moronic stuff like ‘who knew diplomacy was going to be so difficult’ and who knew health care was going to be so complicated’.
But his boneheaded Archie Bunker followers still give the serial lying nimrod a grade of an A.
We knew this was coming since asshat Trump could thump his chest he’s going to get Mexico to pay for the wall – a lie so obvious a child should laugh – but his dumbass followers wildly applauded.
Now the ‘pro-Clinton’ msm has finally gotten around to pointing out a border wall will cede 800 miles of the Rio Grand to Mexico and force 1,000s of landowners to turn their property over to the Feds. Can’t wait for Trump to admit ‘who knew building a wall would be so complicated’. 👍
A major criticism of President Obama had been his lack of experience but he was not inclined to go against the Constitution. I doubt that President Trump has ever that document or the Bill of Rights, or even much of anything. By his own account, he was more interested in physical pursuits aka fighting) than intellectual subjects.
Relatives living in the USA are telling me that rural Trumplicans are more likely than ever to be in-your-face aggressive towards non-believers in Trump. Has anybody else started noticing this sort of behaviour?
If Drumpf used his hands to indicate the size, it was probably a cupcake . . .
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Trump DID piss away a lot of money with very little to show for it. On the Syrian raid he used high technology when he should have used low technology. The Chinese President was entertained and fed well.
If Mao Tse Tung is spinning in his grave, so is FDR.