In his latest interview with the New York Times<\/a> [July 19, 2017], Donald Trump did what he always does: He rambled, flitted from topic to topic\u2014sometimes in mid-sentence– garbled his words, talked about things for which he has limited knowledge, bragged, lied, got the facts wrong, strayed far afield from the topic at hand–and generally spewed strings of words that followed no logical sequence. Reading through the transcript of the interview, I tried to imagine what the New York Times reporters were thinking as they listened. My conclusion is that they had to tune in very closely to extrapolate what Trump was attempting to say.<\/p>\n

So, when I watched MSNBC last night and saw New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt<\/a> discussing the interview, I was surprised at how coherent he made Trump\u2019s comments sound. Clearly, Schmidt was interpreting what Trump said, not quoting him directly. I fear that reporters have become so accustomed to mentally editing Trump\u2019s word salads that they don\u2019t even know they are doing it. To his credit, Schmidt does say, \u201cIt is difficult sometimes with the President because he speaks very quickly and says a lot of things and the conversation can meander.\u201d But most of the of his report makes it sound as though Trump actually expressed coherent opinions.<\/p>\n

It is always misguided to normalize Trump. His actual words are important\u2014they reveal his way of \u201cthinking,\u201d and that is a scary thing to observe. Reporters who describe his \u201cideas\u201d and \u201cthoughts\u201d as though they have been clearly expressed are doing Trump too much of a favor.<\/p>\n

As with all the other transcripts that I have shared here, I highly recommend that you read the whole thing [although what the New York Times has released is an edited, excerpted version.]<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t want to do that, here\u2019s some of what Michael Schmidt said on MSNBC\u2019s \u201cAll In With Chris Hayes\u201d on July 19, 2017, coupled with Trump\u2019s actual words.<\/p>\n

What Schmidt said:<\/p>\n

He is clearly disappointed in Sessions\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What Trump actually said, and the tone in which he said it, says a lot more than he was \u201cdisappointed:\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else.<\/p>\n

Q: He gave you no heads up at all, in any sense?<\/p>\n

Trump: Zero. So Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself. Then I have\u2014which frankly, I think is very unfair to the president. How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, \u201cThanks, Jeff, but I can\u2019t, you know, I\u2019m not going to take you.\u201d It\u2019s extremely unfair, and that\u2019s a mild word, to the president. So he recuses himself,. I then end up with a second man, who\u2019s a deputy.<\/p>\n

\u2026Yeah, what Jeff Sessions did was he recused himself right after, right after he became attorney general. And I said, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you tell me this before?\u201d I would have \u2013then I said, \u201cwho\u2019s your deputy?\u201d So he deputy he hardly kew, and that\u2019s Rosenstein, Rod Rosenstein, who is from Baltimore. There are very few Republicans in Baltimore, if any. So, he\u2019s from Baltimore.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

How Schmidt characterized Trump\u2019s thoughts on special counsel Robert Mueller:<\/p>\n

Trump is clearly upset about the fact that Mueller has been appointed and that he is looking at these different issues and that Mueller has the ability to take his investigation where he may.<\/p>\n

\u2026He wouldn\u2019t commit to firing Mueller, but he did say there is a red line. He didn\u2019t define what he meant as a violation. But he clearly sees Muller\u2019s purview as looking into Russia\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What Trump actually said:<\/p>\n

Q: If Muller was looking at your finances and your family finances unrelated to Russia\u2014is that a red line?<\/p>\n

Trump:<\/p>\n

I would say yeah. I would say yes. By the way, I would say, I don\u2019t\u2014I don\u2019t\u2014I mean, it\u2019s possible that there\u2019s a condo or something, so, you know, I sell a lot of condo units, and somebody from Russia buys a condo, who knows? I don\u2019t make money from Russia. In fact, I put out a letter saying that I don\u2019t make\u2014from one of the most highly respected law firms, accounting firms. I don\u2019t have buildings in Russia They said I own buildings in Russia. I don\u2019t. They said I made money from Russia. I don\u2019t. It\u2019s not my thing. I don\u2019t. I don\u2019t do that\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026Look, this is about Russia. So I think if he wants to go, my finances are extremely good, my company is an unbelievably successful company. Ad actually, when I do my filings, people say, \u201cMan.\u201d People have no idea how successful this is. It\u2019s a great company. But I don\u2019t even think about the company any more. I think about this. \u2018Cause one thing, when you do this, companies seem very trivial, OK? I really mean that. They seem very trivial. But I have no income from Russia. I don\u2019t do business with Russia. The gentleman that you mentioned, with his son two nice people. But basically, they brought the Miss Universe pageant to Russia to open up, you know, one of their jobs. Perhaps the convention center where it was held. It was a nice evening, and I left. I left, you know, I left Moscow. It wasn\u2019t Moscow, it was outside of Moscow.<\/p>\n

Q: Would you fire Mueller if we went outside of certain parameters of what his charge is?<\/p>\n

Trump: I can\u2019t. I can\u2019t answer that question because I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to happen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like all reporters, Schmidt was looking for the nugget, the money quote, a good lead for a story. So the New York Times led with the Sessions quotes. When you read, or listen to the transcript<\/a>, there\u2019s a lot more: Much unsolicited ado about Hillary, a lengthy riff on the wonderful Bastille Day celebration, something about Andrew McCabe\u2019s wife getting money, Nixon, and more.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a section in which Trump tries to explain away the infamous meeting his son had at Trump Tower in June 2016. One reporter asked him what he thought about the email that triggered the meeting:<\/p>\n

Well, I thought originally it might have something to do with the payment by Russia of the DNC, or the Democrats. Somewhere I heard that. Like, it was an illegal act done by the DNC or the Democrats. That\u2019s what I had heard. Now, I don\u2019t know where I heard it, but I had heard that it had to do something with illegal acts with respect to the DNC Now, you, know, when you look at the kind of stuff that came out, that, was, that was some pretty horrific things came out of that. But that\u2019s what I had heard. But I don\u2019t know what it means. All I know is this: When somebody calls up and they says, \u201cWe have infor\u2014\u201c Look, what they did to me with Russia, and it was totally phony stuff.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, we are all becoming inured to Trump\u2019s stream of semi-consciousness, fill-the-vacuum uninformed incoherence. But his inability to make sense when he speaks is a story in itself, and we must not let Trump-scandal fatigue allow this to go un-noted, or characterized as business as usual. We ignore it, normalize it, and accept it as “that’s just Trump”\u00a0 at our own peril.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his latest interview with the New York Times [July 19, 2017], Donald Trump did what he always does: He rambled, flitted from topic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,2826,3058],"tags":[2414,2859,2884],"yoast_head":"\n