Day 175: White House Spokespeople Just Spout Gibberish
The Donald Trump Jr. email revelation has them spinning their wheels.
The Donald Trump team has long denied any connection between their members and Russian government officials. With Donald Trump Jr.’s emails aimed at getting dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government coming to light this week, the White House is working hard to play defense on the issue. Unfortunately, this had led to spokespeople saying and doing incredibly odd things.
Take, for example, Marc Lotter, the press secretary for Mike Pence.
When Will Ferrell impersonated the late, bespectacled Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray on Saturday Night Live, one sketch had him interview an astrophysicist, played by Jeff Goldblum. Ferrell’s Caray poses a number of absurd questions, finally asking, “It’s a simple question, doctor: Would you eat the moon if it were made of ribs?” The astrophysicist stutters for a few seconds before Caray blurts out, “It’s not rocket science, just say yes and we’ll move on!”
In the above clip, Lotter is Goldblum’s astrophysicist. He stammers around, pretending to be confused by the question, “Did the Vice President ever meet with representatives from Russia?” However, in this case, the query is not ludicrous. To tweak the SNL sketch: It’s not rocket science, just say no and we’ll move on!
Remember, Pence himself understood the same question quite clearly months ago when he was asked.
These questions used to be couched as “bizarre rumors,” but have now morphed into awkward demurs from the Vice President’s spokesman.
He wasn’t alone.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway got on television and pretended she had an elementary school project due and was forced to scrape something together at the last minute.
Everyone knows that if you want to disprove something one of the best ways to do it is to hold up printed pieces of paper with words that rhyme plastered in 36-point font on them. Cross out a word or two with a red Sharpie and bing, bang, boom you’ve debunked the conspiracy.
One curious thing of note. She said, “Collusion? We don’t have that yet.” Yet. Freudian slip, perhaps?
Meanwhile, Trump’s deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, continued to conduct press briefings with no cameras present. Her defense wasn’t much of a defense at all.
She’s engaging in classic blame-shifting while dodging the question. ‘What Trump associates communicated with Russia?’ ‘The Clintons!’
She actually said this during a press briefing where cameras were forbidden. Apparently she missed the irony. Everything the administration has done has been to avoid transparency. Junior’s emails would have never come to light if the free press didn’t work tirelessly on the story. He only published them when The New York Times was about to themselves.
The tactics that the Trump team are employing don’t really make any sense. Avoiding easy yes/no questions, fifth grade level projects, and blame-shifting are not particularly effective. All they’ve done is embarrassed themselves and haven’t done anything to help Trump’s position that there’s nothing to see here.
175 days in, 1287 to go
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