Hey Press Corps: Do Your Job
Recently, I watched the ex-president, multiple-indicted, convicted sexual assault perp Donald J. Trump hold a press conference following his dual court dates in New York City. Aside from his usual insults and incessant whining I saw something that made me wince: a timid press corps that is frankly too scared to ask any tough questions, or even attempt to challenge any of the outrageous statements that the con man makes.
Absent for this 20-minute appearance was any similar Jim Acosta moment, when, six years ago, the CNN reporter stood a few feet from the then president and challenged him on his comments regarding his caravans of migrants heading to the U.S. border as an "invasion." To his credit, Acosta, who refused to give up the mic to one of the White House's communications' minions, got under the thin skin of the bully-in-chief.
"That's enough! Put down the mic!," Trump said, stepping menacingly toward Acosta, his face getting redder by the second.
"I'll tell you what. CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn't be working for CNN... the way you treat Sarah Huckabee [White House Press Secretary at the time] is terrible."
Directly after Acosta gave up the mic and sat down, NBC reporter Peter Alexander defended his journalistic colleague, further enraging Trump. "What are you trying to be him now?"
"Such a hostile media!" the president continued. No, actually the media was simply doing its job. Within hours, Acosta's White House press credentials were temporarily revoked.
This week, there were no Sarah Huckabees controlling the press corps. Reporters could have shouted anything they wanted at the former president. They could have called him on his many false and, frankly, odd, statements. ("We'll bring crime back to law and order." Really?)
But they didn't.
They appeared cowed, afraid to loose access to a man that despises them, too polite to interrupt Trump's tiresome ad hominem attacks on the usual suspects: Judge Arthur Engoron ("whacked out or dishonest; probably both"), New York Attorney General Letitia James ("puppet master of the judge") and the current president ("Biden and his thugs; tremendous corruption").
Where was the pushback by "Maggie" (as Trump perhaps too fondly calls her) of the New York Times and the other assembled media when Trump said regarding the hush money case, "Legal scholars all over the world say there is no crime"? How about asking, "Mr. Trump can you cite these legal scholars and from what countries they reside so we can contact them for a comment?"
When Trump said he was going "to drill baby, drill," a reporter should have mentioned the fact that the United States is energy independent and has plenty of oil and, in fact, is moving away from both oil and coal.
And how about posing this question: "Mr. Trump, do you ever feel the least bit guilty taking your supporters' hard-earned money that they believed was going toward your campaign and, instead, is being used to pay your legal expenses? You are a billionaire after all, right? If so, why should a middle-class American pay a billionaire's legal fees?"
Additionally, I would have asked, "You have spent millions of your supporters' cash on hiring expensive lawyers, leading to countless appeals, and delaying trials. Do you know that almost none of the working-class Americans that you claim to represent can afford to delay justice as you have? Do you consider this fair?"
Was there anyone brave enough to step forward with follow-up on Trump's boast that "Ukraine and Gaza never would have happened if I were president"? A journalism 101 class would have countered with, "Can you explain in detail how Russia would not have invaded Ukraine and how Hamas would not attacked Israel if you were in charge?"
Heck, the same class of freshman students might ask, "During the 2020 campaign you said if Biden is elected 'the stock market will crash.' Yet the Dow is about to go over 40,000 points and the S&P just reached another record high. Would you like to amend that earlier prediction, sir?"
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