Most reporters would dream of the opportunity to get a one on one sit down interview with the President of the United States of America. For New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt, he found this to be a reality on Thursday when got the opportunity to have an impromptu interview with President Trump himself.
“I was with Chris Ruddy, the head of NewsMax. We were sitting at a table next to the president, so we went up and started talking to him and he started talking about the tax bill. The president thinks he is his best spokesman and was very proud of the tax bill, and I said this is really interesting, why don’t we do this on the record? He said, Okay, let me finish eating lunch. He was eating a salad. And when he was done he pulled me aside, and we sat for about a half an hour talking,”
Now Schmidt has been facing a bit of backlash in regards to how he approached the interview. Many people seem to be disappointed in the lack of follow-up questions, Schmidt, however, has gone on to explain that it was just a part of his interviewing strategy.
During our conversation in July, I learned the challenges this president poses in interviews. He can jump from an issue like the Russia investigation to a policy matter before going off on a tangent about something like his golf game. If you try to interrupt him, he often continues talking. Given this, I employed a strategy in which I asked questions about the most pressing issues of his presidency and then allowed him to talk.
Collusion!
Now I’m not sure it’s even possible to get a word in with this man after listening to the interview in full. The President rambles on and on bouncing from topic to topic. Also, if you didn’t catch the news from the interview, Trump brings up the lack of collusion between his campaign and Russia only 16 times. No joke people he actually spoke about it 16 different times. He seemed to feel strongly about collusion even dropping some pretty really impactful lines about the subject.
“Frankly, there is absolutely no collusion. That’s been proven by every Democrat is saying it. Virtually every Democrat has said there is no collusion. There is no collusion.”
They’re all saying it! He goes on to reiterate about the whole collusion thing.
“I can only tell you that there is absolutely no collusion. Everybody knows it. And you know who knows it better than anybody? The Democrats. They walk around blinking at each other.”
Sports and politics.
“You know the Electoral College; it’s like a track star.”
You guys know what Usain Bolt and the Electoral have in common? No? Well good, me neither. Have no fear being the President is a lot like playing golf too.
“It’s in golf. If you have a tournament and you have match play or stroke play, you prepare differently, believe it or not. It’s different.”
In the interview that is shared with you guys below, it’s understandable that people were disappointed with the lack of hard-hitting questions from Schmidt. You have the President speaking off the cuff no speeches prepared for him maybe press him a little harder. The two go on to discuss everything from the Mueller investigation to his frustration with Democrats. Schmidt does have a good point after listening to the rambling interview involving sporadically jumping from different topics.
The Interview.
If any of us ever got the chance to sit face to face with President Trump for almost an hour and interview him I’m sure things would get pretty interesting, I want to be upset that Schmidt didn’t press Donald but then again think about the type of person he seems to be. Do we even believe that would be possible? From listening to the interview it’s obvious he has a need to dominate the conversation, so much so he seems to lose where his train of thought was going before going off about the next issue that pops into his mind. I mean it can’t be easy interviewing someone saying things like,
“I know more about the big bills … [Inaudible] … than any president, that’s ever been in office.”
or better yet…
“I’m the one that saved coal.”
Victory is imminent!
It can’t be an easy job, I’m just happy someone was there to do it. The President also went on to guarantee victory in the next election due to the fact that the media would crumble without him, or so he believes. At the end of the day, I can’t knock Schmidt’s interview, I just wish there were more opportunities to get more raw interviews with our politicians like this one. It’s nice to see the President have to think for himself without a rehearsed speech every now and then.