He could. Giving a garbled, repetitive impersonation of using language meaningfully – “horrible”, “horrible”, “sad”, “sad”- he sounded like a parrot. Or perhaps an owl. Collins noted that his own Republican officials had debunked the stolen election claims. Trump: “Who? Who?” Collins: “Republican officials in Georgia.” Trump: “Who?”
Collins mentioned the Access Hollywood tape about grabbing women. “I said if you’re a star … I said women let you,” Trump explained patiently, citing the history of women-grabbing: “I’ve said it’s been true for one million years, approximately a million years ...” Declaring that he walks in the steps of cave men may not be the win he thinks it is.
The audience clapped and cheered. “Toe-curlingly bad television,” groaned the Guardian. In a discussion on MSNBC a Republican strategist who was there said not everyone was cheering. Booing being banned, many in the audience just sat there looking “bewildered or absolutely disgusted” when Trump declared January 6 “a beautiful day”.
A disaster. The interview did raise an important question. How should media deal with the likes of Trump? And with a public square where it’s survival of the loudest? A couple of PBS commentators advised that Trump shouldn’t be interviewed live. Record it and have some control. Yet if you cut out the lies, the wild claims on, say, Ukraine - “If I’m President, I will have that war settled in 24 hours” - it would be a short interview. Collins abided by the convention of treating a former president respectfully. Trump plays on that, never returning the favour. Maybe it’s time to get tougher.
The value of live television is that people show who they are. “You’re a nasty person,” Trump told Collins near the end. She almost looked relieved that her harried, on-the-hoof fact-checking had finally got under his skin. His most gratuitous insults were, true to form, fired at women. “Nancy Pelosi, crazy Nancy, as I affectionately call her.” Of E. Jean Carroll, the writer who won her case against him, he said, “Her dog or her cat was named Vagina, the judge wouldn’t allow us to put that in … She’s a wack job.” At this point the political scenes on Succession are struggling to be more bizarre, more disturbing than reality. The New York Times reported after the interview that Carroll is considering filing a new defamation lawsuit. You can only assume he loves the attention.
The interview was manipulative mayhem, daft as a brush. It comprehensively confirmed that Trump is unrepentant about the abuses of power that saw him lose in 2020. As far as he’s concerned that karmic aphorism of the moment, f*** around and find out, doesn’t apply to him. He hasn’t changed. He’s incapable of it. CNN’s town hall drew 3.3 million viewers. At least no one can say they haven’t been warned.
