During the tumultuous days of the Presidential campaign, we were told over and over again that Donald Trump would shake things up and do it all differently.
We were told that he was a fresh face. An outsider. He’d have a whole new way of running things.
Now that Trump has won the election, it’s clear that he continues to do things his own unique way.
Trump and his team of surrogates and spokespeople have clearly chosen to employ a rage defense in order to control the flow of information about the candidate. They appear to be determined not to directly answer any questions about the President-elect.
Incoming White House Communications Director and Press Secretary Sean Spicer has mastered this technique to near perfection.
Appearing on ABC’s “This Week” on January 1st, Spicer talked over his host, interrupted him repeatedly, and refused to yield the floor for even one comment.
Spicer literally flooded the air, speaking more and more rapidly, and leaving his interviewer nearly speechless. As he ranted, his anger was visible on his face and in his body language.
The best defense is a good offense, apparently.
The final part of the Trump defense strategy is to turn the conversation to their own topics. We’ve seen this over and over again from the Trump team. They are very good at controlling the topic.
During yesterday’s interview about the Russian hacking, Spicer managed to wrench the conversation around to Hillary Clinton. Unbelievably, the Trump team seems to forget that they have already won. The election is over. Focusing on Secretary Clinton makes no sense.
Nevertheless, when the ABC journalist wanted to talk about the consequences to Russia for having hacked into the American Presidential election, Spicer shot out this question:
“When are we going to start talking about the other side of this? Which is: What did Hillary Clinton do to influence the election? Is she being punished in any way?”
Spicer was referring to the fact that the Secretary heard one of the questions planned for a primary debate with Bernie Sanders. The question was unfairly released to her; we learned that (ahem) through the Russian hacked Wikileaks release. The woman responsible for tipping off the Clinton campaign, Donna Brazile, lost her job at CNN as soon as the information was released.
Spicer ignored the simple questions, “Does Trump believe that the Russians hacked the U.S. election?” and “Does Trump think that the sanctions were an appropriate response?”
Instead, he raised his voice, interrupted the interviewer, and pumped up the Trump base by reminding them that Hillary should be “punished.”
If this is the kind of response we can expect from the new administration, then we are in serious trouble. Clearly, Sean Spicer believes that the media is his enemy and that his best response is to fight them every step of the way.
If an informed electorate is truly necessary for the success of a democracy, we are in for a very rough time.
Featured image via YouTube Screengrab.
