As we told you earlier, President Trump sat down with Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro to discuss media reports that he asked former FBI Director James Comey for a loyalty oath of some sort over dinner when the two first met in January. Trump denied he asked Comey for any such thing, but went on to tell Pirro that asking for a loyalty pledge would be appropriate depending on how loyalty was defined.
As you can read in the transcript, Trump never says that he wants a loyalty plede to himself:
Trump, after appearing to threaten the FBI director he just fired with a possible secret WH recording, now says he won't talk about it pic.twitter.com/qJnVJSqFdw
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 12, 2017
Video:
Anyway, we know that Trump was asked about loyalty to him and he turned it around, but this isn’t stopping media types from taking the quote out of context to make it sound like the president said the opposite of what he really said.
John Harwood, CNBC, for example:
Trump to Fox on whether he asked Comey for loyalty pledge: "I didnt, but I don’t think it would be a bad question to ask"
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) May 12, 2017
Which generated many, many responses that don’t take into account what Trump really said:
The president now directly saying he believes the FBI director should pledge his loyalty to him. https://t.co/hGbbwPcgOe
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) May 12, 2017
His authoritarian will to power is right in front of our eyes. And it has been for well over a year. https://t.co/7ve6Mo2yC1
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) May 12, 2017
This orange assclown is a pathological liar. https://t.co/9c55FynEeY
— ?Imani Gandied Yams? (@AngryBlackLady) May 12, 2017
https://twitter.com/AdamWeinstein/status/863150249380130818
MSNBC’s Brad Jaffey, who linked to above for providing the entire transcript, felt the need to post the edited version as well:
Q: Did you ask Comey for loyalty?
Trump: “No I didn’t, but I don’t think it would be a bad question to ask.” https://t.co/A3VUGEC9fT
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 12, 2017
And this led to similar results as the Harwood edit job:
https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/863132856587083776
https://twitter.com/alanhe/status/863132417061769217
The Hill played this game as well:
JUST IN: Trump: "I don't think it's inappropriate" to ask FBI chief to pledge loyalty https://t.co/0XdcggqK0J pic.twitter.com/9KHTUPlLjg
— The Hill (@thehill) May 12, 2017
Again, readers didn’t bother with the entire quote before commenting:
https://twitter.com/Remender/status/863169963229499392
Who could've guessed the man who brags about grabbing pussies has boundary issues. https://t.co/EfqdDh2pcZ
— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) May 12, 2017
Hey, hate on Donald Trump as much as you want. Have fun. But stop taking what he says out of context. You’re looking more and more foolish by the day and this crying wolf is why folks don’t trust your reporting.
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