NBC’s Katy Tur discusses the balancing act that is covering Trump and how Trump became increasingly harsh with her and would vilify her at his rallies.
NBC’s Katy Tur sat down with The Guardian‘s Molly Redden for a broad-reaching interview regarding her new book, “Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History,” which recounted her experience in covering the 2016 presidential campaign of Trump.
Redden began the interview by asking Tur about covering Trump’s lies:
So you’ve talked about one of the things that you were most taken by surprised, when you were covering Donald Trump during the election, was how often you had to fact-check him on the fly. How did he compare to other people you’ve interviewed and did you have to change the way you prepared?
“I have never interviewed somebody who tells a falsity every three sentences, or however it calculated out to be. He told falsities and some places lies frequently on the campaign trail” responded Tur.
Continuing, she said: “He was slippery like a snake, and he likes to talk over you and not answer the questions that you’ve asked. So you just get louder, you push back, you do whatever you have to do.”
Redden also asked about the ups and downs of covering the Trump campaign, that he would point her out to crowds at his rallies calling her a liar.
Tur responded:
He did it all the time. The very first time I was at a rally with Donald Trump – sharing the same air with Donald Trump – he accused me of not paying attention to him in front of all these people in this backyard pool. It was innocuous at the time. It felt innocuous although it was odd. Why is he pointing me out in this crowd?
And then he would do it intermittently for the next months while I was the only recognizable correspondent on the campaign trail following him. In Nashville he would try to introduce me to a crowd like I was his wife. In New Hampshire he called me a liar because – and I was disgusting – because I reported on poll numbers that showed Ben Carson was gaining on him.
He kissed me on the cheek at a Morning Joe appearance and told everyone how wonderful I was, I was so great he had to kiss me, he said this on air. I don’t know if he saw that there would be anything wrong with that, or if he did, he certainly didn’t care.
Asked how she thought Trump wanted to be treated by her and other member of the press, Tur responded:
He wants to be feted, celebrated. He wants to be loved. He wants to be covered with glowingly positive terms. He wants people to say what a brilliant businessman he is and what a brilliant dealmaker he is. That’s what he wants. He wants unfailing praise.
You can watch the full interview, below:
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