News feed
Australian reporter Jonathan Swan’s refusal to accept Donald Trump’s outlandish responses to his questions has consequentially seen the President stumble through what is being called another “damaging” interview.
Swan, who is the 34-year-old son of Australian coronavirus guru Dr Norman Swan and a political reporter for Axios, asked Trump a series of questions about the US’ poor response to the pandemic. When the President described the situation as “under control”, Swan swiftly responded “How? A thousand Americans are dying a day.”
“They are dying. That’s true. And you – it is what it is,” Trump said. “But that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing everything we can. It’s under control as much as you can control it.”
Perhaps my favourite part of the interview was when Trump, looking at a number of graphs on sheets of paper, told Swan the “United States is the lowest in numerous categories. We’re lower than the world. Lower than Europe.”
“Lower than the world?” Swan retorts with the most baffled look on his face. “In what? Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases. I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the US is really bad. Much worse than Germany, South Korea.”
“You can’t do that,” Trump replies.
“Why can’t I do that?” Swan says. And his face is most Americans right now.
Take a look at the moment here.
Every claim that Trump made pertaining to Ghislaine Maxwell (“I wish her well. I wish a lot of people well”), civil rights leader John Lewis (“He didn’t come to my inauguration. He didn’t come to my State of the Union speeches, and that’s OK”) and his support for the black community (“I did more for the black community than anybody with a possible exception of Abraham Lincoln, whether you like it or not.”), Swan’s formula was simple; hit back with basic follow-up questions.
The young reporter is now being branded a hero by multiple publications around the world as the interview goes viral.
Jonathan, we’re welling up with national pride.
Watch the full Axios interview here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaaTZkqsaxY&feature=emb_logo
