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Trump is a National Embarrassment, but Maria Bartiromo? What the Hell?

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | April 12, 2017 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | April 12, 2017 |

This is uncomfortable terrain for me, because I am fairly certain that Fox News Business reporter Maria Bartiromo has not always been as embarrassing as she was in her interview with Donald Trump this week. I remember her from her days on CNN and CNBC, and she was often a serious, sober reporter and very good when it came to business reporting. Of course, there is also nothing wrong with a journalist using her looks or her charm to soften an interview subject. I mean, Anderson Cooper, y’all. Those eyes! One glancing look, and I’d give up all the nation’s secrets to that man.

But there is a time and place, right? And maybe when talking about dropping bombs on a country in the middle of a violent, brutal civil war that has seen hundreds of thousands of people die is not the best time to breathlessly ask the President of the United States for details, as though conducting an interview with Jennifer Lawrence about that time she met Jeff Bridges.

I’m not wrong here, am I? Because the answers that Trump gives — as tone-deaf and embarrassing as they are — conform to our expectations of Trump. He’s tone deaf and embarrassing. But the fawning, almost giggly way in which Bartiromo elicits those answers and her failure to do any meaningful follow-up? That’s appalling political journalism.

I mean, it’s not just me, right?

Oh good. It wasn’t just me.

And if you haven’t yet, read the entire transcript. Bartiromo doesn’t just ask softball questions, she never once challenges him on his blatant disregard for the truth.