No other reporter except maybe Jim Acosta can claim more personal experience with the Trump administration than MSNBC’s Katy Tur. During the Republican primaries, Katy was subjected to so much harassment from Trump and his supporters that she at one point needed protection from Secret Service to keep the crazies at bay.
None of that has stopped her from reporting on them, however, and she was back on television just days ago grilling a former Trump aide on how, exactly, the President is coming by his anecdotes about government workers who supposedly support his shutdown of federal services over the ridiculous border wall he keeps insisting on funding. Trump claims that “a number of” furloughed federal employees are happy about the shutdown and want the border wall — but that just doesn’t line up with reality. Not to mention, it doesn’t line up with his own tweet claiming that most of the federal workers currently out of their jobs are Democrats — why would they support the wall then, genius?
Marc Lotter came on Katy’s show to discuss what’s going on with the shutdown and how Trump is reaching out to federal workers who aren’t getting paid during the government closure. But when Katy pressed Lotter for answers on Trump’s nonsense public statements, he had nothing:
How exactly is he hearing from these federal workers? Are they calling the White House? Because I believe the switchboard is not on right now. How are they getting in touch with the president?”
Lotter grasped for an answer:
I’m not exactly sure how he’s reaching [trails off]. But he hears from federal employees all the time.”
When has he visited any agencies? When has he been traveling? He’s been to Iraq.”
Lotter finally conceded that he had no idea when Trump would have or could have talked to these clearly fictional government employees who mysteriously favor not getting paid over the holidays and risking their homes and livelihoods over a border wall that every poll shows a majority of Americans do not want.
I’m not in Washington, D.C. I haven’t talked to him in the last few days or so. So I don’t know exactly how.”
Watch the exchange here:
Featured image via screen capture
