Kristen Welker’s ‘Meet The Press’ Debut: Donald Trump Interview Makes News, But Sit-Down Highlights Risks Of Showcasing A “Bulldozer” Of Lies (Analysis)

deadline.com:

Kristen Welker’s Meet the Press debut was focused on her interview with former president Donald Trump, and their sit-down, his first with a major broadcast network since leaving office, was pretty much what you would expect.

Welker tried, successfully at points, to make news and also to counter him on certain key facts. There were several moments that will likely prove important to his criminal indictments, as well as his presidential campaign on issues like abortion.

But interviewing Trump is perhaps a greater challenge and even risk for news outlets now than it was in 2016 or even 2020, as he has hardened in his determination to churn out long-debunked claims, to try to divert attention, to obfuscate and deflect.

As The New York Times’s Peter Baker told Welker later in the broadcast, “He’s just a bulldozer shoveling falsehoods and lies throughout your interview and you are fact-checking him all along the way, but he is creating a different reality that has been successful for him so far in leading the Republican nomination fight.” One of the most frequent — and consequential for the coming election year — is Trump’s claim that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s criminal indictments against him are politically motivated, ordered up by President Joe Biden. “They saw this happening, and went to the attorney general of the United States, and he told them, ‘Indict Trump,'” Trump told Welker at one point, one of several moments when he referred to them as “Biden indictments.” “There is just no evidence of that, Mr.