“[Trump’s team] said, ‘Well, can you not fact check? He’s not going to take the stage if you fact-check,’” Lemon said.

Amazing.

“Can’t you just let him go out there and lie to everyone? Come on, aren’t you negroes team players?”

And then immediately complained that he was made to wait. What a weird rube.

That is downright bizarre!

"Between the lines: In the aftermath, members remain divided on whether it was right for NABJ to extend the invitation and give a platform to Trump. Some said it was embarrassing; others praised the interviewers for their tough questioning.

Brittany Cummings, a communications professional, was among the members who didn’t think the organization should have extended the invitation to Trump. “I’m not sure that any group of journalists has the ‘secret sauce’ to make him tell the truth and speak as a normal candidate would,” she said. “He’s not a normal candidate, so we can’t treat him as such.” “During the actual discussion, he was disrespectful, and I don’t think there was anything new to learn.”"

Hah, he spent like 5 minutes on stage railing about them “being 35 minutes late”. I assumed it ws him being late, but glad to see that backed up by reasons (his lack of faculty to tell the truth).

And I’m sure this was the actual reason for the delay, not the host’s equipment failure that Trump was rambling on about.

What a weird, old coward…

*At the time, President Trump blamed the delay on audio problems. -Lemon told Axios, “There were audio problems, but they were resolved very quickly.” “The bigger problem was his threat not to take the stage when he had agreed to go on. He did not want to be fact-checked, but we could not let him on the stage without fact-checking,” Lemon said. Behind the scenes: The stalemate was so prolonged that NABJ leaders were prepared to explain to the audience of nearly 2,000 people why Trump would not appear. "I was prepared to go on stage to craft a statement, saying he decided not to go on stage because of fact-checking… we couldn’t compromise on that. As Lemon was preparing that statement, Trump walked onto the stage.

He didn’t stall - he just had a senior moment. It’s completely fucking obvious he was intimidated by the journalists and just decided not to answer… actual stalling is slickly redirecting the conversation, he utterly failed to do that.

Give him the rope…

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