Stop sanewashing, dammit

A New York Times headline: “Trump Says He Doesn’t Know Crypto Billionaire He Pardoned.”

There’s a great difference between not knowing someone and not knowing who someone is. And it would not be unusual for a president issuing a pardon not to know the recipient. But what the current occupant said about Changpeng Zhao in his 60 Minutes interview with Norah O’Donnell was plainly bizarre: not that he doesn’t know Zhao but that “I don’t know who he is.” (My emphasis.) And: “Here’s the thing: I know nothing about it.”

The article itself acknowledges that the current occupant “has claimed he did not know who Mr. Zhao was.” And the occupant’s “I don’t know who he is” appears therein. But the headline tells a different story: no, I never met the guy. And the outrageousness of what the occupant claimed — that he pardoned someone without knowing who he is or anything about the case — went unchallenged in both the 60 Minutes interview and the Times article.

Stop sanewashing, NYT . You’re supposed to be better than that.

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November 4: An unidentified journalist asks Karoline Leavitt a question. And they’re both sanewashing:

“President Trump said to CBS in the 60 Minutes interview that he did not know the Binance founder which he pardoned. What exactly did he mean by that?”

“He means he does not know him personally. He means he does not have a personal relationship with this individual.”