Why is the Press Making Trump Seem More Normal?

Believe it or not, much of the political press has an inadvertent pro-Trump bias

On Thursday morning, Donald Trump was a guest on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show. Hewitt is a one time Never Trump conservative turned obsequious Trump flunkie. The entire show was a strange journey into the rabbit hole that is Donald Trump’s decaying brain. He offered nonsensical answers to semi-substantive, but not particularly probing, questions about abortion, China, and Gaza. He also accused Biden of cheating in golf. Things really went off the rails when Hewitt asked Trump about his challenge to debate Biden anytime, anywhere:

HH: Now you have said you’ll debate him anywhere, anytime. Do you think he’ll agree to any debates?

DJT: Yeah, anywhere, anytime.

HH: Do you think he’ll agree?

DJT: I don’t think so, but I hope he does. I think what happened is you know that white stuff that they happened to find, which happened to be cocaine in the White House, I don’t know, I think something’s going on there, because I watched this State of the Union, and he was all jacked up at the beginning. By the end, he was fading fast. There’s something going on there. I want to debate. And I think debates, with him, at least, should be drug tested. I want a drug test.

HH: Mr. President, are you suggesting President Biden’s using cocaine?

DJT: I don’t know what he’s using, but that was not, hey, he was higher than a kite. And by the way, it was the worst, it was the worst address I’ve ever seen, the State of the Nation. I’ll tell you, State of the Union, that’s not State of the Union, because he doesn’t represent us properly. That, I can tell you. But he’s obviously, he’s being helped in some way, because most of the time, he looks like he’s falling asleep. And all of a sudden, he walked up there and did a poor job. But he was all jacked up.

This is pure insanity, but perhaps the funniest part of the whole thing is that Hewitt just changed the subject and moved on to a series of questions about Trump’s vice presidential selection process.

Yes, a presidential candidate just accused the sitting President of the United States of delivering the State of the Union address while high on cocaine. I’m guessing that unless you listened to the Friday episode of Pod Save America, most of you are learning this information for the first time. And it's not because you aren’t avid consumers of news. It’s because the traditional political media decided to ignore this outlandish accusation from a clearly deranged and dishonest man (and the next potential President of the United States). The press is aware of the interview. Hewitt is not a MAGA content creator who operates in the dark corners of the internet. He is — bizarrely and unfortunately — a member of the Washington establishment in good standing. The reporters who cover Trump listened to the interview and many wrote stories about his comments on Israel and Gaza, but they made an editorial decision to bury Trump’s insane accusations.

Clearly, Donald Trump accusing Biden of being a cokehead is not the biggest issue in the election. But I think the incident reveals how the press’s coverage of Trump ends up advantaging him and making Biden’s road to reelection that much steeper.

1. Editing Trump to His Benefit

I do not envy the responsible journalists covering Trump. The man in a non-stop fount of disinformation. He spreads lies and conspiracy theories at a rate no fact checker can monitor. Airing his speeches live or simply quoting what he says risks spreading disinformation. And as we saw during the height of COVID and on January 6th, that disinformation can have tragic consequences. After January 6th, many outlets simply stopped covering Trump all together. Some cable networks refused to air his 2020 victory speeches because they knew he would lie about the legitimacy of the election and much more. For too long the press transmitted Trump’s lies and then people actually died. However, they have gone too far. The press didn’t cover Trump accusing Biden of using cocaine because it was obviously false and they doubt their own ability to persuade their readers. They know that most people don’t click the link and read the article, so it’s easier to ignore. I understand the instinct, but if Trump is dumb and dishonest enough to say Joe Biden delivered the speech while high on cocaine, the public should know. I often have to watch a whole Trump rally to prepare for the podcast, and no one has ever needed an editor more than Trump. The press shouldn’t do that job for Trump because it ends up hiding relevant information from the public.

2. Inadvertently Normalizing Trump

When it comes to Trump — and only Trump, the press has abandoned Roger Ailes’ “Orchestra Pit Theory of Politics,” As the former GOP consultant turned Fox News honcho/overall terrible human explained:

If you have two guys on a stage and one guy says, ‘I have a solution to the Middle East problem,’ and the other guy falls into the orchestra pit, who do you think is going to be on the evening news?

Trump delivers his speeches from the orchestra pit, but the press covers the rare moments he climbs out and gets back on stage.

The coverage of the Hugh Hewitt interview was emblematic of the press’s attitude towards Trump. He does a rally or interview filled with insane, incoherent ramblings and then the news clips the most coherent 30-45 seconds to air as part of the package.

Understanding some of the things Trump says requires an advanced degree in Right Wing marginalia. It would be nearly impossible for the local news or the Washington Post to explain what the hell Trump is talking about most of the time, so they just ignore it. Trump accusing Biden of using drugs didn’t come out of thin air. Ever since the State of the Union, Right Wing media figures have been trying to square Biden’s fiery performance with their caricature of him as a doddering, senile old man. The only explanation these yahoos could come up with was that Biden used some performance-enhancing drugs. Sean Hannity called Biden “Jacked Up Joe” after the speech.

Instead of explaining this Right Wing conspiracy or highlighting Trump’s direct accusation that Biden was on drugs, the press focused on Trump’s comments on Gaza. On one level, Israel and Gaza is a major issue in the campaign and Trump has tried very hard to obscure his position. But by focusing on the one quasi-serious moment in an entirely unserious interview, the press gave the public the sense that Trump was a more normal candidate.

3. A Terrible Double Standard

Because Joe Biden is a serious person who tells the truth, the press holds him to an exponentially higher standard than Trump. Imagine that Joe Biden was interviewed on Pod Save America and spoke about the War in Gaza, climate change, his economic plans, his efforts to cancel student debt, and other serious issues, but at one point toward the end of the interview, he casually mentioned that Trump was doing cocaine. Would the press ignore the accusation and write a bunch of stories about his climate change accomplishments?

Absolutely not.

Such an accusation would be a major story for days. Other Democrats running for office would be asked if they would disavow Biden’s comments. The White House Press Secretary would be under constant pressure to provide evidence to back up that claim. The next time Biden addressed the press, they would hammer him with follow-up questions.

And therein lies Trump’s huge advantage. He can make outrageous accusations that demonstrate his unfitness for office and the press would rather ignore them than confront the challenge of covering them responsibly.