New York Times journalist Ezra Klein insists his podcast won't be a “show of resistance” under the incoming Trump administration and believes President-elect Donald Trump and his movement are an “aberration” It questions liberal orthodoxy.
Tuesday's “''ezra klein show'' Klein answered a question from a listener.
One segment highlighted Klein's past invitations to Trump allies to appear on his show, which listeners called “very enlightening” but “undermining the current political climate.” “They are pretending to be 'normal' in a way that is not.”
“By having certain people on the show, you're normalizing MAGA, you're normalizing Trump. Any thoughts on this or that charge?” Klein's podcast editor Claire Gordon summed up the question. .
“I don't know what counts as normal and what doesn't count as normal,” Klein responded.
“On the one hand, do you think Donald Trump is an ordinary or even very stable genius? I don't. On the other hand, he's been elected president three times now, or almost There is.”
“So which is more normal, the bespectacled podcast host from Brooklyn you're listening to right now, or Donald Trump?” “I think it's a way to avoid people looking at us,” he continued.
“That doesn't mean I don't disagree with what he's doing or what his world is doing…There are lines that feel very clear to me, especially the weaponization of government. And I'm very against that. I want to pay attention to it.”
“But just to be clear, don't expect this show to be a resistance show. I'm open-minded, so I don't do stuff like this or do interviews. I'm a reporter. I'm curious. “I'm trying to understand things so I can make my own decisions,” he added.
Even when Times reporters vehemently disagree with President Trump and his administration's actions, they are trying to “understand” them and maintain the “balance” they may see as a challenge for the next four years. ” emphasized the importance of trying to
“I think there are things within the Trump administration that point directly towards authoritarianism, so he is actually trying to do what academically calls an authoritarian breakthrough. It's going to be a different thing — maybe the Department of Government Efficiency, or Secretary of State Marco Rubio's tenure, or what's going on with tariffs, but it's not going to be something like that, it's just going to be covered as normal politics. “It will need to be done,” Klein said. .
“So this is another dimension, and I think that's going to make it difficult to try to create a binary of normality, normal or not normal. It's the administration, which is going to govern this country for the next four years. And part of it will be politics and policy. And part of it could be something else entirely.”
“And I'm going to try to take everything on that level, and the fact that one thing is going on doesn't mean that I have to cover the other thing, in either direction. I want to create that balance. “I think it's really hard to take. To be honest, we didn't do anything like this in the first Trump administration,” he admitted.
Klein went on to say that between President Trump's loss in the popular vote in 2016, the Russia investigation, and the constant “leaks” from his administration about “how crazy he was,” liberals summed up how the first President Trump's term was treated as “unfair.”
“Even for the people reporting on it, it was much easier to treat him as an anomaly, because in some ways his own administration treated him as an anomaly. And this is a once-in-a-lifetime event in American politics. It seemed like it could have been a fluke. A butterfly took flight and we got this. And in some ways, it's not like that anymore. '' Klein said.
“And my first job on this show is to be a good reporter. I understand that the show is an ongoing reporting exercise, but if we don't actively report on this administration, I'm not a great reporter and I don't think I'm doing a good job.”
“So we'll see how it goes. A lot of them don't want to talk to me, but once President Trump crosses the line in one area, he won't talk anymore about things like tariffs, so behind closed doors. It's not going to be policy. That's not how I work,” Klein added.
