Observation Deck:  Sunday morning comin’ down

It’s always fun to watch the Sunday morning news talk shows.  It’s amazing the way The Trump’s apologists twist and squirm to explain that he really didn’t say the things he actually said or, the stupid press just did not understand what he said, or—the now classic rebuttal— they offer “alternative facts.”  Oh, remember the other Trumpist rationalization, we shouldn’t take what he says literally.

From a philosophical perspective, the apologists are often dealing with the fallacy known as “the loaded question.”  The classic example is, “When did you stop beating your wife?” Any answer is equally incriminating

. 

Take The Trump’s declaration that all of the nearly 3,000,000 popular votes that went to Hillary were cast by illegals and were therefore all fraudulent.   Now if you ask Trumpists if they believe that, they are faced with a dilemma.  If they say “no,” they are admitting their leader is a liar.  If they say “yes,” considering the overwhelming evidence against it, they know they will be considered exceedingly gullible and will believe anything and everything The Trump says without question.

This morning’s shows all featured Mike Pence who has assumed the role of apologizer-in-chief.  All three shows—Meet the Press, George Stephanopoulos, and Face the Nation—directly questioned Pence about The Trump’s attack on “so-called” judge James Robart.  Of course he deftly evaded giving a direct answer.  Rather than elaborate here (you can check the video clips) I’ll just quote what Meet the Press panelist Tavis Smiley said about Pence:  “He was twisting like a pretzel.”   Perhaps we should now refer to our “so-called” President.