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Some additional thoughts on the Karem/Gorka dustup from my experience covering the Trump campaign in 2016. 1/
Covering Trump as a member of the media is a... unique experience. Trump's handlers always put the media at the back of the room (which is fine and I actually found it hilarious how bent out of shape some reporters got by this... get over yourselves). 2/
But it does kind of quickly lose the humor value even from watching reporters with overinflated senses of self importance squirm. Because in every one of these rally speeches I attended (and he's continued the practice) he spends a huge amount of time pointing at reporters... 3/
And saying all sorts of terrible things about them. His crowd turns and stares at you. They stare at you as they file in and out. You're in this little fenced off area where thousands of people file by you like you're some species of zoo animal that they want to maybe kick. 4/
It's not a great feeling, to be honest. And from a human perspective I think it leads to a lot of the borderline insane way some reporters react to Trump. That doesn't EXCUSE it, because they should be able to rise above it and be professional, but it helps EXPLAIN it. 5/
I'm 99.999% sure Trump does it on purpose, of course. The media are his best foil. By doing this, he knows it antagonizes the media into being at times over the top in their criticism of him, and he uses it to further foment his crowd, the cycle continues. 6/
Of course, Gorka himself has been the target of an awful lot of media and public invective as well, some of which is thoroughly deserved from my perspective but I'm sure NOT deserved from his. 7/
So you see Karem and Gorka acting like idiots and you say they should both have been way more professional and you are right! But you should also understand how, as human beings, this sort of situation happens and maybe neither side should freak out about it. 8/
It should be pretty obvious at this point to people on both sides what the game is. But of course it's 2019 and it's against the law to NOT freak out, so here we are. The end. 9/
