Kurtz: When the President Makes a Mistake He Goes to a 10 and the Press Goes to 11

EXCERPT:

KURTZ: "There was a great expectation in the media and political world that in light of those indictments of the 12 Russian military officers the president was going to strike a more aggressive tone instead of sort of equating U.S. intelligence agencies from the strong denial or powerful denial as he said from Vladimir Putin. But on this point about going too far, there has been some of that, a lot of talk in the press about traitor and treasonous, you know, he should be taken out and shot, the analogies to Pearl Harbor and so forth. And this also is a pattern I’ve observed, which is when the president makes a mistake or says something incendiary he will go to a 10. The press goes to 11 or 13 and it convinces many Trump supporters that gunning for the guy, that never gets the benefit of the doubt. It can be an overreaction, which is not to say that he doesn’t deserve criticism for what happened in Helsinki."