Brian Stelter: Trump Doesn’t Trust Fact-Checks or His Own Intel, ‘He Only Trusts His Fox Friends’
EXCERPT:
STELTER: "Levin's colleague Jeanine Pirro has been promoting that same line of thinking. In the pro-Trump media world, the real conspiracy is about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton trying to stop Trump from winning. Pirro went after Mueller again Saturday night, even told him to get a defense attorney. Trump keeps hearing this and reacting and reflecting it to fans. On Sunday morning, here he is approvingly tweeting out part of Pirro's rant. That’s what led the NYT's ace reporter Michael Schmidt to react by saying 'it’s been 15 months into the special counsel probe and I’m still not convinced Trump understands the depth and breadth of the obstruction of investigation, the threat it poses and the issues his own public statements and tweets have created for him.' So why is that? Why doesn’t Trump get it? It’s because of the pro-Trump media world. It’s because of this hall of mirrors. Trump doesn’t trust the fact checks. He doesn’t trust the people trying to explain to him how serious this probe is. He sometimes doesn’t seem to trust the intelligence about Russia’s interference. He only trusts his Fox friends. Trump willingly walked into this house of mirrors. Heck, he helped build it. But does he know how to get out? And that’s my essay for today."
