Episode 446 Scott Adams: Press Secretary Sanders Botched “Fine People” Hoax Question From CNN

Date: 2019-03-11 | Duration: 11:10

Topics

Two whiteboards that make things clear… The “Fine People” hoax (Charlottesville) CNN is fake news Link to whiteboard images: https://blog.dilbert.com/2019/03/11/episode-446-scott-adams-press-secretary-sanders-totally-botched-the-fine-people-hoax-question-from-cnn/

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> [!note] Rough Transcript
> 
> This is an auto-generated transcript and may contain errors.

## Transcript

[0:05]

hey it's a bonus coffee with Scott Adams I got my coffee it's the afternoon version you might have your early uh early evening version but I had to come to you for this special occasion because there's news let's drink to news grab your mug your cup your glass your Stein your jealous your thermos and join me for this simultaneous
SI delicious well if you watch the press conference today you know that um Sarah Sanders totally blew a chance to lock down uh Trump's reelection in 2020 and I mean that literally probably one of the biggest mistakes I have ever seen live now it's a mistake in the sense that it was a missed opportunity and here's what I mean the biggest problem for this President is the lingering accusations that he's a

[1:06]

the lingering accusations that he's a big old white supremacist uh racist and the biggest part of that story is the Charlottesville fine people hoax now the hoax is the idea that CNN is trying to sell you that Trump said in public in public they say that he said that the neo-nazis at Charlottesville were fine people people that didn't happen that never happened he was talking about the context of the uh the statue topic and he said there were fine people on both sides and when asked to clarify he clarified and said these guys hell no those guys are all bad I condemn them totally not talking about them so CNN's uh Jim aasta and then April Ryan followed up with a question in which they stated it as fact again in the setting up their question for the press conference that the president had

[2:07]

press conference that the president had called the neo-nazis fine people Sarah Sanders response was a huge mistake she said accurately that the president had disavowed these groups and she was very specific he has disavowed this group this white supremacist dis out now that part is true and it's so misses the opportunity because it let stand that the possibility that he'd really said those things she didn't even address the question so the question with the the premise was that he'd really said those things her response did not attack the fact that he had never said those things it was the worst mistake I've ever seen of any politician make in public literally it's the worst mistake I've ever seen in public public now what should she have done well luckily I've got a whiteboard with two

[3:14]

sides and on this side here's how you convince people that this is a hoax people are going to say my God I saw it with my own eyes I heard it with my own ears it's not a hoax it's what he actually said on television and then you you say to them well compare that to the hypothesis that instead of an extraordinary mindblowing incredible shockingly bad thing maybe it was a completely ordinary thing and that he was just talking about the Statue controversy and said they're good people on both sides which is completely consistent with everything he's ever said about that topic but if you want to believe in the extraordinary uh version the CNN is selling as the fine people hoax you would also necessarily have to believe all of this let me run you through it you would have to believe that a sitting president who knew what the topic was going to be so this wasn't a surprise

[4:14]

going to be so this wasn't a surprise question he watched the news like everybody else and when he was asked about it obviously he'd thought about it before he answered because it was already in the news he knew what the news was do you think it's reasonable to assume that a sitting president president decided to throw down with the neo-nazis after one of them had just killed somebody do you think that's even a little bit credible sounding right we're not done yet but just start there that should be enough to dissuade any reasonable person from thinking that he was talking about the the neo-nazis because nobody would do that under any circumstance secondly do we believe that he would publicly take sides against aanka Jared and his own grandchildren with them because they're all Jewish aanka has converted and his Grand grandchildren are are born into it do we believe that he would do that and if he

[5:15]

believe that he would do that and if he did take sides with the neo-nazis who were chanting anti-semitic slogans he didn't but here here's the fantasy version um do we believe that Israel didn't notice that Israel didn't notice that according to CNN the president of the United States threw down with the neo-nazis who were chanting in public anti-semitic slogans Israel never noticed didn't bother him didn't didn't need to condemn it or anything they they were just okay with it in fact This president's the most popular president Israel has ever cared about I guess you would also have to believe that tens of millions of Trump supporters who were not the few racists saw this or either they didn't see it that somehow it's reported as news and fact and it's one of the biggest headlines it's one of the the most repeated pieces of news in the last two years but somehow tens of millions

[6:18]

two years but somehow tens of millions of trump supporters either didn't notice didn't hear the news or were okay with it now of course the some racist themselves if they believed it really happened they'd be okay with it but tens of millions of trump supporters all looked at it and said oh this is this is true he's he's saying good things about white supremacists and neo-nazis and I'm fine with it that didn't happen it's because those Trump supporters don't see it they don't see it that's because it doesn't exist you'd have to also believe if you believe the CNN version of events that he said there were fine people among the Nazis that the very next day when he was asked to clarify he said clearly no no I'm not talking about those guys I condemn them totally and nobody nobody doubts he said that but would this be the one time he changed his he changed

[7:18]

the one time he changed his he changed his
his opinion uh on a controversial thing is this a President Who changes his opinion he's not really the change your opinion kind of president if he said it the first time and meant to say it in public I'm pretty sure he would have said it a second time but he didn't he clarified that of course that's not what he was saying it was the ordinary interpretation if you believed that he praised fine people on quote both sides you would also have to believe that in addition to to praising neo-nazis which didn't happen you would have to believe that he also praised antifa who were his sworn enemies who wanted him deposed from Office prematurely do you think this President praised antifa for anything do you think that he said there were fine people in the group protesting to have him removed from office because you

[8:19]

him removed from office because you would have to believe that to believe that when he said they were fine people on both sides he was talking about antifa and the neo-nazis as being the two sides and then more generally you would have to believe the most extraordinary version of events when right in front of you there's an ordinary interpretation and the ordinary interpretation is both sides of the statue issue just like he is consistently said all along now here's the fun part because CNN brought this up and they were obviously looking for some programming they were they were generating news I've told you before that the news business they stopped reporting the news and now they're more in the business of manufacturing it that press conference you watched right in front of your eyes if you saw it and if you saw the the replay you'll know you watched CNN attempting to manufacture news where there was none that was the

[9:19]

news where there was none that was the type that was good for their ratings and so they they created this but most of you have already been weaponized on this topic and you know that this is a hoax and you know exactly what to say about it so what's different is they managed to raise this topic at their worst possible time because at this point there are thousands of trump supporters who have been exposed to the strong argument as opposed to Sarah Sanders completely failed attempt of just saying well that one time he he you know he disavowed these groups that's not persuasive because it still allows the possibility that he said it in the first place which just didn't happen and that's the part you need to persuade against so it may be that they've created a monster that they didn't want to create had this never become another headline story people would have just

[10:21]

headline story people would have just gone on believing it was true if they believed it in the first in the first place because there was nothing in the headlines to say hey hey give this a second thought hey hey hey you didn't interpret this right but now it's a national story now there are thousands of people armed with the killshot and this is the killshot so try that with your friends you will find that it works almost every time uh they will almost certainly end up changing the topic to some other perceived evil that they think the president did once you have totally annihilated this argument so I'm going to keep it short to make this more viral in case you want to pass it around and that is all I have today and I'll talk to you later