Yes, he really did say that, and yes, he really meant it

Yesterday I had a head-spinning conversation with someone I know fairly well. It was about Trump's astonishing suggestion to his pandemic response gurus that they should "look into that", 'that' being a suggestion to inject disinfectant into covid-19 patients.  She began by saying that it was fake news from the lying left-wing media. I then pointed out that he had indeed asked that his team look into his suggestion. Her comeback was "he never said that". Then I played the clip. Twice. First she claimed it was out of context so I wound the tape back so that the context was there. When she could no longer argue that he didn't say what he said, or that he was taken out of context, her position became, "that may be what he said but it's not what he meant". And while it's beyond normal people's comprehension as to what in the world anyone might have "meant" by such an insanely irresponsible remark, that completely misses the point; people, and particularly Fox viewers apparently, do take him seriously, and that's a problem. Speech, I vainly pointed out, was designed to convey information, not mislead [although that's not always the case, but the principle should apply here], and as the president, it was his job to speak in a way that at a minimum did no harm.

Although there have not yet been any reports of people being daft enough to take him at his word, some may, and there have been floods of calls to state heath advisory bodies asking whether this was a good idea or not. As Nicole Wallace pointed out, this is yet another example of quackery (think hydroxychloraquine, and "what have you got to loose?") from the commander in chief. Trump's ridiculous excuse that was so transparently a lie that no one who watched the exchange would ever believe it, was that he was giving a "sarcastic answer to a reporter's question".

First there was no question. He walks to the podium, begins extemporizing immediately about the effect of UV light and then goes straight into his deranged musing about disinfectant. So no, it was not in response to a question, and for the record he wasn't looking at any of the reporters, but he turns repeatedly to Dr. Deborah Birx (who sits completely immobile, one can only imagine astonished and trying to digest the impact of the presidents 'poor choice of words'). Fox viewers should by now be asking themselves if this is really what they want, a sarcastic practical joker in the Oval Office.