NYTs Ezra Klein says his podcast wont be resistance show in 2nd Trump term rejects normalizing MAGA concerns

New York Times journalist Ezra Klein is insisting his podcast won’t be a “resistance show” during the incoming Trump administration and questioned liberal orthodoxy believing that President-elect Donald Trump and his movement are “abnormal.”On Tuesday’s installment of “The Ezra Klein Show,” Klein answered submitted questions from listeners.One focused on Klein’s past invitation of Trump allies to appear on his show, something the listener thought is “extremely enlightening” but that it “casts the current political scene as ‘normal’ in a way that it isn’t.”“Normalizing MAGA, normalizing Trump by having certain people on the show: Do you have any thoughts on, on that and that charge?” Klein’s podcast editor Claire Gordon summarized the question.“I don’t know what counts or doesn’t count as normal,” Klein responded.

“On the one hand, do I think Donald Trump is a normal or even a very stable genius? I don’t.On the other hand, he has been elected or almost elected president three times now.”“So who’s more normal, your glasses-wearing Brooklyn podcast host that you’re listening to right now… or Donald Trump? I think the effort to treat him as continuously abnormal is a way of trying to not see other people, including him,” he continued.

“That doesn’t mean you don’t oppose things he does or that his world of people do… There are lines that feel very clear to me.Particularly weaponizing the government.

And I want to be very alert to that.” “But I want to be pretty clear: Don’t expect this show to be a resistance show.I don’t do this or have these interviews because I’m open-minded.

I am a reporter.I am curious.

I’m trying to understand things so I can make up my own mind,” he added.The Times journalist stressed the importance of trying to “understand” Trump and his administration’s actions even when he vehemently opposes them, striking a “balance” he may see as a challenge ...