Shortly after the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015, a football match was cancelled here in Germany because of a terror warning. There was a press conference with our Federal Minister of the Interior at the time, Thomas de Maizière. When asked for more information, he did not want to reveal that there was another warning for a train station. So he thought the best thing he could say to dodge the question was:
"Parts of the answer might unsettle the population."
Calmed everyone down immediately.
"you don't want to know, trust me"
I've been watching and listening to a lot of responses from Israeli officials lately about the deaths of Palestinians. So...
Netanyahu saying there will be time to answer why he didn't do anything to stop that Oct 7th attack after the war has to be top of the list right now.
Netanyahu did an interview on the Lex Friedman podcast and the whole thing felt like he was dodging questions. His go-to move seems to be the "You're asking the wrong question. Instead of asking [thing 1], you should really be asking [thing 2]."...and then proceeds to answer his suggested question instead.
I've never really sought out much information about the Israel situation, and this was really my first impression of the guy and he just seemed so good at manipulating the conversation. It was impressive how apparent it was yet still somehow convincing.
Recently re-watched the Prince Andrew BBC interview, and it is just wall-to-wall question dodging:
🎵 He's a sweaty nonce He's a sweaty nonce
You know it's true that Prince Andrew
Is a sweaty nonce 🎵
Well I just came here from a thread where Googles economist accidentally revealed how much Google pays Apple (to be their default search engine in safari) while trying to dodge questions. That’s got to make the list.
I'm going to be honest here, I'm training a model to detect question dodging in politicians and have only found limited data, so now I'm hoping to get more examples of high avoidance. This is some shameless crowd-sourcing but I hope people are still enjoying the answers.
Not sure you'll like this one: https://youtu.be/aG0Zd2X8YJY?si=XtPVpy7N4q79drSv Here Julia Hartley-Brewer tries to make Palestinian journalist Wafa Al-Udaini to answer what would be "a proportionate answer to Oct-7 massacre"
Why are you so interested, what are you up to? ANSWER US!
Classic evasive maneuver
"It depends on what the definition of 'it' is."
I know an affair is a weird thing to bring a president down for (seriously America?), but the above quote (which is the first thing that shows up on Google autosearch when you type "it depends on") is trying hard. As someone who has dodged her share of questions before, Bill Clinton might as well have chewed it over with Twix.
Pendantic, but it was "is is," not "it is."
Contending his statement that "there's nothing going on between us" had been truthful because he had no ongoing relationship with Lewinsky at the time he was questioned, Clinton said, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is.
The affair was just ammunition not the motivation behind the impeachment. Newt Gingrich was the one who spearheaded it, and while this was all happening, left his wife (sick with cancer) to pursue a relationship with someone he'd been having an affair with. He even had her served with papers at the hospital while she was receiving chemo treatments. He also left her penniless.
As an asexual, I read things like this and think to myself "my god, why are we the underappreciated ones?"
Pick any of my college students when I ask how they're doing
You mean gen-z'ers don't respond, "Fine"? to that basic greeting?
I usually get "idno" or "chill" from my son.
Mike Lindell's deposition testimony was made public a month or two ago, and it is hilarious and sad.
"You're an asshole". That was an hour of unhinged coke-induced blabbering.
Mike Pence's debate answers against Kamala Harris
These GOP debates.
Did you threaten to overrule him? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqU77I40mS0
Fun fact: That's just an average amount of question dodging. Paxman had to stall for time and realised he could just stretch it out by getting the guy to actually answer the question.
Maybe not so much question dodging as it was just dodging the issue that was being raised (his preparedness for the presidency). He basically said this statement two times in a row and the 2nd time it had nothing to do with what was just said:
“Let’s dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He is trying to change this country. He wants America to become more like the rest of the world.” (Sen. Marco Rubio in 2016)
Then got called out hard by Christie. Then repeated the line a third time.
When the interviewer gives the interviewee a platform, they can say whatever they want. They don't have to answer the question. The strategy is often to use the opportunity to say the agreed upon talking points. The question doesn't matter, just who has the mic. The more an easily manipulated public hears the lines, the more they are likely to remember them. Eventually, repetition bias kicks in. The interviewer should just end the conversation when they do this, but they usually don't. Maybe they need to fill the air time.
Here's an example:
https://www.mediaite.com/news/i-just-want-an-answer-stephanopoulos-cuts-off-interview-after-steve-scalise-dodges-five-times-on-whether-2020-election-was-stolen/
Permanently Deleted
Say someone was accused of doing something, but there was no proof, even though they knew they did the thing except for the judge, and everyone knows they did the thing, just keep your lips sealed during all questions and claim the 5th.
Anytime a GOP politician is asked for a straight answer for why they do the shit they do.
“I did not have sexual relationship”
