Journalist challenges Donald Trump over ‘all the lying’ after waiting five years to ask question

S.V. Dáte appeared to startle the president by asking him: ‘Mr President, after three and a half years, do you regret at all, all the lying you’ve done to the American people?’

The question appeared to take Trump by surprise at the latest White House briefing, prompting the president to ask what he meant.

‘All the what?,’ he said.

‘All the lying, all the dishonesties,’ responded Dáte.

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‘That who has done?’ asked Trump in response to the journalist.

‘You have done,’ explained the Huff Post journalist. ‘Tens of thousan–’, he tried to explain before Trump moved on to another question.

Dáte later tweeted he had waited five years to ask a question at the White House, explaining to the Guardian that last time he tried to challenge Trump he moved on before he could finish his question.

‘I don’t know why he called on me, because I’ve tried to ask him before [in March] and he’s cut me off mid-question. Maybe he didn’t recognise me this time,’ he said. ‘You know, he has this group of folks that he normally asks questions of.’

He added: ‘I had always thought that if he ever did call on me, this is the one thing that is really central to his presidency’.

The journalist says he will continue to try to challenge the US president with his question, having prepared the line he will ask next.

”Mr President, you didn’t answer last time. Could you address why you’ve told …’ whatever the number will be by then’.