I’ve had people ask me what it’s like trying to get these interviews with Trump supporters/Covid deniers as a black person, wearing a mask, working for The Post... https://twitter.com/robertklemko/status/1275052884296478726

About 20% of Trump supporters say something like “Fake news, no thanks” and we go our separate ways. Sometimes they want to argue about it, and I just walk away.

About 10% of Trump supporters don’t believe you’re a reporter. I try to mitigate that by avoiding dark clothes that might associate me with protesters, and walking up to a person holding my badge a few inches in front of my chest.

With the mask, a small percentage of people want to know why you’re wearing it so they can throw a statistic at you about how it’s no more dangerous than the flu. I usually say “it’s your choice not to wear one and it’s my choice to wear one,” and that’s the end of that.

Then I just start talking, asking questions, and once they feel like I don’t hate them and they don’t hate me, I get name, spelling, age, profession, hometown, and the interview rolls after that. Most people have been really courteous and eager to talk.

This was a weird one where the guy had run off a local reporter by screaming fake news at him, but was willing to talk to me because I was “bigger fake news.”