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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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)
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.
Well, it’s just dodging the same question yes - but doing it a lot of times! I was going to mention the story behind it but realised someone else would fill it in ;)
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