Remarkably Strong Example of Investigative Interviewing

Remarkably Strong Example of Investigative Interviewing

Megyn Kelly faced-off with DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile.

The Fox host asked her about the indications that Brazile helped give Hillary Clinton the advantage during the primaries. After a contentious discussion over who is responsible for the content James O’Keefe filmed in his new video, Kelly asked her about one of the biggest relations WikiLeaks produced from their John Podesta email dump.

Sources suggested that Brazile has a CNN debate question, which she gave to Clinton’s campaign chairman while she was still a contributor on the network. Brazile insisted that she did not receive the question from CNN.  Kelly pressed her and noted that she must have gotten it from somewhere if she had the exact wording.

How did you get that question, Donna?” Kelly asked.

“Well, Kelly, since I play straight up, and I’ll play straight up with you, I did not receive any questions from CNN, let’s just be very clear,” Brazile replied.

“Where did you get it?” Kelly retorted.

“First of all, what information are you providing to me that will let me see what you are talking about?” Brazile replied, growing agitated.

Then things got biblical, you might say.

“Kelly, you know as a Christian woman I understand persecution, but I will not sit here and be persecuted because your information is totally false,” the operative said, adding that “[John] Podesta’s emails were stolen …  you’re like a thief that wanna bring into the night the things you found that was in his gutter.”

Kelly then brought up CNN anchor Jake Tapper’s condemnation of the email’s content, calling it “horrifying” and “completely unethical” and “very, very upsetting.”

But despite Kelly bringing up her former colleague’s assessment, Brazile continued to dodge.

“I am not going to try to validate falsified information,” she said. “I have my documents, I have my files, thank God I have not had my personal emails ripped off from me and stolen and given to some criminals to come back altered.”

Kelly kept pressing, but Brazile simply questioned the validity of the WikiLeaks emails.

Look for my comments at the bottom of the video.  Fine tune your interviewing skills.  Contact me at bob@kaplitz.tv.

Remarkably Strong Example of Investigative Interviewing:  Takeaways

• Follow up with questions until you get to the heart of the issue.
• Even if your guest avoids answering your question, keep them coming back.
• Be direct:  “You haven’t answered my question.  Why?”
• Present facts, holding the guest accountable.
• If your guest just tries to talk on and on to fill time, get back to your question.
• Be polite and respectful.
• But persistent in the interest of your viewers.