Indian-American reporter asks Trump to his face: 'Do you regret your lies?'

WASHINGTON: A Pune-born Indian-American journalist dropped a bombshell in the White House Press Room on Thursday with a loaded question, bluntly asking US President Donald Trump to his face if he regrets his lies and dishonesty.
The stunning moment came when Shirish Date, who writes as S.V.Date (pronounced Dáte or Daa-tay), and is currently the White House correspondent for Huffington Post, asked: "Mr.President, after three and a half years do you regret at all, all the lying you've done to the American people?"
"All the what?" Trump asked appearing to have not heard the question. "All the lying, all the dishonesty," Date followed up. "Who has done?" Trump asked, still appearing to have not understood the question. S.V. Dáte: "You have done." At this point Trump coldly moved on to another questions.
The brief exchange electrified scribes and political hacks on social media with congratulatory messages for Date from the liberal pack and rage on part of the Trump supporters at the frontal insult to the President.
Date evidently had been planning to ask the question for some time now, and his moment came on Thursday evening when he was part of the press pool that rotates different media outlets to ensure social distancing in the briefing room.
“For five years I've been wanting to ask him that,” Date tweeted shortly after the encounter, which will likely find him barred from the Trump White House already at odds with those it sees as a hostile liberal media that loves his ballsy attitude.
Date, a long-time journalist from Florida, has not retuned messages at the time of writing this report, but he makes no secret of his views about an administration that many liberals see as being composed of opportunists, grifters, and racists with an agenda of ensuring white primacy.
“The president has started his nightly campaign speech here in the WH briefing room, which is in a government building,” he noted, adding, “Again, this is purely a campaign speech, attacking Joe Biden and nothing else so far, reading off some speech on the lectern. Someone wrote those remarks. If WH employees have written those or vetted those, they are violating the Hatch Act,”
The Hatch Act of 1939, aimed at preventing Pernicious Political Activities, is a US federal law whose main provision prohibits all employees in the executive branch of the federal government, except the president and vice president, from engaging in some forms of political activity.
Date’s dare was received rapturously by the liberal crowd. “In those 10 seconds, S.V. Date did more to hold Trump accountable than the GOP has done in 4 years,” noted one social media follower. "WHO is that PATRIOT that just called @realDonaldTrump a LIAR TO HIS FACE???? Let's give him props now because lord knows we will NEVER SEE him there again!!!" read another tweet after the incident.
But there was also an ominous note from Trump supporters, one of whom tweeted: “I'd like to know the name of this man, and the media outlet he is associated with. If you watched President Trump's news conference I don't need to tell you why. Do it. Who is this person?”
According to his profile, Date has been as journalist for three decades since graduating from Stanford University. Based in Florida for the longest time and working for regional papers, he moved to Washington DC only a few years ago, heading National Public Radio’s Washington Desk and covering the White House for the National Journal.