This Is How You Interview a Government Official

Michel Martin's relentless questioning of Troy Edgar revealed there may be no evidence behind the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil.

When a government arrests someone, we expect officials to be able to clearly explain why. It's a foundational principle of a functioning democracy: the state must justify its power when it detains people.

That's what makes NPR's Michel Martin's recent interview with Troy Edgar, the deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, so remarkable an…