A snow leopard who appeared to be in his late-20s went through the fur on Todd's face with a fine comb, meticulously ensuring each strand was perfectly positioned for HD TV. Earlier, an antelope had nearly ripped Todd out of the suit he had worn to the ZNN studios, replacing it with a remarkably similar one that nevertheless was apparently better with his fur color. On top of this cosmetic ballet, Dakota and Hubert wouldn't leave his side, hounding him with continuous interview prep.
"Mr. Renard, in your speech at the CLaW dinner you came out against reparations for the victims of Bellwether's administration. Would you care to explain why?" Dakota said, playing the part of the interviewer.
Todd faced straight ahead. The last time he tried to turn and look at Dakota while he answered, he'd received an angry slap on the paw from the groomer. "Reparations ultimately don't get to the core of the problem. While I'm not against them-"
"Wrong. You can't come out in favor of reparations at all if they ask," Dakota broke character.
"Why not? He should say what he believes. That's why mammals support him," Hubert interjected.
"Reparations are unpopular among prey. There's a reason Lionheart is falling like a rock in the polls," Dakota shot back.
"Do you want to make him another flavorless establishment candidate like Nileworthy?" Hubert started to get a bit heated.
"Nileworthy is still beating us," Dakota retorted coolly. Hubert failed to find a response before an intern in a headset came up to them.
"Mr. Renard, you're on in sixty seconds," the sheep said.
"Thank you," Todd said. The groomer packed his tools and started toward another studio in the blink of an eye. Free from the snow leopard's grasp, Todd turned to Dakota. "I'll be fine. We've been prepping for this interview for days. They won't ask about reparations because Lionheart's a nonentity in the race now."
"You're right, you'll do fine," Dakota patted him on the shoulder before half-shoving him toward the set. "Now get out there."
Todd sat opposite Kitty Couric, the snow leopard ZNN anchor. The director signalled 15 seconds. Couric turned to Todd and found a couple seconds to squeeze in "Before we begin, I just want to say I'm a big fan." The director gave a hand signal, a red light blinked to life on the camera, and Couric's entire physicality shifted to that of a perfectly poised presenter. "Good evening," she began. "And welcome to ZNN. I'm Kitty Couric. Tonight we have on animal-rights lawyer and mayoral candidate Todd Renard."
"Thank you Kitty. It's a pleasure to be here," Todd replied.
"Mr. Renard, you have routinely criticized the Mammal Inclusion Initiative, yet your platform is largely based on its expansion. Can you elaborate on this?" Couric tossed him a soft ball of a question.
"Well, the current Mammal Inclusion Initiative is a good start. It opens doors. What I want to do is make these doors accessible to everyone; to start fixing systemic problems that continue to hold back all mammals." Todd felt cool, calm, and confident.
"You say you want to help all mammals, yet your campaign thus far has focused heavily on predator rights specifically. Why is this?"
"There is no fighting for animal rights without fighting for predator rights. Prey have their own challenges which should be addressed, but if you've got two neighbors - one whose house is on fire and one whose garden is dying - who are you going to lend your hose to first? Both need it, but one situation is far more urgent than the other. I've said it since the beginning: predator rights are animal rights," Todd was pretty sure he was nailing this interview. Nailing it, that is, until Couric put her finger up to her earpiece.
Something in Couric's face shifted subtly, and Todd could see a curveball coming. "Mr. Renard, your opponent Andrew Turnbull has just released a statement via his official Zootube channel that we would like your response to."
The broadcast monitors cut to a professionally shot video of Turnbull in his penthouse apartment. "Todd Renard is a predator supremacist," Turnbull came out swinging. Todd rolled his eyes. "He calls himself an animal-rights advocate. He claims to be standing up for all animals. Yet, despite this, he maintains close ties primarily with groups only concerned with predator issues. In addition, the record of 'defending animal rights' that he claims is misleading. His case record shows him almost exclusively defending predators - several of which had been accused of violent crimes," the video cut to shots of newspaper headings of some of the clients Todd had defended, especially the cases he ultimately lost. "Even his official statements show he only cares about predators. 'Predator rights are animal rights', but what about prey? Todd Renard couldn't care less about 90% of this city. Vote for me, Andrew Turnbull, because I want to make Zootopia safe for all animals."
The video ended. Todd looked nervously toward Dakota, who was already chewing out a crew member. They hadn't prepped for this. Hell, they hadn't even considered something like this could happen. His heart raced, but Todd tried his best to hide his nerves from the camera. Couric turned toward him. "This is a strong claim against you, Mr. Renard, and the first such against you by Turnbull. Would you care to respond?"
"I stand for predators because animals like Turnbull stand against them," Todd wanted to take back his words as soon as they left his mouth. He screwed up. Those were the wrong words.
Couric smelled blood. She leaned in, her previous amiability devoured by her journalistic hunger for tomorrow's headline. "So you're not disputing the claim that you favor predators over prey?"
"That's not what I meant," Todd's ears pressed against his skull. He glanced at Dakota again, who had put a hold on confronting the crew and now appeared to be attempting to murder him with her eyes. "What I meant is that, uh, I defended predators during Bellwether's administration because they needed it the most."
"Why have you not sought the endorsement of any prey-focused groups?"
"We have reached out to several large animal rights groups without a specifically predator focus for their endorsement," the question was close enough to their prep that, for a brief moment, Todd had a glimmer of hope that he could stop this train from derailing.
"Have any endorsed you yet?"
Todd hesitated for a fatal fraction of a second. "None have made a final decision yet."
Couric turned to the camera. "That's all of the time we have today," she turned back to Todd. "Thank you for joining us, Mr. Renard." Turning back to the camera: "After the break, our analysts discuss Carlos Lupez's rapid fall in the polls. I'm Kitty Couric, and you're watching ZNN."
The camera switched off, Couric removed her mic, and an intern came over to do the same for Todd. Couric quickly rose from the desk without even seeming to notice that Todd was still there. She hurried off, surrounded by crew members, each vying for her attention on something.
As for Todd, he sat stunned for a moment. Dakota woke him from his daze, storming the set. "You stupid- I can't believe- How could-"
Hubert followed close behind her. "What the heck was that?"
A crew member came up and started ushering the trio off the set. Todd found a word. "I-"
"No. You stop," Dakota ensured he would only find the one. "Do you realize how much damage control we'll have to run now? We were having enough trouble with the fox thing, and now you're a specist fox too!"
"It's okay, we'll fix this. We'll fix this," Hubert seemed to be attempting to convince himself as much as either of the others.
"You're darn right we're going to fix this," Dakota pointed directly at Todd. "And we're going to do this because you'll do exactly what I tell you to do."