play dumb
Verb
Meaning
To pretend to be dumb, whether
To feign muteness.
To feign stupidity or ignorance of some knowledge, usually in order to avoid responsibility or gain some advantage.
Synonym: play stupid
Synonyms
Examples
It takes a smart guy to play dumb.
People assume actresses are afraid to get older; the truth is the roles get a whole lot more compelling once you're too old to play dumb.
"So their only option is to play dumb and hope Trump gets distracted by a Filet-O-Fish or something."
They may still be trying to ID the driver, sometimes they lie and play dumb until they look into every possible charging offense (perhaps unrelated) and/or locate the person and ensure they don't flee.