A Very Contentious Interview
Yesterday the President allotted an hour of his time to sit down with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace. The interviews was tough and contentious with the President sometimes challenging the interviewer. That may be why the sound bites & clips of the interview have been shown in almost all other news outlets since and why fellow anchor Bret Baier congratulated Wallace by saying "You made us all proud." It happened as Chuck Todd was rerunning a misquote that his network had already apologized for.
The interview was held outdoors in the sweltering heat. I'll let our readers guess who's idea that was.
One of the more noteworthy moments was when Wallace brought up the key issue of the Coronavirus and the President's handling of it:
WALLACE: Let's start with the surge of the coronavirus across the country in recent months. You still talk about it as, quote, "burning embers." But I want to put up a chart that shows where we are with the illness over the last four months. As you can see, we hit a peak here in April, 36,000 cases...
TRUMP: Cases.
WALLACE: ... a day.
TRUMP: Yes, cases.
WALLACE: Then -- then it went down and now since June, it has gone up more than double. One day this week 75,000 new cases. More than double...
TRUMP: Chris, that's because we have great testing, because we have the best testing in the world. If we didn't test, you wouldn't be able to show that chart. If we tested half as much, those numbers would be down.
WALLACE: But -- but this isn't burning embers, sir? This is a forest fire.
TRUMP: No, no. But I don't say -- I say flames, we'll put out the flames. And we'll put out in some cases just burning embers. We also have burning embers. We have embers and we do have flames. Florida became more flame like, but it's -- it's going to be under control.
And, you know, it's not just this country, it’s many countries. We don't talk about it in the news. They don't talk about Mexico and Brazil and still parts of Europe, which actually got hit sooner than us, so it's a little ahead of us in that sense.
But you take a look, why don't they talk about Mexico? Which is not helping us. And all I can say is thank God I built most of the wall, because if I didn't have the wall up we would have a much bigger problem with Mexico.
WALLACE: But, sir, we have the seventh highest mortality rate in the world. Our mortality rate is higher than Brazil, it's higher than Russia and the European Union has us on a travel ban.
TRUMP: Yeah. I think what we'll do -- well, we have them under travel ban too, Chris. I closed them off. If you remember, I was the one that did the European Union very early.
But when you talk about mortality rates, I think it's the opposite. I think we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world.
WALLACE: That’s not true, sir. We, we, we have a -- we had 900 deaths on a single day...
TRUMP: We will take a look...
WALLACE: ... just this week...
TRUMP: Ready?
WALLACE: You, you can check it out.
TRUMP: Can you please get me the mortality rate?
TRUMP: Kayleigh's right here. I heard we have one of the lowest, maybe the lowest mortality rate anywhere in the world.
TRUMP: Do you have the numbers, please? Because I heard we had the best mortality rate.
TRUMP: Number, number one low mortality rate.
TRUMP: I hope you show the scenario because it shows what fake news is all about. Ok, go ahead.
WALLACE: OK, OK. I don’t think I’m fake news but I will -- we’ll put --
TRUMP: Yeah, you will --
WALLACE: -- put our stats on --
TRUMP: You said we had the worst mortality rate in the world --
WALLACE: I said you had --
TRUMP: -- and we have the best.
WALLACE VOICE OVER: All right. It’s a little complicated. But bear with us. We went with numbers from Johns Hopkins University which charted the mortality rate for 20 countries hit by the virus. The US ranked 7th better than the United Kingdom but worse than Brazil and Russia.
WALLACE VOICE OVER: The White House went with this chart from the European CDC which shows Italy and Spain doing worse. But countries like Brazil and South Korea doing better. Other countries doing better like Russia aren’t included in the White House chart.
WALLACE: California locking down again. Florida, deadliest day of the entire pandemic. Hospitals at capacity at a number of places around the country. Shortages of testing, shortages of personal protective equipment for nurses and doctors.
A lot of people say this is because we don't have a national plan. You talk about states. We don't have a national plan. Do you take responsibility for that?
TRUMP: Look, I take responsibility always for everything because it's ultimately my job, too. I have to get everybody in line.
Some governors have done well, some governors have done poorly. They're supposed to have supplies they didn't have. I supplied everybody.
Now we have somewhat of a surge in certain areas. And other areas we're doing great. But we have a surge in certain areas. But you don't hear people complaining about ventilators. We've got all the ventilators we can use. We're supplying them to other countries.
We go out into parking lots and everything, everybody gets a test. We find -- if we did half the testing -- with all of that being said, I'm glad we did it. This is the right way to do it. I'm glad we did what we're doing. But we have more tests by far than any country in the world.
WALLACE: But, sir, testing is up 37 percent.
TRUMP: Well, that's good.
WALLACE: I understand. Cases are up 194 percent. It isn't just that testing has gone up, it's that the virus has spread. The positivity rate has increased. There – the virus is…
TRUMP: Many of those cases...
WALLACE: ... worse than it was.
TRUMP: Many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day. They have the sniffles and we put it down as a test. Many of them -- don't forget, I guess it's like 99.7 percent, people are going to get better and in many cases they're going to get better very quickly.
We go out and we look and then on the news -- look if you go back to the news, all of your -- even your wonderful competitors, you'll see cases are up. Cases are up -- many of those cases shouldn't even be cases. Cases are up because we have the best testing in the world and we have the most testing.
No country has ever done what we've done in terms of testing. We are the envy of the world. They call and they say the most incredible job anybody's done is our job on testing, because we're going to very shortly be up to 50 million tests.
You look at other countries; they don't even do tests. They do tests if somebody walks into the hospital, they're sick, they're really sick, they test them then, or they'll test them in a doctor's office. But they don't go around have massive areas of testing and we do. And I'm glad we do, but it really skews the numbers.
And then came the question that Wallace may not have intended to ask. Wallace wanted to explore how the President would deal with losing the upcoming election.
WALLACE: Two final questions—
TRUMP: If he wins--
WALLACE: In general, not talking about November, are you a good loser?
TRUMP: I’m not a good loser. I don’t like to lose. I don’t lose too often. I don’t like to lose.
WALLACE: But are you gracious?
TRUMP: You don’t know until you see. It depends. I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election. I really do.
WALLACE: Are you suggesting that you might not accept the results of the election?
TRUMP: No. I have to see. Look, Hillary Clinton asked me the same thing.
WALLACE: No, I asked you the same thing at the debate.
TAPE: Presidential Debate, October 19, 2016
WALLACE: There is a tradition in this country -- in fact, one of the prides of this country -- is the peaceful transition of power and that no matter how hard-fought a campaign is, that at the end of the campaign that the loser concedes to the winner. Not saying that you're necessarily going to be the loser or the winner, but that the loser concedes to the winner and that the country comes together in part for the good of the country. Are you saying you're not prepared now to commit to that principle?
TRUMP: What I'm saying is that I will tell you at the time. I'll keep you in suspense. OK?
TRUMP: And you know what? She’s the one that never accepted it.
WALLACE: I agree.
TRUMP: She never accepted her loss and she looks like a fool.
WALLACE: But can you give a, can you give a direct answer you will accept the election?
TRUMP: I have to see. Look, you – I have to see. No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no, and I didn’t last time either.
WALLACE: Whether it’s in 2021 or 2025, how will you regard your years as President of the United States?
TRUMP: I think I was very unfairly treated. From before I even won I was under investigation by a bunch of thieves, crooks. It was an illegal investigation.
The President may have been trolling the media by suggesting the calls for mail in voting were opening the door to fraud, but it was one of the most quoted parts of the interview. What those who did much of the quoting left out was the reference to the woman who has never accepted the results of the 2016 election.
After the heated interview, the President graciously invited Wallace to enter the White House where it was about 30 degrees cooler
The complete text can be found here:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/transcript-fox-news-sunday-interview-with-president-trump
For those who like to watch:
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It was a tough interview, one that few of Trump's opponents could handle. We now have a seasoned veteran in the White House.
Not a veteran. A draft dodger.
A veteran of more hate-filled diatribe and slander than most could withstand. Case in point is the comment you just made.
You really want to go there? Bill Clinton ring any bells?
Love the hypocrisy of the left.
Before you say anything, I voted for Clinton second term. While I respect those that served, if is not a litmus test for who should or should not be president. However, he made me forever regret my vote by perjuring himself.
So you agree that Trump is a draft dodger.
Not until you and others experience getting up each and every morning to the prospect of finding that your family, friends and everyone who has supported you, as well as yourself, have been demeaned & ridiculed, will you ever come close to understanding what the left is capable of.
Would you agree that there never should have been student deferments for men in graduate school?
Now how about the article?
Wha, Wha?
Are you really going to say that's the norm?
Vic...and you know it.
We are at a new low - and you know it!
Joe Biden needs to come out of the basement and face similar scrutiny
TRUMP: And you know what? She’s the one that never accepted it.
WALLACE: I agree.
TRUMP: She never accepted her loss and she looks like a fool.
This is another example of why I stopped watching Fox News Sunday....
Wallace is just as left wing as his father was, even worse than Step-On-All-Of-Us and Chuckster the Huckster
In all fairness to the unforgettable Mike Wallace, he once, on a rare occasion, identified himself as a Republican. You see, that's the way it's supposed to be. If they function as real Journalists, we shouldn't be able to guess what their party affiliation is.
Trump was a seasoned liar and deflector long before he was elected.
Come on out of the mud puddle. Let's discuss the article. The interview began with the pandemic and the President's handling of it. Does your silence mean that you can't counter the President's defense of his record?
And your'e well prepared for such a discussion?
Please begin
Ok, It's been over 40 minutes, I'll take it from here.
The President put his faith in the lord high guru of medical science, his eminence Dr Anthony Fauci. Fauci at first told us we didn't need masks at the very time when other countries were urging people to wear them. Fauci has since admitted that he lied to us. Fauci also told us back in February that for Americans the virus was “low risk” and that we should not modify our behavior. In less than a month he urged the President to close down the American economy, which caused the collapse of a thriving robust economy. These days Fauci is talking out of both sides of his mouth trying to cover all the bases, but let none of us forget that the President listened to the advice of the so called "health experts." That is why we are at this place.
"This will pass?" What Fauci actually said"
There is always a qualifier to whatever Dr Fauci says, except when he admitted to lying about masks!
So Wallace 'may not have intended to ask' the question but he wanted to explore how Trump would deal with loosing? How do you square that Vic?
Can you explain what other avenue Wallace could have used, other than a question, for his exploration?
Oh and Fox just happened to have the tape ready to illustrate that the unintentional question was asked in 2016 too.
Pffft.
[Deleted]
Let me break it down:
Wallace wanted to explore how Trump would deal with losing. When Trump went off on mail in voting - then came the question Wallace didn't intend to ask - would Trump then accept the results?
Pffft.
I'm afraid that says it all!