Donald Trump cut short an NBC interview after being challenged on election fraud claims. The president grew visibly frustrated when asked to back up his assertions with evidence. The incident took place during a taping of Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, recorded at a barn in Wisconsin where Trump was attending an event with farmers. Rain hammering the metal roof caused repeated delays, but it was the line of questioning on electoral integrity that ultimately ended the session roughly 50 minutes in.
Donald Trump storms out of NBC interview
The NBC interview covered considerable ground before Donald Trump walked out. He addressed tensions with Iran, and a now-abandoned White House proposal known as the “anti-weaponization” fund. The latter has faced opposition from Democrats and some Republicans who warned it could benefit people prosecuted over the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.
From there, Kristen Welker steered the discussion toward Trump’s long-standing and unproven assertion that the 2020 presidential election was manipulated. He repeated the claim before pivoting to California’s primary elections, where vote counting was still underway to determine which candidates would appear on November’s midterm ballots. “They’re cheating on the election,” Trump said, referring to the four-day delay in calling results. Welker pressed him by asking, “Do you have evidence to support that?”
The president replied, “All I have to do is look, and I listen.” However, Welker pointed out that that’s not evidence. His response to Welker’s challenge was an assertion and personal. “They’re crooked,” he said, before turning the accusation on the presenter herself: “just like you’re crooked.”
When Welker responded that she was not crooked and attempted to continue, Trump told her she was either “crooked” or “stupid”. Moments later, he signalled the interview was over. “Sorry, let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you darling, have a good time.”
Welker tried to keep the conversation going, but Donald Trump started walking off. He urged the network to “straighten out your press.” Trump added, “A country can never be great with a dishonest press.”
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
