Donald Trump on Thursday leaked his own unedited and bad-tempered TV interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes on Facebook ahead of the show’s Sunday broadcast date and just hours before the final presidential debate with Joe Biden in Nashville.
The president tweeted “Look at the bias, hatred and rudeness” about his CBS interviewer Lesley Stahl.
He then repeated pre-emptive criticism of the moderator of Thursday’s final presidential debate, NBC’s Kristen Welker.
“Watch [Stahl’s] constant interruptions [and] anger. Compare my full, flowing and ‘magnificently brilliant’ answers,” Trump tweeted along with the link to the interview.
The footage shows the president growing increasingly frustrated as anchor Lesley Stahl presses him on the coronavirus pandemic, his slipping support with suburban women and the economy.
“Are you ready for some tough questions?” Stahl asked the Republican president as the 60 Minutes interview started. It only grew more testy from there.
By the end of the nearly 40-minute footage, Trump repeats Stahl’s comment by noting “that’s no way to talk”, and later complaining: “You’re so negative.”
Following Tuesday’s interview, reports immediately surfaced that Trump had abruptly cut it short after just 45 minutes, instead of the intended hour. The full interview turned out to be shorter as the president allegedly refused to return to tape a scheduled second portion with the vice-president, Mike Pence.
That day, he shared a clip on Twitter “for the sake of accuracy in reporting”, complaining that Stahl did not wear a mask. Producers contend Stahl did wear a mask when entering the White House. The selective clip was of their discussion immediately following the interview.
The news outlet went on to criticize the president’s decision to leak the entire video.
“The White House’s unprecedented decision to disregard their agreement with CBS News and release their footage will not deter 60 Minutes from providing its full, fair and contextual reporting, which presidents have participated in for decades,” the network said in a statement.
Trump’s premature ending of the interview was not the kind of storming off or ripping away of microphone that people might have imagined was coming, after much fevered media gossip earlier in the week.
Someone off-camera signaled that it was almost time to switch to taping Pence.
“Hey, we have the veep in five mins,” the person said. And then Trump said: “I think we have enough already, let’s go.”
Before leaving, the president lamented that Stahl’s colleagues at 60 Minutes and elsewhere in media are more delicate with Democratic rival Joe Biden.
“You don’t ask Joe Biden. I see Joe Biden getting softball after softball,” Trump said, taking issue with the vice president treatment, before returning to attacks on Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. The attacks were again based on an unconfirmed New York Post report alleging corruption in Joe Biden’s dealings with Ukraine, where Hunter Biden had a position on the board of a gas company.
After Stahl quipped that she is asking questions Americans want to know, Trump declared: “I think we have enough of an interview” before turning to staff and saying: “That’s enough, let’s go.”
Administration officials confirmed to 60 Minutes that they conducted their own interview recording for White House archival purposes.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
