The Conversation (0)
Greg Evans
Jul 20, 2020
Donald Trump has been president for almost four years now and in that time we were pretty sure that the president was a fan of Fox News but after this weekend their friendship might be over.
Although Trump is happy to appear on Sean Hannity's show and snuggle up to the controversial anchor but during an interview on Sunday, he clearly didn't have much time for Chris Wallace in a segment that descended into a farce featuring's impromptu cameo's from Kayleigh McEnany and pictures of elephants.
Wallace, who is a rare commodity on Fox, in that he doesn't sing Trump's praises that often, wasn't going to give the president an easy ride and things didn't get off to a great start when Wallace attempted to show Trump the coronavirus mortality rate in the United States, which Trump argued was the best in the world while Wallace said it worst.
This lead to Trump beckoning in McEnany to show Wallace and the viewers a different chart that didn't actually prove anything and led to Wallace fact-checking the president during the broadcast of the interview, which was actually recorded on Friday.
Trump calling Fox 'fake news'? Whatever next?
Even if Trump denies that the coronavirus death rate isn't one of the worst in the world, he cannot deny his country has seen a significant and worrying spike in cases since many states decided to reopen again with Florida alone now recording more cases than the entire United Kingdom. Trump conceded that the amount of tests being done is a good thing but tried to downplay the soaring numbers putting it down to young people who have the "sniffles."
After being quizzed on the death rate in the US, Trump then switched to once again blaming China and carelessly dismissing the numbers as "it is was it is."
Could you imagine the uproar if Barack Obama had said something like that?
A selection of clips is then played of Trump's attempts to say that the virus will just 'go away' to which the president added:
I'll be right eventually. You know I said 'it'll disappear' and I'll say it again 'it'll disappear' and I'll be right.
Trump then gives a very confusing statement on masks saying that he thinks that they are good but also saying that they cause problems. What are people supposed to believe?
Moving away from coronavirus, Trump is asked about his confusing stance on Confederate flags, which he sees as 'freedom of speech' and compares it to Black Lives Matter before actually saying something rather sensible about not wiping the Civil War from history otherwise the north and the south are destined to fight again. That being said, it shouldn't justify people displaying a flag that has links to slavery.
Trump was then asked about potentially renaming some military bases around the United States which are named in honour of Confederate general from the Civil War, such as Braxton Bragg, something which army officials said in June that they would be open too. Trump said:
Fort Bragg is a big deal. We won two World Wars, nobody even knows General Bragg. We won two World Wars. Go to that community where Fort Bragg is, in a great state, I love that state, go to the community, say how do you like the idea of renaming Fort Bragg, and then what are we going to name it?
Trump then seems to recoil at the thought of renaming the base after someone like civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton before bizarrely referring to the two world wars as 'beautiful.'
Moving on to the election, Wallace pulls a bold move by showing Trump a Fox News poll, before anyone else had seen it, which put the president eight points behind the Democrat and trailing on many key issues such as the economy, coronavirus and race relations. As you can guess, Trump didn't take too kindly to this.
Trump then goes on to complain about not being allowed to have rallies in states like Nevada, Michigan and Minnesota because of health concerns, hinting that this might be a conspiracy concocted by the Democrats.
Further polling figures from Fox show that people thought that Biden was of a more sound mind that Trump to which the president then brings up his already infamous 'cognitive test' which Wallace informs him that he has also taken, admitting that it really wasn't that hard. The reporter points out that one of the questions asks you to identify what is in the picture, which is nothing but an elephant.
In a couple of wild accusations, Trump claims that Biden will wipe out religion and 'life' in a reference to abortion if he wins.
Towards the end of the interview Wallace brings up the critical tweets that Trump has posted about him, which prompted a chuckle from the president after he admitted that his own son agreed with one of them. However, Trump then said that he wasn't a big fan of Fox, which we find hard to believe.
Shockingly, Trump then suggested that he might not accept the result of the election if he doesn't win, which is something that he was asked four years ago and gave the same answer.
Trump ends the interview by claiming that he has done more than any president in history in his first 3 and half years in office but despite all the scandals and controversies still believes that he has been "unfairly treated."
Incidentally, Trump clearly didn't think that this interview went very well at all as he chose to not mention it once on Twitter on Sunday which says a lot...