President Trump aired numerous grievances when pressed by Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace during a lengthy interview that aired Sunday morning.
From standing by his previous claim that the coronavirus will “disappear” someday to refusing to commit to accepting the results of the November election, the President’s brain was picked on a wide range of topics during his interview on Fox News Sunday.
Here are the key takeaways from Trump’s interview on Fox News Sunday:
Doubling down on his claim of the coronavirus “disappearing” someday
When Wallace confronted Trump regarding his predictions about the coronavirus “disappearing” someday, Trump replied that he’ll be “right eventually.”
When asked about his administration’s recent efforts to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci — which include an unnamed White House official sending a memo to news outlets last week criticizing Fauci’s past comments on the coronavirus that later turned out to be inaccurate — Trump first replied that “we’re not” before repeating his line that although the nation’s top infectious disease expert has “made some mistakes,” he has a “very good relationship” with Fauci.
After Trump went on to call Fauci “a little bit of an alarmist,” the President argued that he will be “right eventually” about his previous claim that the coronavirus will “disappear” despite surging cases of the coronavirus throughout the country.
On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that the Trump administration is seeking to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in the upcoming coronavirus relief bill.
Trump claims that he'll be "right eventually" about the coronavirus "disappearing" pic.twitter.com/uiFqCEbBMR
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) July 19, 2020
Defending the Confederate flag
Pressed on whether the Confederate flag is offensive,” Trump said “it depends.”
“It depends on who you’re talking about, when you’re talking about,” Trump said. “When people proudly have their Confederate flags, they’re not talking about racism. They love their flag, it represents the South, they like the South. People right now like the South. I’d say it’s freedom of, of, of many things, but it’s freedom of speech.”
Wallace then asked if he’s offended by the Confederate flag.
“Well, I’m not offended either by Black Lives Matter,” Trump said. “That’s freedom of speech.”
Trump defends the Confederate flag pic.twitter.com/b2q5sn8XMO
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) July 19, 2020
Piling on more attacks against Biden
Upon being shown a Fox News poll that indicates Biden leading him by eight points, Trump denied that he’s losing because “those are fake polls.”
“They were fake in 2016 and now they’re even more fake,” Trump said. “The polls were much worse in 2016.”
The President then claimed, without evidence, that he has “other polls” showing that he’s leading, before going on to slamming Biden because he “can’t put two sentences together.”
‘They wheeled him out, he goes up, he repeats, they ask him questions, he reads the teleprompter and then he goes back into his basement,” Trump said. “You tell me the American people want to have that in an age where we are in trouble with other nations that are looking to do numbers on us.”
Trump attacks Biden after being shown a Fox News poll that shows he's losing to the former VP pic.twitter.com/XkEaQI7eXP
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) July 19, 2020
Griping about his inability to hold rallies amid the COVID-19 pandemic
After railing against Democrats for “purposely keeping their schools closed,” Trump displayed his dissatisfaction over being unable to hold rallies in states led by Democratic governors.
“I called Michigan. I want to have a big rally in Michigan. You know we are not allowed to have a rally in Michigan?” Trump said. “Do you know we are not allowed to have a rally in Minnesota? Do you know we’re not allowed to have a rally in Nevada? We’re not allowed to have rallies in these Democrat-run states.”
Trump gripes about Democratic-run states not allowing him to hold rallies pic.twitter.com/M0SSvigndD
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) July 19, 2020
Refusing to guarantee he will accept the results of the November election
After Trump doubled down on his baseless claim that mail-in voting will “rig the election,” Wallace asked if he’s suggesting that he might not accept the election in November.
“I have to see,” Trump said, before repeating his assertion when pressed on the question again.
When asked if he can give a direct answer about whether he will accept the election, Trump replied, "I have to see." pic.twitter.com/QgRWyCM3D4
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) July 19, 2020
Et tu vulpes?
This is 110% narcasism. Lincoln project will mine this for clips for weeks. The most devastating is him again denying Covid-19 is a problem, claiming we are doing better than Europe as they “don’t test in Europe”.
. Just bonkers
We just passed 140,000 deaths, with the worst being in red/swing states (FL, AZ, and now swinging - due to trump TX, GA, even SC) and trump is asking people who are losing jobs and life to just forget about it, pretend it is not happening and just send their kids back to school. So not gonna end well for him politically.
As Nate silver (who keeps arguing trump has better chance than the numbers suggest) admitted, the biggest issue Trump has is he can’t change:
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1284851929164795906
And about that “FOX NEWS” Poll that wallace confronted him with:
ABC/Post out with their poll last night (538 A+ pollster), had Biden at 55%, Trump at 40% (RV). I - and basically everyone else who is looking at the numbers - believes that Covid-19 approval is basically the entire game, as covid-19 approval goes so goes the election. here is what the Post found on Trump’s covid approval numbers:
And here is the head to head:
I raise this because basically every poll - on line, or live operator poll shows Trump’s handling of Covid-19 is being viewed (as reality would suggest) worse and worse as he withdraws and infections climb.
But the FOX News Poll has these numbers:
No fall, flat ratings on Covid-19 over the last two months. And note also how Fox’s march/April numbers were flat too? I just don’t believe these numbers. They don’t reflect reality.
Likewise - while every other poll shows Trump’s numbers on race relations fell, FOX shows they went up:
The result of these weird numbers it that FOX actually has Trump’s standing getting better:
I don’t know what is going on with the FOX poll. It is always possible that they are actually just getting a more republican return on survey’s than in prior samples, but it is also possible that they are adjusting how they are modling who gets in the sample and the weighting to try to produce slightly more pro-Trump results.
Just raising this as an interesting issue since these results seem to defy what everyone else is changing, and while their polling has been down the middle in the past, you never know…
Braggadocios Stable Genus-Mulish Sore-Loser Trump will lie, cheat, steal and rig to win re-election…because it’s the jail thing!
Here’s a better choice…everything Trump is NOT!
Trump: “I do not take responsibility”
New NYT expose of Trump’s blame shifting Irresponsibility:
That’s Dereliction of Duty and Criminal Negligence!
Addendum:
Q: Who would describe world wars as “beautiful”?
A: Stable Genus Ass’ beautiful low cognitive mind!
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1284846580747640835
Addendum2:
Unpresidented Idiot!
When the cognitive test nonsense isn’t even in the top five…ouch
“Well, I’m not offended either by Black Lives Matter,” Trump said.
Wait a sec, I remember you calling BLM “A symbol of hate.”