Donald Trump storms out of interview when quizzed about false election claims
Updated . First published at
A visibly furious US President Donald Trump has stormed out of a television interview when he was grilled about his claims American elections were routinely rigged.
Trump pulled the plug on his testy interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, throwing his microphone and stomping on it. The episode of the long-running political show was recorded last week and aired on Sunday.
Donald Trump stormed out of an interview with NBC host Kristen Welker. NBC News
During the interview, recorded on a farm with the backdrop of hay bales and machinery, he repeated his false claims the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden was fixed.
Tensions spiked when host Kristen Welker pointed out that Trump and had failed to put forward any evidence for those claims.
Citing last week’s elections for California governor and Los Angeles and the slow vote count, the president insisted there was “tremendous evidence”.
“The election was rigged, it was a dirty election and it’s happening again right now in California,” said Trump.
When Welker told him the state routinely takes days or even days for votes to be counted and asked him if he had any evidence of ballot rigging, Trump began to unleash on her and parts of the American media.
“You’re either crooked or you’re stupid,” he told Welker.
“You know that these elections are rigged. Your network knows that they’re rigged.
“We’re like a third world country. Your elections are crooked, and you’re crooked, and Meet The Press is crooked, and so is ABC and CBS and CNN. You’re one-sided, crooked networks.”
Donald Trump became visibly angry during the NBC interview. NBC
Signalling to his staff he wanted to close the interview, Trump told Welker: “Let’s call it quits, ’cos I’ve had enough. Thank you darling, have a good time.”
In other parts of the NBC interview, Trump was asked about progress in the Iran war, which reached a 100-day milestone on Sunday.
He insisted the conflict is “not an endless war” and compared it with the United States’ long involvement in the Vietnam War.
“You know, Vietnam lasted 19 years. I’m into my third month, and all I do is say, whoa, when are you going to end?”
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