CNN anchor Chris Wallace shared laughs with filmmaker Judd Apatow over the “beatdown” of then-mogul Donald Trump by President Barack Obama at the WHCD — that Apatow helped engineer.
New episodes of Wallace’s series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace premiered on HBO Max Friday, featuring in-depth interviews with filmmaker Judd Apatow, Chef José Andrés, and baseball great Alex Rodriguez.
In the Apatow episode, Wallace dissected the filmmaker’s oeuvre, talked “cancel culture,” and covered a variety of other topics. He wrapped up by asking about that fateful 2011 dinner, which some wags peg as the moment Trump decided to seek the presidency:
WALLACE: Finally, it has been suggested that you are responsible for Donald Trump becoming president of the United States.APATOW: How dare you? How dare you.WALLACE: And, you know, the the the allegation, the assertion, which I think even David Axelrod made, which was that you participated in writing jokes for Barack Obama for the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, where he famously went after a fellow in the audience named Donald Trump and we have some of that.[CLIP]APATOW: There’s a funny part of that shot that I just noticed, it looks like Rick Scott but it might not beWALLACE: No, it was Rick Scott. I noticed that for the first time too, the Senator from…APATOW: With a sycophant looks like he’s literally doing this the whole time. Like, is he
laughing?WALLACE: And this was, this is for a real estate mogul. He’s not anything in terms of politics at that point. You know, a lot of people say it was because of that beat down and that humiliation that Trump finally decided after flirting with it for a long time. Yeah, I’m gonna run. So my question is, Judd, has that been hard to live with?APATOW: I don’t believe that history is true. That was more. That was the night that they had Bin Laden was killed.WALLACE: The next night.APATOW: So what year was that?WALLACE: 2011.APATOW: 2011. So it was five years before it happened. And I think that he always was flirting with it. I saw the Roger Stone documentary and I think every four years, he almost got into the game. And I think his calculation to get into the game was not like, oh, four years ago, somebody made a joke. I think he’s certainly, as we’ve seen wanted to be in power.WALLACE: I think you are underestimating the power of your beatdown of Donald Trump and the scars that it left. Judd, Thank you. This has been a joy, keep making funny stuff.APATOW: Thank you and I will try to rock these endings a little bit harder. Okay, knowing you’re in your pajamas watching.
Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace drops full episodes each Friday, and CNN
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