‘I’ve Had Enough!’ Trump Storms Out of Meet the Press Interview in Wild Fashion — Explodes On NBC’s Kristen Welker After She Hits Him With Fact Checks
President Donald Trump stormed out of a Meet the Press interview Sunday — after moderator Kristen Welker repeatedly fact-checked his claims on a variety of topics including; Jan. 6, his “anti-weaponization” fund, and election fraud.
The heated six-minute final block of the interview began with Welker pressing Trump about the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund he continues to promote — despite his administration officially abandoning its efforts to launch the fund. Welker pressed — attempting to confirm that Trump is indeed throwing in the towel.
“Just to be very clear, are you backing off the fund completely as your acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has said, or are you looking for another avenue to revive the fund?” Welker asked.
Trump launched into a lengthy defense of the fund.
“So let me explain what the fund is,” Trump said. “People have been hurt so badly by radical left lunatics that worked for the Biden administration and Sleepy Joe. They’re vicious. They’re violent, what they did to people. And of course they went after me more than anybody else. They raided Mar-a-Lago and all the other things. But people have been badly hurt. They’ve committed suicide. They’ve lost their jobs. They’re lost their families. They’ve lost their wives. They’ve lost everything. They’ve lost everything over a fake weaponization of government. Now, let me just tell you—”
“So are you looking for a way to revive it?” Welker asked.
“Well, look. If it was up to me, I’d pay them the kind of money that they deserve,” Trump said. He added, “So me, personally, I think the weaponization fund is a great idea, and so do many other Republicans. You have to get it approved. If they get it approved, that’s great. If they don’t get it approved, I’d be disappointed.”
Welker pressed.
“Do you think anyone who attacked police officers on January 6th should get taxpayer money?”
“I wouldn’t be inclined to say so, but I have to see it,” Trump replied. “I can tell you this: 97% of those people, you look at them, the FBI or whoever it was, cause you had a lot of crooked cops, you had dirty cops. Comey was a dirty cop. A guy like Bolton was a dirty cop.”
“But there is no evidence that people who—” Welker said, before Trump interjected.
“Wait a minute,” Trump said. “You think Comey was a straight cop?
“We had 170 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers,” Welker replied.
“Comey was a dirty cop,” Trump said.
“But the people who assaulted police officers,” Welker shot back.
“Listen to me,” Trump said. “They had FBI agents ushering them into the building. They had FBI ‘Go into the building.’ Those people are walking around, they’re looking, “Oh, isn’t this nice?” … They were being ushered into the building.
“There’s no evidence of that, sir,” Welker said. “There’s no evidence of that.”
After riffing about “dirty cops,” Trump added, “Try looking at the tapes one time!”
Trump added, “I don’t know what’s going to happen with the weaponization fund. I love the idea, because people like you, the fake dirty press, the crooked press, people like stupid Biden, he’s not smart enough to know what’s going on, but people that surrounded him, surrounded his beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, what they did to the lives of people, they destroyed people. They sent people to jail who did nothing wrong.
Welker called out the president’s claims.
“Just to be very clear, there’s no evidence of what you’re saying,” she said.
“There’s a lot of evidence,” Trump said. “Listen to me…There’s tremendous evidence. There’s nothing but evidence.”
“Well, it’s not been presented in a court of a law,” Welker said.
“The election was rigged,” Trump claimed. “It was a dirty election. And it’s happening again right now in California.”
“Do you have evidence to support that?” Welker asked.
“All I have to do is look,” Trump said.
“But that’s not evidence,” Welker replied.
Trump centered his arguments around a delayed vote count — as many votes remain outstanding five days after the election. He called California officials “crooked.”
“They’re crooked just like you’re crooked, your press is crooked,” Trump said. “And Meet the Press is crooked.”
“To be fair, I’m not crooked,” Welker replied.
“Really?” Trump said. “Well, you play right into their hands then. You’re either crooked or you’re stupid.”
The interview blew up moments later. Here is a transcript of the final exchange:
PRES. DONALD TRUMP: You play right into their hands with this stuff. You know that these elections are rigged. Your network knows that they’re rigged. Do you know that I won an election in a landslide and I got 94% bad press.
KRISTEN WELKER: But Mr. President –
PRES. DONALD TRUMP: You know why I got that?
KRISTEN WELKER: – you’ve never presented –
PRES. DONALD TRUMP: Because you have no credibility.
KRISTEN WELKER: -evidence. But you’ve never presented evidence it was rigged. Let’s keep talking about, I want to talk about Todd Blanche.
PRES. DONALD TRUMP: You have more evidence, there’s more evidence than ever presented.
KRISTEN WELKER: Let’s talk about–
PRES. DONALD TRUMP: Your elections in this country –
KRISTEN WELKER: – you went to court.
PRES. DONALD TRUMP: We’re like a third world country.
KRISTEN WELKER: But sir –
PRES. DONALD TRUMP: Your elections are crooked and you’re crooked, and Meet the Press is crooked.
KRISTEN WELKER: But Mr. President–
PRES. DONALD TRUMP: And so is ABC and CBS and CNN.
KRISTEN WELKER: But Mr. President–
PRES. DONALD TRUMP: You’re a one-sided crooked network. Sorry. Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.
KRISTEN WELKER: Mr. President, let’s – please, I traveled all the way to Wisconsin.
PRES. DONALD TRUMP: I’ve sat in the rain with you–
KRISTEN WELKER: I traveled all – I know. I traveled all the way–
PRES. DONALD TRUMP: I sat in the rain with you for an hour.
KRISTEN WELKER: –to Wisconsin.
PRES. DONALD TRUMP: On and off in the rain, and I’ve given you enough time. You ought to straighten out your press, because you know what?
KRISTEN WELKER: Mr. President–
PRES. DONALD TRUMP: A country can never be great with a dishonest press.
KRISTEN WELKER: – we traveled all – listen. We traveled all the way to Wisconsin for this interview.
Watch above, via NBC.
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