Fox’s Maria Bartiromo Calls for ‘Answers’ on Trump’s UN Escalator Woes — Omits UN Spokesman’s Statement

Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo lamented that President Donald Trump’s troubles with the escalator at the United Nations “could have been a massive, massive issue” and called for “answers” — while omitting the statement a UN spokesman had already released on the matter.

Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were at the UN building Tuesday, where the president would deliver an hour-long speech to the UN General Assembly that lambasted other member nations and included a number of false claims that were swiftly fact-checked.

When the president and his wife arrived at the UN building, they walked towards the escalator, but it stopped suddenly right after they stepped on it. After pausing for a few moments, they continued walking up the escalator that was now temporarily stairs.

During Trump’s speech, the teleprompter was also faulty, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed the UN and demanded an investigation.

However, according to a statement released by UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric Tuesday evening, the escalator problem was caused when a videographer who was accompanying the U.S. delegation ran ahead of the president and accidentally set off a “stop mechanism” safety device at the top of the elevator.

Dujarric stated that the UN’s escalator technician was on site and was able to “reset the escalator as soon as the [U.S.] delegation had climbed up to the second floor,” and a “subsequent investigation, including a readout of the machine’s central processing unit, indicated that the escalator had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator.”

Regarding the teleprompter, the AP reported that a UN official “speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue” said the fault for those problems was with Trump’s team as well, because the White House was operating the teleprompter.

Trump shrugged off these reports and wrote a Truth Social post that demanded an investigation, ignoring what the UN had already said about its investigation showing the president’s own videographer at fault, and claiming the escalator problem was “absolutely sabotage” that could have been a “disaster” if he and Melania were not “holding the handrail tightly.”

The president called the escalator and other tech glitches a “triple sabotage” and “A REAL DISGRACE,” and added that those responsible “should be arrested!”

Like Trump, Bartiromo omitted both the on-the-record statement from the UN spokesman about the escalator and the AP report about the teleprompter when she discussed the issue a day-and-a-half later with Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) on Thursday’s episode of Mornings with Maria.

Bartiromo repeated Trump’s comments about the Secret Service investigating what the president was calling “triple sabotage” and then brought up a video clip of the escalator incident.

“Look how great Melania was,” Bartiromo praised the first lady. “She’s unfazed. She walks on it. It stops, she turns around to the president. And she just leads the president up and walks. So she was unfazed by it.”

She continued:

But this was — this could have been a massive, massive issue and the president being frozen there in one place makes him vulnerable. Later in the same morning the teleprompter goes dark in the middle of his speeches and then — in the middle of his address, rather — and then the president also said that the sound was off during his remarks and only the people with interpreters speaking into ear pieces could actually hear his address. The U.N. report said they had, they ordered a thorough investigation and are, quote, ready to cooperate in full transparency with relevant U.S. authorities. Congressman, do you know if we’re going to get answers on this?

Steube replied, also not mentioning the UN statement or AP report:

I surely hope so and if the Secret Service opened up an investigation and the UN’s doing an investigation, obviously all of those things could not be a coincidence. And thankfully the first lady and the president had their hands on the rail as they were going up the escalator or they likely would have fallen down and injured themselves. It seems to be intentional. Let’s hope it wasn’t. But it seems to be that was the case. Look, nothing worked at the U.N. — I don’t know why we’re part of the U.N. The president has been able to do the job of the U.N. since he’s been president and negotiating all these peace deals.

“Unbelievable,” Bartiromo replied, and thanked Steube for his time and went to commercial.

Watch the clip above via Fox Business.