Trump Lashes Out at ‘Terrible’ People on ‘Trump Hater’ Networks Hosting Debates in Mark Levin Interview
Former President Donald Trump lashed out at the media outlets hosting debates this election cycle as “Trump haters at the highest level” in an interview with Mark Levin on Fox News. Trump has been on the attack against the two networks hosting debates — CNN and ABC News — despite having previously praised CNN’s moderators for their handling of the first debate in June.
Speaking to host Mark Levin for Life, Liberty and Levin on Sunday the former president criticized the cable news networks as pitched against him, calling out ABC journalists George Stephanopoulos and Jonathan Karl as “terrible” people.
ABC is probably the worst in terms of fairness. George Flopadopalous… The people they have there are just terrible, Jonathan Karl. And that’s the only one [Kamala Harris] will go to. The other one is the head of ABC, her best friend and her husband’s best friend too. And I had to make a decision. Do I want to debate? I like to debate, I guess I won a lot of debates because otherwise I would not have been president. I had a lot of debates, initially, then I had quite a few.
Trump continued to talk about his June 27 CNN debate with President Joe Biden, which sparked intense pressure for Biden to make the decision to withdraw from the presidential race. Knocking debate hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, Trump said he was “surprised” they wanted him to debate Biden and said he “agreed to all of these things” which he would not normally agree to, presumably citing the unique rules of debate like muted mics.
The last one with Joe Biden I think I did a very good job. Maybe I did too good of a job. But he was shielded and sheltered. Here’s a man that’s in charge of nuclear warfare and stuff and I don’t think he should have been there. But that was a debate and it was their idea they wanted to do it, I said, ‘I’ll do it if you want.’ They gave me CNN. They gave me Jake Tapper and they gave me Dana Bash, who traditionally you would never do it with them because they are Trump haters at the highest level and CNN is a Trump hater.
Basically they’re liberals. I don’t like to use the word progressive, it’s too pretty a word. Progressive means you think into the future. They are actually thinking to 3000 years ago, these people. They are not progressive. But they are liberal. I took it because that was the only way you can get a debate. I was surprised they did a debate. I don’t think they wanted me to take it. I thought they would say he wouldn’t take it, therefore Biden does not have to debate. But I agreed to all of these things I normally would not agree too.
Despite Trump’s comments about Tapper and Bash, he previously praised them as having treated him “fairly” in the CNN debate.
The remarks come as the Harris and Trump campaigns continue to clash over how microphones will be handled at their upcoming September 10 debate. The Trump campaign, along with host ABC News, is pushing for the mics to be muted when a candidate is not speaking, just as they were during the CNN Biden-Trump debate. However, over the weekend, Harris doubled down on the push for live mics, calling for a “transparent debate” and goading Trump’s team for not having “confidence in him.”
Watch on Fox News.
