WATCH: Trump Hangs Up on NPR’s Steve Inskeep After Being Challenged on Election Fraud Claims
Former President Donald Trump called into NPR for a contentious interview with Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep Tuesday, audio of which was released Wednesday morning.
Inskeep did a terrific job confronting Trump on his continued promotion of baseless election fraud claims, the details of which the former president could do little to explain.
After roughly five minutes of that back and forth, Trump finally gave up and hung up the phone, the transcript of that portion is below:
TRUMP: “Let me ask you this question. How come Biden couldn’t attract 20 people for a crowd? How come when he went to speak in different locations, nobody came to watch, but all of a sudden, he got 80 million votes? Nobody believes that, Steve. Nobody believes that.”
INSKEEP: “If you’ll forgive me, maybe because the election was about you. If I can just move on to ask, are you telling Republicans in 2022 that they must press your case on the past election in order to get your endorsement? Is that an absolute?”
TRUMP: “They are going to do whatever they want to do – whatever they have to do, they’re going to do. But the ones that are smart – the ones that know, you take a look at, again. You take a look at how Kari Lake is doing, running for governor. She’s very big on this issue. She’s leading by a lot. People have no idea how big this issue is, and they don’t want it to happen again. It shouldn’t be allowed to happen, and they don’t want it to happen again.”
INSKEEP: “I want to –”
TRUMP: “And the only way it’s not going to happen again is you have to solve the problem of the presidential rigged election of 2020.”
INSKEEP: “Mr. President, if I —”
TRUMP: “So Steve, thank you very much. I appreciate it.”
INSKEEP: “Woah, woah, woah, I have one more question. I want to ask about a court hearing yesterday on Jan. 6. Judge Amit Mehta. He’s gone. OK.”
Watch above via NPR.
