After a tumultuous week of embarrassing news reports, President Donald Trump availed himself for a one on one interview with Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Pete Hegseth.
This was not a traditional sit-down interview, however, as the Fox & Friends Weekend co-host asked the Commander in Chief questions on a Billings, Montana stage just after last night’s political rally had ended. Trump and Hegseth shared a microphone and their comments were audible to the audience in attendance, which made the entire charade look more like a professional wrestling bit than a traditional interview.
But it was the first one on one interview since details from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Bob Woodward have come out that have painted the Commander in Chief as petulant and mean-spirited manager and the New York Times published an anonymous op-ed column from a senior staffer in the Trump administration admitting to undermining Trump’s directives in the name of national security.
This is how Trump responded to Hegseth’s query:
Number one, the Times should have never done that because really what they have done is virtually, you know, it’s treason. You can call it a lot of things. But to think have you somebody in all of the cabinet came forward, writing editorials. They are all saying it’s got to be at a fairly low level, some people today coming out I see all of the people saying such great things. We have a lot of love in the administration. And the White House is truly as you would say a well-oiled machine. It is working so well..
This is the first interview Trump has provided since last month when he sat down another Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt. Earhardt and Hegseth are favorites of President Trump, though neither are considered “journalists” nor follow accepted journalistic standards and often offer pro-Trump opinions while on air.
The last broadcast interview Trump provided to a journalist not employed by Fox News was with NBC News anchor Lester Holt in which he admitted to firing then FBI Director James Comey in part because of the Russia investigation. That interview lays at the heart of claims that Trump obstructed justice which is currently being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Hegseth’s questions notably came from a sympathetic and agreeable position, so there will likely be no threats of “obstruction of justice charges to come from this interview.
Watch the clip above, courtesy of Fox News.
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