President Donald Trump responded to probing questions about his Iran war strategy and repeated weather disruptions during an interview with US broadcaster NBC – but he walked away angrily when confronted about his baseless claims of election fraud.
“You are a one-sided, crooked network. Sorry. Let’s shut it down because I’ve had enough. Thank you, honey. Have a good time,” Trump told “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker before getting up and leaving the interview that aired Sunday.
The interview, filmed Friday, was conducted on a farm in Wisconsin, where Trump was speaking to farmers. A tractor and bales of hay served as decoration.
The interview was interrupted several times by weather and audio problems, as torrential rain hit the roof, making it difficult to continue the conversation.
“Is it wind or what?” Trump asked at one point.
“Hear that sound?” » he said later. “This sound of thunder, lightning, rain.”
Welker asked his technical team if they should stop.
“No. People will understand: we are on a farm,” replied the president.
Several questions followed about Iran, nuclear weapons and his election promises to keep the United States out of foreign wars.
“First of all, I didn’t guarantee that there wouldn’t be a war. Why would I build the most powerful army in the world?” he said, then accusing Welker of being “a great liberal, a great progressive.”
“No, I’m just a journalist,” she retorted.
Trump went on to say, “I don’t like these endless wars. It’s not an endless war. We’ve been doing this for three months.”
The tone further intensified as discussion turned to Trump’s proposed taxpayer-funded program to compensate people he says were victims of partisan lawsuits under his predecessor, Joe Biden.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with the arms fund,” he said. “I love the idea because people like you, the fake dirty press, the crooked press, people like stupid Biden… they destroyed people. They sent people to prison who didn’t do anything wrong.”
“There’s no evidence for what you’re saying,” Welker said.
Trump repeated false claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” and said last week’s primary in California was as well.
Welker stood his ground, asking the president to present evidence.
“Either you’re crooked or you’re stupid,” Trump finally retorted before leaving the camera’s view as Welker tried to keep him engaged.
On Sunday, Welker told viewers that she spoke with Trump on Saturday about the weather disruption and that he agreed to do another interview with her.
