Former President Donald Trump didn’t pull any punches when mocking Fox News for its cable ratings crash during a tense interview with Fox News Channel host Brett Baier on the night of Monday, June 19th.
That came when, during the interview, Baier asked Trump how he thinks about or responds to those voters who might like his policies and general political ideas well enough but can’t handle his constant bickering, bomb-throwing, and scandals.
Asking about that, Baier said, “What do you say to the voter who really liked many of your policies, but they can’t handle the scandals or the controversies or the name-calling and the vitriol? What do you say to that voter who’s worried that all leads to a general election loss?”
Trump, in response, pointed to his current ratings, ratings which have ticked up in response to his recent indictment, which he called a “political witch hunt.” He said: “Based on the polls, I’m leading Biden by a lot. Based on the polls, I’m leading all of the Republicans by a lot, by 40 points and more. Right now, I have the best polls I’ve ever had. People see this stuff for what it is. It’s a political witch hunt.”
However, the question did seem to annoy Trump, so when Baier noted that “more independent voters watch Fox News than any other TV source,” Trump fired back by saying, “A lot less than used to watch it.” Baier, responding, attempted to push back a bit, saying, “They do watch.” Trump didn’t back down. Sticking to his guns, he remarked, “A lot less, Bret.” Baier glared at Trump as he twisted the knife about the network’s crashing ratings.
Baier then, attempting to dodge the ratings comments for obvious reasons, returned to the independent voters topic and said, “Those voters usually… they usually make up all the difference in the election.” He then asked Trump how he would win them back, particularly female voters in suburbs that seem to detest him. Watch the tense exchange here:
In addition to fighting about winning over independents and Fox News Channel’s ratings, Baier and Trump fought over Trump’s handling of the classified documents at issue in his recent indictment. Baier, asking about them, said, “Why did you have this very sensitive national security defense documents, like the war plans for a strike on Iran?”
Former President Trump defended his conduct by saying that he had other personal items in the boxes in which the documents at issue were packed and he needed to get that out first, saying, “So like every other president, I take things out, and in my case I took it out pretty much in a hurry but people packed it up and we left. I had clothing in there. I had all sorts of personal items, and they are much, much stuff.”
Trump also tore into former AG William Barr, insisting that he fired him “because he didn’t have the courage to go after so many different things. He was a coward.” AG Barr, under whose watch Epstein died in prison under suspicious circumstances, is the son of the man who hired Epstein to work at the Dalton School despite having no qualifications to work there, and where he was creepy toward the young female students.
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