On Saturday night, Trump called into Judge Jeanine Pirro’s Fox News show for a rambling, dishonest, and easily fact-checked interview. While Pirro and the network never really asks Trump tough questions during interviews, Pirro did ask about the recent breaking New York Times story that reported an investigation into Trump by the FBI following his firing of former FBI Director James Comey due to suspicions he was working on behalf of Russia.
Trump for some reason refuses to give a direct answer to question whether he is a Russian asset or works for the government of Russia. pic.twitter.com/GyjGvVEWXo
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) January 13, 2019
Giving Trump a chance to deny the claims, Pirro asked the president directly if the story was true.
‘I’m going to ask you: Are you now or have you ever worked for Russia, Mr. President?’
Trump gave a rambling and thoroughly dishonest answer to the question.
‘I think it’s the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked. I think it’s the most insulting article I’ve ever had written. If you read that article, you would see they found absolutely nothing. But the headline of that article? It’s called the failing New York Times for a reason. They’ve gotten me wrong for three years. They’ve actually gotten me wrong for many years before that.’
This is a complete misrepresentation of the story, but even more, viewers noted what was missing. Trump did not say no.
NYT reports that law enforcement officials were so concerned by Trump's actions after firing Comey that the FBI began investigating whether Trump was a Russian agent: https://t.co/V4zTs05aex
— Scott Stedman (@ScottMStedman) January 12, 2019
The story by The New York Times offered several notable reported incidents around the firing of Comey that led to the investigation. Two of the most memorable include Trump’s Lester Holt interview in which he stated quite plainly that he fired Comey to stop the investigation into Russian collusion. The other occurred when Trump invited Kremlin officials into the White House and refused to allow American reporters to be present, after which Russian media disclosed that Trump told those officials that firing Comey took “a lot of pressure” off him around that investigation.
Trump with a whopper here!
"I'm a very honest person"
Then? Trump uses the office of the presidency to ask for an investigation of a private citizen, Cohen's father-in-law.
Wide-open witness tampering. Trying to scare Cohen with a threat to his wife's father
Wow @SenateGOP pic.twitter.com/26BhERNe2M
— ☇RiotWomenn☇ (@riotwomennn) January 13, 2019
The FBI has not confirmed that they “found nothing” during that investigation, and neither Trump nor anyone else knows exactly what evidence has been gathered or what it proves. The very idea that the current president of the United States may be working as an agent for a hostile foreign nation is alarming, and reports from Mueller once the investigation is completed may be even more so.
Trump: “A lot of people that aren’t getting their checks are letting us know, ‘we don’t care. You’ve got to solve the crisis at the border'”: Federal workers say 'we don't care' about not getting paid — Trump tells Fox News host Jeanine Pirro https://t.co/YTfj6jphhj
— EssenViews/Commentary (@essenviews) January 13, 2019
For the full episode that includes Trump’s long and completely dishonest phone interview with Pirro, see below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS1rRBZs8Sk
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
