President Donald Trump hardly ever lets up with the petulant complaints about his political opponents. He’s obsessively proclaiming the existence of supposed conspiracies against him in response to even the slightest bits of pressure. With this kind of public behavior, how on earth can anyone expect Trump to competently lead the United States? On Tuesday, Trump “abruptly ended” an interview with CBS’s Lesley Stahl, according to CNN, and the president subsequently melted down over the interview on Twitter. Trump referred to the interview as “terrible Electoral Intrusion,” as if he imagines that there’s a media conspiracy to take down his campaign via… asking him questions.
Apparently there was some drama while President Trump was taping his 60 Minutes interview today. He abruptly ended his solo interview after around 45 minutes & did not return for a scheduled walk & talk he was supposed to tape with Pence, @abdallahcnn and I are told by sources.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 20, 2020
He angrily tweeted:
‘I am pleased to inform you that, for the sake of accuracy in reporting, I am considering posting my interview with Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes, PRIOR TO AIRTIME! This will be done so that everybody can get a glimpse of what a FAKE and BIASED interview is all about. Everyone should compare this terrible Electoral Intrusion with the recent interviews of Sleepy Joe Biden!’
…Everyone should compare this terrible Electoral Intrusion with the recent interviews of Sleepy Joe Biden!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2020
To be clear: the interview was not “fake.” Trump is using the word “fake” to represent a concept that is not actually covered by the definition of the word “fake.” The interview was real! The questions were real! To get at what the president seems to be trying to allege via his unhinged ranting — no, there is no media conspiracy to undercut the Trump campaign. The president just flatly rejects reality at numerous junctures, preferring to stick to his self-centered and totally imaginary version of events. For instance, he has consistently tried to characterize his administration’s response to the Coronavirus as outstanding — but over 220,000 Americans are dead, with millions infected. In what universe is that the product of an “incredible” response?
This is nuts. COVID-19 has killed about 16 times as many Americans as the swine flu did, in half the time. @realDonaldTrump utterly failed to warn, protect, and help us. #TrumpLiedAmericansDied #TrumpKnew https://t.co/FkSUTN2Fsw
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) September 18, 2020
Although as of the time of the president’s tweets, the topics that Stahl brought up that sent the president reeling weren’t clear, it seems likely that the pandemic was among the interview topics. Trump has repeatedly brazenly lied about his own administration’s policies. For example, he has claimed that because he imposed a “ban” on travel from China in the early part of the pandemic, he saved millions of lives. That claim has no supporting evidence — and the travel restrictions weren’t even a “ban.” Tens of thousands of people flew from China to the U.S. after their implementation.
Yesterday, @realDonaldTrump decided to attack Dr. Fauci once again, calling him a ‘disaster’ and public health experts ‘idiots.’ Meanwhile, he still has no plan to beat this virus.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 20, 2020
Check out Twitter’s response to Trump’s anti-Stahl meltdown below:
