After rinsing CBS for $16 million, influencing who is allowed to host US late-night talk shows and still continuing his absurd $10 billion court claim against the BBC, has Donald Trump got yet another broadcaster in his sights?
The TV-obsessed leader of the free world is in a funk with “one-sided crooked network” NBC after storming out of an interview with Meet the Press host Kristen Welker as she asked him about his lies that the current primary election in California had been rigged.
Trump has claimed that the Democrats are attempting to rig the election, apparently on the basis that the votes were taking days to be counted – routine in California, where automatic mail-in ballots mean vote-counting frequently takes weeks.
After he told Welker that “They’re cheating on the election”, the presenter asked: “Do you have evidence to support that?” “All I have to do is look, and I listen,” the president replied.
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“But that’s not evidence,” said Welker. “They’re crooked,” Trump continued, “just like you’re crooked”.
After Welker responded: “To be fair, I’m not crooked. But let’s continue”, Trump told her, “you’re either crooked or you’re stupid”, and after a further exchange said: “Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you darling, have a good time.
“I’ve sat in the rain with you for an hour, on and off in the rain, and I’ve given you enough time. You ought to straighten out your press, because you know what? A country can never be great with a dishonest press.”
He then gestured to his people behind the camera, saying “come on, let’s go”, before standing up and walking off the set. Sounds like NBC can be expecting a legal letter from Trump’s lawyers sometime very soon!
Elsewhere in the interview, Trump directly contradicted his own government by insisting he was continuing to press for $1.776 billion in federal funding for a slush fund to reward his supporters who attempted to overthrow Congress on January 6, 2021, claiming that they had been persecuted by Joe Biden.
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Last week, Trump’s attorney general Todd Blanche told unhappy Republicans that the fund was “not moving forward”, and in a court filing last Friday, government attorneys said the administration “will not” revive the fund.
Trump contradicted this in his interview, though, telling Welker: “If it was up to me, I’d pay them the kind of money that they deserve. People have been destroyed. Lives have been destroyed. Many suicides, think of it.
“I think the weaponisation fund is a great idea, and so do many other Republicans. You have to get it approved. If they get it approved, that’s great. If they don’t get it approved, I’d be disappointed.”
Over on CNN on the same day, though, Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick was telling State of the Union: “Every dime that every agency in the executive branch has comes from Congress. So that is our determination. The votes are not there and will not be there to give a dime to this fund.” Popcorn time…
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