Donald Trump gave his first one-on-one “presidential” interview to ABC News’ David Muir on Wednesday night. Many of the answers retreaded previous quotes, but a few jaw-dropping moments occurred when Muir broached the “crowd-size” mess from a few angles. Yes, this is still ongoing, even after Sean Spicer angrily lied about the size and claimed that this was the most enormous Inauguration Day crowd ever.
Muir quizzed Trump about why he even cared about size so much when he won the election, and why on earth would he stand in front of a CIA Memorial Wall and stormily complain about the media (accurately) comparing his crowd to Obama’s attendees.
Trump used this opportunity to bash the media, as always, but he went even further by scolding the heck out of Muir and ABC News for covering the CIA speech “very inaccurately.” Basically, it sounds like Trump would have preferred the “alternative facts” treatment, and he praised the heck out of Fox News for praising him:
“That speech was a home run. That speech, if you look at Fox, okay, I’ll mention you … we see what Fox said. They said it was one of the great speeches. They showed the people applauding and screaming and — and they were all CIA. There was … somebody was asking Sean … ‘Well, were they Trump people that were put…’ we don’t have Trump people. They were CIA people … People loved it. They loved it. They gave me a standing ovation for a long period of time. They never even sat down, most of them, during the speech. There was love in the room. You and other networks covered it very inaccurately. I hate to say this to you and you probably won’t put it on but turn on Fox and see how it was covered.”
Towards the end of this excerpt, Trump was actually challenging ABC News to the point where they had to air his ridiculous crowd-size claims. He also sassed Muir: “I think you’re demeaning by talking the way you’re talking … And that’s why you have a 17 percent approval rating, which is pretty bad.” He’s starting to sound like Kellyanne Conway, who recently told Chuck Todd that the press has a 14% approval rating. Neither Trump nor Conway cited a source to back up these percentages.
When Muir also addressed Trump’s vow to bring “a major investigation” for (nonexistent) voter fraud in an election that he won, Trump defiantly said millions of people are in tune with with his (false) claims:
“Let me just tell you, you know what’s important, millions of people agree with me when I say that if you would’ve looked on one of the other networks and all of the people that were calling in they’re saying, ‘We agree with Mr. Trump. We agree.’ They’re very smart people.”
Well, Trump has convinced roughly 52% or Republicans that he won the popular vote, which isn’t true. So, it makes sense that they’d also believe his false claims about millions of illegal ballots costing him the popular vote. It’s all insane.
If you missed this interview, you also must see this clip of Trump making Muir stare at his inauguration crowd photo (the one with the wrong date) and bragging about how so many people came to see him.
President Trump makes David Muir look at a framed photo of his inauguration crowd. #MAGA #POTUSonABC pic.twitter.com/LlPkiE86DZ
— Vic Berger IV (@VicBergerIV) January 26, 2017