Five bizarre moments from Trump's interview with
Laura Ingraham
In a particularly odd Fox News interview, the
president riffed on Biden’s ‘shadow people’ and compared police shootings to
golf
Martin
Pengelly
@MartinPengelly
Tue 1 Sep
2020 17.25 BSTLast modified on Tue 1 Sep 2020 17.43 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/01/donald-trump-laura-ingraham-fox-news-interview
On Monday
night, Fox News broadcast the first part of an interview between Donald Trump
and Laura Ingraham. The primetime host is one of the president’s chief
boosters, having spoken on his behalf at the Republican convention in 2016.
But things
did not go entirely smoothly.
Echoing the
fallout from recent one-on-ones with Chris Wallace of Fox and Jonathan Swan of
Axios, much tougher interrogators, Trump’s rambling, confused,
conspiracy-tinged answers swiftly dominated the news agenda. Even by his own
standards, the interview contained some bizarre and outrageous statements.
Part two is
due on Tuesday night. But according to the influential Politico Playbook
newsletter, “very many people in the White House who would like Trump to win
re-election are against the sit-down TV interviews the president has been
doing.”
Here are
five reasons why:
1. Biden and the shadow people
Amid an
extended riff about the Democratic nominee being a “weak person” unable to deal
with protests over racism and police brutality in many US cities, Trump said:
“I don’t even like to mention Biden, because he’s not controlling anything.
They control him.”
Ingraham
gave Trump a chance to develop the thought: “Who do you think is pulling
Biden’s strings? Is it former Obama officials?”
Trump
didn’t think that.
‘People
that you’ve never heard of,” he said. “People that are in the dark shadows.
People that –”
Ingraham
interjected: “What does that mean? That sounds like conspiracy theory. Dark
shadows, what is that?”
“No,” said
Trump. “People that you haven’t heard of. They’re people that are on the
streets. They’re people that are controlling the streets.”
Joe Biden
boards a plane in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania on Monday.
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Joe Biden boards a plane in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, on Monday. Photograph:
Alex Wong/Getty Images
2. Shapes on a plane
The
president wasn’t finished.
“We had
somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend,” he said, “and in the
plane it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms,
black uniforms with gear and this and that. They’re on a plane.”
Ingraham
asked: “Where was this?”
“I’ll tell
you some time,” Trump said, “but it’s under investigation right now, but they
came from a certain city, and this person was coming to the Republican national
convention, and there were like seven people on the plane like this person, and
then a lot of people were on the plane to do big damage. They were coming for
–”
Ingraham
asked if he meant these people on a plane were coming to Washington.
“Yes,”
Trump said. “This is all happening.”
It may have
happened on Facebook. In the real world, less so. Ingraham moved on.
3. Police shootings are like golf
“The police
are under siege,” Trump said, as conversation turned to the shooting of Jacob
Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the killings of other African Americans and
protests over such deaths.
“They can
do 10,000 great acts, which is what they do, and one bad apple – or a choker –
you know, a choker. They choke. Shooting the guy [Blake] – shooting the guy in
the back many times. I mean, couldn’t you have done something different?
Couldn’t you have wrestled him? You know, I mean, in the meantime, he might
have been going for a weapon, and, you know, there’s a whole big thing there,
but they choke. Just like in a golf tournament, they miss a 3ft putt.”
Ingraham
seemed alarmed.
“You’re not
comparing to golf,” she said, “because, of course, that’s what the media would
say.”
“No,” said
Trump. “I’m saying people choke.”
“People
panic,” Ingraham said. “Yes.”
Trump likens police brutality to golfer
missing 'a 3ft putt' – video
4. ‘A sea of incompetent people’
“Let’s say
for the sake of argument,” Ingraham said, in fact posing a question backed by
solid polling data, “you have a deficit among female voters who may in some
cases [think] you’re too aggressive, your tone or your tweets. What do you say
to them directly about what you’ll do in a second term?”
“I have to
be aggressive,” Trump said, “because I’m like standing here in a sea of
incompetent people, stupid people and violent people – very violent people.”
Ingraham
suggest that “kind of language” might be to blame for problems with attracting
women’s support.
“Well,”
Trump said, “Where are we? We’re in the White House, I see. See? OK. So I’m
standing here in a sea of people, and we need law and order in this country and
women see that with me. You’re never going to have law and order with Biden.”
5. Rudy Giuliani is past it
Ingraham
invited Trump to attack Democrats who run New York, over crime and the
coronavirus. He did so gladly, lashing out at Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor
Bill de Blasio.
But in
yearning for the days when he was just another race-baiting Manhattan
billionaire backing a mayor who cracked down hard on crime, he perhaps nodded
to those who say that mayor, who somehow became Trump’s personal attorney and
fixer, may now have seen better days.
“You need a
young version of Rudy Giuliani,” Trump said. “He was a great mayor. He did a
great job. I think people are really beginning to – I saw it the other night.
He was at the event [the Republican convention, where Giuliani spoke]. People
were – ‘Rudy, we love you, Rudy.’ They’re desperate for a younger version.
“We should
probably put Rudy back now, he’s doing great. But you need a young version or a
younger version of Rudy Giuliani. You need a tough, smart guy.”
Trump also
said he had “a very good shot” of winning New York in the presidential
election. Most New Yorkers disagree.
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