On Monday, Donald Trump sat down for a face-to-face interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier. Perched on a familiar stool in front of cameras that have spent so much time pointing his way his face must be burned in their hearts, and fresh off his primetime CNN promo in front of a handpicked audience that has him Told to cheer his every word, Trump had to plan for an easy sledge.
Only Baier did the surprising thing: he asked real questions, ones that didn’t just prompt Trump to repeat some of his long-established rant. Questions like why Trump kept the classified documents in the face of multiple requests from the National Archives and the Justice Department, and why he continues to refuse to admit he lost the 2020 election. be funnier than when Baier asked Trump why everyone he worked with, all those “best people” he hired in 2016, came to hate him.
Baier’s list of people who have been appointed by Trump to the most important positions in government, but who would no longer support his race to clean up the streets, is a reference to be returned to again and again. A chief of staff. Another chief of staff. Secretary of Defense. Attorney General. Press officer. Secretary of State. Transportation Secretary. UN Ambassador. And Mike Pence.
If that’s not enough of Trump slamming Bill Barr, don’t worry. There are many more.
In response to why he hired people who had “very small brains”, who were “dumb as rocks” or who were “gutless pigs”, Trump’s response was that he hired “10 good people” for each of these very bad people. And then Trump I can’t name just one. The best he can do is to say that he had very good people in charge of the economy. It would be this economy.
Trump’s “best” achievement was exactly like his best elements: a disaster. He crushed the economy in a way that hasn’t been seen…since the last time a Republican was in the White House. This economy rebounded under Biden, but still hasn’t stabilized because of mismanagement by Trump’s anonymous people.
During his interview with Baier, Trump mostly allowed the Fox anchor to finish his questions, which he didn’t allow CNN host Kaitlin Collins or any other woman who dared to address a question. request in its own way. However, there was a moment when Trump seemed determined to break out his canter and trot right over Baier.
Trump’s insistence on dismissing one debunked conspiracy and proven false narrative after another on this point is illuminating both because it’s clear he doesn’t want to give Baier time to confront either of them. these claims one at a time, and because it’s all just a litany of names and gibberish unidentifiable by anyone outside of the MAGA horde. It’s all “the 51 agents” and the “true recounts” – phrases that would mean nothing to someone who hasn’t been neck deep in conspiracy country. Even Baier seems exhausted from efforts to get Trump to deal with the facts.
But the part of the interview already making the news outside of Fox is the part where Trump admits to withholding the documents. Again. And the part where he claims that the Bedminster document, the one he was caught talking about on tape and waving at visitors, doesn’t exist.
Confronted with the documents, Trump gives what may be his best reason so far when it comes to withholding highly classified national defense documents: Trump did not hand over the boxes because he feared he would run out of golf shirts. And he had apparently put away some pants. As we do.
If you keep track of Trump’s apologies, there are three that Trump has repeated over and over.
To these, America can now add “I was too busy” and “because there were shoes”. And shirts. And pants. Boxes of pants. Trump also repeats the “everything has been declassified” lie at the end of this ride, as well as another claim that the National Archives may “provide” other documents.
But even the pants aren’t the most ridiculous part of this statement. There’s also the part where Trump proclaims that the Bedminster document – the document that Trump tape-recorded stating “like, highly confidential” – is not real. On the recording, Trump can be heard describing the document, explaining how it was prepared for him and warning about its sensitivity. “As president, I could have declassified it,” Trump said. “Now I can’t, you know, but it’s still a secret.”
But now Trump says the document does not exist.
Trump: “There is no document there. They were newspaper articles. They were copies of articles and magazines. There were no documents there.
So Trump says he told people a collection of newspaper articles and magazine clippings were “secret” and he could have declassified them?
Although he described the documents as having been prepared by General Mark Milley, Trump insists to Baier that he “never saw a document from Milley” and that “Miley was simply incompetent”. Which makes him a perfect fit with all the other Trump appointees.
To top off the theme of the evening, after Trump insisted that there was nothing but a collection of newspaper and magazine excerpts, and not a classified document, Baier made another cut.
Baier: “According to those in the room who testified…”
Trump: “These people are very dishonest people. They are thugs.
Of course they are. The ‘Everybody Hates Chris’ TV show was canceled in 2009, but there seems to be plenty of material for multiple seasons of ‘Donald Trump Hates Everyone’.
By any measure, Trump’s interview was a laughable disaster. However, don’t take that to mean Fox shutting the door on Trump. Those who listened live may have seen Trump facing several issues. Those who follow Fox’s coverage today get none of that, because that’s what Fox News’ front-page coverage of their interview with Trump looks like on Tuesday morning.
Even when Trump lies to Fox News face to face, it’s not like they’re going to report it. Instead, they dig deep to find a way to put a positive spin on the results. For those interested, the inspirational words that stopped Putin from invading Ukraine, according to Trump, were “don’t.”
It’s not really a story. But then, Fox isn’t really a news agency. Note that while they included clips of Trump making statements about his relationship with Xi and giving his rants about the dangers of the left, they did not include any clips when editing his defense of “boxes of pants” into something more reasonable.
Trump can hate everyone. Fox News may know he’s awful. But they both know they depend on the same awful public for their financial survival.
Donald Trump faces even greater legal danger and the Republican Party sharks seem to sense there is blood in the water. Chris Christie has campaigned to go straight to Trump, and Ron DeSantis seems to be getting closer and closer to becoming completely isolated from the field.
