Americanswers… on 5 Live! Why did Trump walk out of his TV interview with Meet The Press?

**Justin** (0:00)
Hello, it's Justin, and you're about to hear Americast. We are delighted to have you with us, and if you enjoy what you hear, please do consider subscribing to the podcast. That way, you'll never miss an episode. Now, on with today.

**Anthony Zurcher** (0:12)
Hello, and welcome to American Answers. We are answering questions on the pod today, as we always do. And some of these include, why has Donald Trump gone viral for getting up and storming out of an NBC news interview in Wisconsin?

**SPEAKER_4** (0:24)
But Mr. President- The one-sided crooked network, sorry. Let's call it quits, because I've had enough.

**Anthony Zurcher** (0:28)
And then the Iran war is always a big topic of conversation. Republicans just voted against him in Congress. Is the president losing control of the war? And is he losing control of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister?

**SPEAKER_4** (0:41)
I don't like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We've been doing this for three months. Much of it has been under the form, a pretty good form of ceasefire. The blockade has been amazing. Our Navy is amazing. Our military is the best in the world.

**Anthony Zurcher** (0:56)
And finally, we heard from AmeriCast, or Teresa in Kansas. She is watching as the English national team arrives there, and she has some interesting observations on how the locals are preparing for them in preparation for the World Cup. It is Sumi, Marianna and me from Maine, joining Matt Chorley on Five Live. Welcome to AmeriCast.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:17)
AmeriCast.

**Marianna Spring** (1:18)
AmeriCast, from BBC News.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:20)
You hear that sound? Oh, I think when I hear that sound, it reminds me of money.

**SPEAKER_6** (1:25)
We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it. This is a big cover up and this administration is engaged in it.

**SPEAKER_7** (1:32)
This guy has Trump Derangement Syndrome.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:35)
I have four words for you. Turn the volume up.

**Matt Chorley** (1:44)
Now we have a lot to cover, so let's get straight to it. Let's start with a Donald Trump interview from the weekend, which has gone viral, as they often do. The president was speaking to Kristen Welker from NBC's Meet The Press. They were in Wisconsin at a big sort of farming event. They were talking about his proposal to set up a $1.8 billion fund to pay people who say they were victims of government weaponization.
This could include January the 6th rioters who stormed the Capitol claiming the 2020 election was rigged.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:17)
I don't know what's going to happen with the weaponization fund. I love the idea because people like you, the fake dirty press, the crooked press, people like stupid Biden, he's not smart enough to know what's going on, but people that surrounded him, surrounded his beautiful resolute desk in the Oval Office.
What they did to the lives of people, they destroyed people, they sent people to jail who did nothing wrong.

**Sumi Somaskanda** (2:45)
Just to be very clear, there's no evidence of what you're saying.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:49)
You're either crooked or you're stupid. You play right into their hands with this rep. You know that these elections are rigged. Your network knows that they're rigged. You know that I won an election in a landslide, and I got 94% bad press. But Mr. President, you've never presented evidence.
Because you have no credibility. But you've never presented evidence that it was rigged.

**Sumi Somaskanda** (3:11)
Let's keep talking about it.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:12)
I want to talk about Todd Lynch. You have more evidence, there's more evidence than ever presented. Let's talk about it. Your elections in this country, we're like a third world country. Your elections are crooked. And you're crooked. And least the press is crooked. And so is ABC and CBS and CNN.

**Sumi Somaskanda** (3:30)
But Mr. President.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:30)
You're one sided crooked network. Let's call it quits because I've had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.

**Sumi Somaskanda** (3:36)
Mr. President, please, I traveled all the way to Wisconsin.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:39)
I've sat in the rain with you.

**Sumi Somaskanda** (3:41)
I know.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:41)
I've sat in the rain with you for an hour. On and off in the rain. And I've given you enough time.

**Matt Chorley** (3:47)
Anthony, you've been there before. You've interviewed President Trump. I mean, it obviously didn't go very well. But there's obviously a tension there, isn't there, that you want the interview to last as long as possible. But if you ask him something he doesn't like, he might get up and walk off.

**Anthony Zurcher** (3:57)
It is. It is a challenge because he is so mercurial. And if you push him too hard, he will just clam up like that. I've talked to him on Air Force One where the gathered reporters, one of us asked something that he doesn't like, and he just turns around and leaves. To do that in this situation where this was a planned interview on Meet The Press, a sit down interview, that is, I think, taking it to a different level. But you could tell just how quickly that got off the rails. And it got off the rails on something that Donald Trump talks a lot about and doesn't like to be pushed back on, which is his unfounded allegations of electoral fraud. And you could see he just had had enough of it by that point. It had been a contentious interview all the way through.