At high noon, as cable news reporters were lined up to report on Donald Trump‘s admission that Pres. Obama was in fact born in the U.S., the stage collapsed behind them. This all happened inside Trump’s new hotel in Washington, D.C. The GOP nominee for president had already left the stage, without taking questions.
NBC’s Katy Tur had just started her MSNBC liveshot: “Hillary clinton has given — and the stage is falling apart behind us if you can see this,” said Tur, who called the event “basically a photo op for the hotel.”
Over on CNN, Ashleigh Banfield was introducing Trump reporter Sara Murray: “There is some movement behind you, Sara. I can see you’re looking around…”
Murray reported that after acknowledging, “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period,” Trump “left the room as reporters were yelling questions about what made him change his mind.” Murray said Trump left to tour the hotel, but that the pool reporter assigned to follow the candidate “was physically restrained.”
Politico reports the TV networks met after the event and “voted to pull a camera and erase video of Donald Trump giving a tour of his hotel, a protest of the campaign preventing any editorial presence on the tour.”
Statement from Fox News’ Bryan Boughton, current chair of TV pool, on networks not participating in Trump hotel tour pic.twitter.com/yCmhCnZ0Fc
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) September 16, 2016
Nope. Never dull.
In an ironic moment Trump's set and backdrop just collapsed inside his hotel. No one hurt. pic.twitter.com/1XMmGCEWki
— Tom Llamas (@TomLlamasABC) September 16, 2016
.@KatyTurNBC is so numb to the #Trump campaign at this point a collapsing stage doesn't even phase her. pic.twitter.com/wNnOxl1fUq
— Bill Clark (@BillClarkFTB) September 16, 2016