President Trump phoned into Fox & Friends for a 30-minute, live, commercial-free interview this morning. The topics ranged from Ronny Jackson, to James Comey, to Kim Jong-un, to Kanye West, to Shania Twain, to Anderson Cooper.
When asked about last week’s release of former FBI director James Comey’s memos about his meetings with Trump, the President pivoted to CNN and Hillary Clinton.
“Look, Comey is a leaker and a liar. He’s been leaking for years,” Trump began, adding, “He does these memos, and then fake news CNN, who’s a total fake, they give Hillary Clinton the questions to the debate. Nobody…can you imagine, by the way, if you gave me the questions to a debate? They would have you out of business and they would have me, ‘you better get out of this campaign.’ They don’t even bring it up. I mean CNN. Fake news CNN actually gave the questions to…”
“Yeah, but don’t worry about them,” Brian Kilmeade interjected.
Later, Trump talked about the coverage of him. “You guys don’t always treat me great, but you treat me fairly. It’s not like Fox is perfect for me. They’re not. They’re tough. But at least it’s fair. When you look at some of the others, like CNN they have a council of seven people and of the seven people everyone is against me. Where do they get these people?”
“I’m not your doctor Mr. President, but I would recommend you watch less of them,” said Kilmeade. “I don’t watch them at all. I watched last night. I watched leakin’ lyin’ Comey last night, I hated to do it,” Trump said.
“I will say this, Anderson Cooper was surprisingly tough, and he did a good job.”
Some other issues that came up:
- On his attorney Michael Cohen taking the 5th amendment. “You know Michael. Michael’s been on your show, I’m sure, a lot,” said Trump. “This doesn’t have to do with me. This has something to do with his business.” Isn’t his business as your attorney?” asked Kilmeade. “Sadly, I have so many attorneys, you wouldn’t even believe it.” “How much of your legal work is handled by Michael Cohen?” Steve Doocy asked. “As a percentage, a tiny, tiny little fraction,” Trump said. “He represents me, like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal.”
- Asked who his new nominee for VA Secretary might be, Trump said, “Maybe we’ll do it on our next call,” but added it will be “someone with political capability.”
- On talking to the Special Counsel: “Well, I will if I can.”
- On Kim Jong-un: “It was very, very nasty, with little ‘rocket man’ and with the buttons and my button is bigger than — everybody said, ‘This guy is going to get us into nuclear war.’ Let me tell you the nuclear war would have happened if you had weak people. This is a much different ballgame than if they did it 5 or 10 or 20 years ago.” Trump also said CIA director Mike Pompeo met with Kim for more than an hour and had “a great meeting” with the North Korean leader.
- On his support: “If I ever called for a rally in Washington D.C. we’d have millions of people coming, because they love what’s happening. Remember, we won the election. And we won it easily.”
- On the popular vote (which he lost) vs. the electoral college (which he won): “I would rather have the popular vote, because to me it’s much easier to win… remember there was no way to break 270 (electoral votes) I heard that on CBS, and NBC and ABC, they’re all fake news.”
- “Ainsley good luck with your book, it’s going to be a winner,” Trump said to Ainsley Earhart.
- Trump also mentioned he came on a “very, very special day” because it is Melania’s birthday. Kilmeade asked what he got her. “Maybe, I didn’t get her so much,” Trump said. “I got her a beautiful card. You know, I’m very busy to be running out looking for presents. I got her a beautiful card, and beautiful flowers.”