ABC World News Tonight anchor and managing editor David Muir has been traveling across the country this week to gauge Americans’ reactions to Pres. Trump’s first 100 days in office.
Muir found himself in Boston yesterday, where he spoke with WCVB-TV news anchor Maria Stephanos in front of a crowd gathered by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce at the Boston College Club. He worked at the same ABC affiliate in the early 2000s.
The conversation focused on Muir’s interview with Pres. Trump on Wednesday, January 25. This happened to be the Trump’s first post-inauguration TV interview.
Muir recalled the entire experience as “awkward.” For one, instead of sharing a White House walk together and then having a sit-down interview, Pres. Trump changed the schedule at the last minute.
“I wasn’t changing the interview. I said to myself, ‘If we don’t get the walk-through, we don’t get the walk-through,’ ” Muir told the crowd.
“I knew I was not walking in there to have a comfortable moment with President Trump, and that wasn’t his expectation either,” he added.
Muir said the interview was tense, including when the subject of Trump’s unfounded voter fraud claims arose. But he felt it was necessary to ask questions he thought viewers at home would want answers to.
“I walked in with a profound respect for the White House … but even more for the people at home,” Muir said.
“I think the American people are bombarded with information from all directions, all day long,” he continued. “Our job every, single night is to call out hypocrisy on both sides to make sure we’re holding Republicans accountable and Democrats accountable, that we’re holding the president accountable for promises made.”
Once the interview ended, Muir was indeed granted the promised walk-and-talk with Trump on the White House grounds. And when they entered the Oval, a letter from former Pres. Obama to Pres. Trump was atop the desk, per tradition. Muir said the letter appeared to be about five paragraphs in length, but he wasn’t able to make out any of the words.
“(Trump) said, ‘I can’t let you read it,’ and put it away,” Muir said. “As a journalist, that makes you die inside.”