Donald Trump is exploring a new way to look like a guy who is confident, relaxed, and cruising to a win: He’s picking a fight with 60 Minutes. On Tuesday, Trump stormed out of an interview with Lesley Stahl after 45 minutes, refused to return for a planned appearance with Mike Pence, and then launched a series of attacks on Stahl and the show.
Shortly after he walked out, Trump started the attacks. He tweeted a brief video of Stahl not wearing a mask—of which CNN reports, “Stahl had not yet gone back to get her personal belongings to put her mask back on. She had a mask on from the time she entered the White House and just before the interview began.” Trump also threatened to release video of the “FAKE and BIASED” interview “PRIOR TO AIRTIME!” to preempt 60 Minutes’ run of it on Sunday.
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Then, at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump bragged, “You have to watch what we do to ‘60 Minutes,’ you’ll get such a kick out of it,” threatening, “Lesley Stahl is not going to be happy.”
Trump has hemorrhaged support with older voters, with polls showing him losing them by double digits after winning them in 2016. 60 Minutes, meanwhile, is a very popular show, with an average viewer age over 60. Great choice of shows to pick a fight with, there!
Stahl had reportedly focused questions on coronavirus, which … could be very irritating to Trump, being asked about one of his biggest failures and something he knows is dragging him down in the polls. He definitely had the pandemic’s effect on his reelection chances on his mind at Tuesday night’s rally, telling his audience, “Before the plague came in, I had it made. I wasn't coming to Erie. I mean, I have to be honest: there's no way I was coming. I didn't have to. I would have called you and said `hey Erie, you know, if you have a chance get out and vote.' We had this thing won.”
But instead of trying to, you know, do a better job and save people’s lives, he’s just walking out of interviews and picking fights with reporters who ask him awkward questions about it.
The White House version of Trump walking out appears to be, as The New York Times reports, that “the taping had not wrapped up when the president’s aides had expected it to,” which is why Trump left. Sure, guys. Totally normal behavior.
