Donald Trump Evan Vucci-Pool/Getty Images President Donald Trump stormed out of an interview with Meet the Press‘ Kristen Welker after she pressed him on claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and his skepticism that the votes in California’s current election are not being tallied accurately.
During the NBC News interview, Trump was defending his recently announced a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” to compensate people who believe they were wrongly targeted by the Biden administration. Last week, the Justice Department said the fund, part of a deal to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS, would not be moving forward.
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“As I understand it, the weaponization fund was going to set up a group of people, people that could be picked by anybody, fair people, smart people, and they will go on an individual case basis,” Trump said. “Now 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.”
Welker responded by saying there has not been any evidence presented to support Trump’s claims, and then tried to ask a question about acting attorney general Todd Blanche, who’d made the announcement that the anti-weaponization fund would not be moving forward.
“Listen to me: There’s tremendous evidence,” Trump interjected. “There’s nothing but evidence. The election was rigged. It was a dirty election, and it’s happening again right now in California. It’s happening right now in California, right now. Look at what’s happening in California.”
Welker pressed Trump on his claims, noting repeatedly that the president had no evidence backing them up. Trump then brought up the fact that it’d been several days since the California election, with many races still undecided.
“The Republicans are doing well in California,” Welker responded.
“No they’re not. They’re dropping fast because it’s a rigged election,” Trump replied. “Let me tell you, it’s four days and they aren’t even close.”
Welker pointed out that California election results are often delayed to due the state’s policy of allowing ballots to be mailed in up until election day.
“You know why they’re doing that? Because they’re cheating on the election,” Trump responded. When asked if he has evidence, he replied: “All I have to do is look. All I have to do is look and I listen, and I listen to people and let’s see what happens.”
Trump and Welker kept going back and forth, with Trump asking her if she believes that California’s method for counting votes is “appropriate.”
“Do you think it’s appropriate that they have an election and give days later they’re nowhere close to picking a winner?” he asked.
When Welker said that state and local officials have acknowledged how slow the process is, Trump replied: “No, they’re crooked. They’re crooked, just like you’re crooked. Your press is crooked and Meet the Press is crooked.”
Welker replied: “To be fair, I’m not crooked, but let’s —”
“Really? Well, you play right into their hands then. You’re either crooked or you’re stupid,” he shot back. “You play right into their hands with this crap. 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 percent bad press. You know why? Because you have no credibility.”
Welker and Trump then went back and forth with her asking for evidence and him repeating his claims that there is, in fact, evidence. He also likened the United States to a “third-world country” in terms of its elections.
“Your elections are crooked and you’re crooked and Meet the Press is crooked, and so is ABC and CBS and CNN,” he said. “You’re one-sided crooked networks. Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you, darling,” he added, taking off his microphone.
Welker then pleaded with Trump to say, noting that she’d traveled all the way to Wisconsin to do the interview with him. He replied that he’d done the interview in the rain, which could be heard in the background of the conversation, and said: “I’ve given you enough time. You ought to straighten out your press because you know what, a country can never be great with a dishonest press.” He then walked out.
Watch the exchange below.
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