President Donald Trump on Monday ripped CBS interviewer Lesley Stahl as 'zippo' after 60 Minutes aired their contentious interview...
President Donald Trump on Monday ripped CBS interviewer Lesley Stahl as 'zippo' after 60 Minutes aired their contentious interview – and the program scored its best ratings of the year.
Trump brought up the interview at his campaign rally in Allentown, after previously seeking to undermine the broadcast by releasing his own footage of what he called a 'vicious' attempted 'takeout' of him.
'Did anybody see 60 Minutes last night?' Trump asked at the first of three Pennsylvania events Monday. 'Which was a total joke of a show,' he added.
'She’s a zippo but always going for the kill,' President Donald Trump said of 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl
He soon attacked Stahl for the way she conducted the interview.
'And It was just question, question, kill – all always going for the kill. She’s a zippo but always going for the kill,' he said.
The show aired footage of Stahl asking Trump if he was ready for 'tough questions' and then introducing a few challenging topics.
He also briefly trained his fire on California Sen. Kamala Harris, who also sat for an interview as Biden's running mate. Harris laughed when her interviewer, Norah O'Donnell, asked if she had a 'socialist or progressive perspective.'
'Is that a socialist or progressive perspective?' O'Donnell asked, prompting a vigorous laugh and a 'no' from Harris.
'She kept laughing. I said is there something wrong with her too?' Trump riffed, after repeatedly questioning Biden's mental capacity.
Trump made the comments at a rally in Pennsylvania
Trump also made fun of Sen. Kamala Harris for laughing during a question about whether she would bring 'a socialist or progressive perspective' to the Biden administration
The show posted 16.5 million viewers at 8 pm, making it its most watched episode of the year, according to TheWrap. Trump had hyped the show repeatedly through his feud with the program after it was revealed he stormed out of the interview.
The show aired on a night when the World Series and an NFL game between Seattle an Arizona was airing.
The show got its business ratings since its 2018 interview with Stormy Daniels, according to the New York Times. Daniels, the porn star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims she had an affair with Trump, something Trump has denied.
It was the most viewers for any show on TV since the Oscars in February, excluding sports and cross-network events, according to Deadline.
Viewers on Sunday night saw for themselves the moment Trump walked out of the interview early when he became irritated by the questions.
Trump's refusal to sit through Lesley Stahl's questioning on Tuesday sparked an uproar on social media, and the president, furious at being called weak, released the entire clip on his Facebook page on Thursday.
'Look at the bias, hatred and rudeness on behalf of 60 Minutes and CBS,' he said, with a link to the 37 minute segment.
Stahl, in her introduction to Sunday's show, explained: 'We had prepared to talk about the many issues and questions facing the president, but in what has become an all-too-public dust-up, the conversation was cut short.'
'It began politely, but ended regrettably, contentiously,' she said.
On Sunday night viewers saw what happened once Trump's camera stopped rolling, and the president walked off.
Stahl remained in her chair, looking surprised.
Donald Trump walked out of the interview after 37 minutes, with questions remaining
Donald Trump walks past Lesley Stahl after becoming irritated during the interview
Lesley Stahl, the host, was left looking over her shoulder bewildered after the president walked out of the interview
'I've got a lot of questions I didn't ask,' Stahl says, as Trump leaves the set. She wasn't able to finish the interview
'I've got a lot of questions I didn't ask,' Stahl says as the president walks out past the cameras.
Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, then enters with a weighty folder which she describes as 'his health care plan'.
Stahl comments, in a voiceover: 'It was heavy. Filled with executive orders, congressional initiatives, but no comprehensive health plan.'
Stahl then asked McEnany: 'And the president's not coming back?'
McEnany replies: 'The president's given you a lot of time.'
Mike Pence, the vice president, was then in the hot seat.
He told Stahl that Trump was not interested in 'back and forth with the media'.
Trump on Thursday release the 'full, unedited' version of his 37-minute interview with 60 Minutes
Trump spoke to Stahl for 37 minutes (above) and then cut their discussions short
'Lesley, President Trump is a man who speaks his mind,' Pence said.
'I think it's one of the great strengths that he's had as president of the United States, is that the American people always know where they stand.
'And he's always ready. And the American people know that - in this time, it's, it's - it's less about the back and forth with the media, and it's - it's really more about how we bring this country all the way back.'
Trump was due to return, to film a segment in the Rose Garden with Pence, but he did not come back.
Trump bristled immediately when Stahl started out the sit-down by asking him: 'Are you ready for some tough questions?'
Kayleigh McEnany presents what she calls a 'healthcare plan' - a series of executive orders
Stahl said the folder was 'heavy' but contained 'no comprehensive health plan'
He brought that up directly before he cut the interview short.
'Excuse me. Lesley you started with your first statement was are you ready for tough questions. That's no way to talk,' Trump told Stahl.
He also pointed out that Democratic nominee Joe Biden gets 'softball after softball.'
'I've seen all his interviews, he's never been asked a question that's hard,' Trump said.
The president also pushed that the '60 Minutes' interview wasn't supposed to be hard.
'When you set up the interview you didn't say that,' he told Stahl. 'You said, "Oh, let's have a little interview." And here's what I do say, you don't ask Joe Biden. I saw your interview with Joe Biden.'
Stahl interjected, 'I've never done a Joe Biden.'
Trump called it 'a joke.'
While Stahl started off by telling the president the interview would be 'tough,' on several occasions she pointed out how loved the president is by his supporters and asked why he didn't use that influence to push them to wear masks or lay off Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who was targeted by right-wing militia members in part of a kidnapping plot.
Mike Pence, on Trump walking out, said he was uninterested in 'back and forth with the media'
Trump said he believed 'masks possibly worked' and that a 'lot of people are wearing masks' to his rallies, which have packed in thousands since the president returned to the campaign trail after his battle with coronavirus.
Stahl said she couldn't believe Trump wouldn't push people to be more cautious at the rallies after the White House Rose Garden event to announce Judge Amy Coney Barrett became a 'superspreader' event.
'I tell people to wear masks,' Trump protested.
Stahl shot back, 'No you don't.'
The president then pointed out that his campaign handed out thousands of masks to rally-goers.
'But you look out and they're not wearing them and you don't say, "Please put on your masks,"' Stahl pointed out.
At none of his recent rallies has the president, himself, made the request.
'They love you, they would pay attention,' Stahl urged.
Later Stahl said, 'You are very powerful.'
'If you go after somebody, they take it to heart and there are plots and threats,' Stahl said, using Whitmer and Dr. Anthony Fauci as examples.
Trump also got annoyed at Stahl for suggesting that his rallies were bigger in 2016.
'These are much bigger than I've ever had,' Trump said. 'You just come in here with that negative attitude,' he scoffed.
Trump also got angry when Stahl said he was pleading with suburban women to get their vote.
'You said the other day to suburban women, "Will you please like me please,"' she began.
The president called the way she phrased the question 'misleading' and said it was a joke.
'See, the way you said that is why people think of you and everybody else as fake news,' Trump told Stahl. 'I said kiddingly, "Suburban women you should love me."'
When Stahl pointed out that he was behind in the polls with this group, Trump responded, 'I doubt it, I doubt it.'
'And one of the reasons why is they don't feel you're being upfront about the pandemic,' she said.
Trump then complained, 'You're really quite impossible to convince.'
Stahl also wasn't convinced when Trump called the revelations on a laptop that allegedly belongs to Hunter Biden 'the biggest scandal out there, Lesley.'
'I think it's one of the biggest scandals I've ever seen and you don't cover it,' Trump said.
In the footage the president shared to his Facebook page he can be seen getting out of the chair and saying, 'I think we have enough of an interview, let's go, let's go'
Stahl pushed back saying that the authenticity of the laptop's contents, 'can't be verified.'
'What can't be verified?' Trump asked.
The president then claimed that Joe Biden had 'gone into hiding.'
'He's preparing for the debate,' Stahl said.
Stahl also got conflicting answers from Trump within minutes about the long-promised Republican healthcare plan that would take the place of Obamacare.
'It is developed, it is fully developed,' Trump told her. 'It is going to be announced very soon when we see what happens to Obamacare.'
Obamacare, more formally known as the Affordable Care Act, is facing a court challenge that will be heard by the Supreme Court just weeks after the November election.
'I hope they end it, it will be so good if they end it, because we will come up with a plan,' Trump continued.
Stahl pointed out that Trump had said 'will,' after he had just told her the plan was already done.
Joe Biden spoke to Norah O'Donnell for his 60 Minutes interview
'We have large sections of it already done,' Trump answered. 'And we've already come up with plans. Take a look at your various secretaries, various plans that we've already come up with.'
Stahl pointed out Trump's defensive posture during their sit-down.
'It's attack, attack, attack, attack, attack,' she noted.
But as the interview neared its abrupt end she also expressed regret for it being so contentious.
'I didn't want to have this kind of interview,' she said.
The president charged that she shouldn't have started it by telling him she was going to ask tough questions.
'You are president, don't you think you should be accountable to the American people?' she asked.
Sunday night's show also featured interviews with Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris.
Kamala Harris also sat down to talk to O'Donnell in Sunday's episode
Biden spoke out about the laptop which allegedly belongs to his son, saying he believed that Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani was being used as part of a 'smear campaign' against him.
'From what I've read and know the intelligence community warned the president that Giuliani was being fed disinformation from the Russians,' Biden said.
'And we also know that Putin is trying very hard to spread disinformation about Joe Biden.
'And so when you put the combination of Russia, Giuliani, the president, together - it's just what it is.
'It's a smear campaign because he has nothing he wants to talk about. What is he running on? What is he running on?'
He spoke with unusual clarity about whether he would change the makeup of the Supreme Court, in the light of Amy Coney Barrett's expected nomination and the conservative bent the court will take.
Biden, who was strongly criticized by his opponents for saying that voters would have to wait until after the election to see his plans for the Supreme Court, said in Sunday's episode that he would convene a panel of Democrats, Republicans and legal scholars to explore all the options.
And the famously gaffe-prone former vice president also mangled his data on public schools.
'I can send every single qualified person to a four-year college in their state for $150 billion,' he said.
The program said that Biden's advisers later told them he misspoke, and meant to say double that.
Harris said that she believed Trump was racist, and that his attacks on her were 'predictable, sadly.'
Harris said that she hoped her role, if elected, will inspire future generations.
She also denied that she disagreed with Biden on healthcare policy and the Green New Deal, insisting that his platform was her platform.
'I would not have joined the ticket if I didn't support what Joe was proposing,' she said.
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