The set of “Morning Joe” wasn’t impressed with Donald Trump’s marathon interview on “Fox & Friends” Thursday morning. On set, there was wide agreement, of course, that it was a disaster and that Trump sounded like a nut.
“There are a variety of things about that interview, which is unhinged obviously, in a variety of ways,” said show regular John Heilemann. “He sounded like a person having a manic episode on national television. The high pitch of the voice, the scratchiness, the palpitating quality of it.”
The cast was in wide agreement that Trump waded into dangerous territory by distancing himself from his former lawyer-fixer Michael Cohen in the interview.
“My sense of it — talking to people who are friends of Michael’s — is 10 days ago he was freaked out, thinking hard about whether he might have to make a deal with the prosecutors to turn on Donald Trump, and then in the last few days you started hearing, you know, Michael’s in a better place. He’s feeling confident. He thinks he’s seen and heard the messages from Donald Trump.”
Heilemann — and known Cohen friend Donny Deutsch — said after “Fox & Friends,” Cohen was back into freaked out mode.
The president’s phone call to “Fox & Friends” was once a regular part of the show and the 2016 presidential campaign, but fell off markedly after Trump became president. Still, Trump is known to watch the program regularly and often tweets his thoughts and commentary on their segments in real time.
During his call, Trump spoke in a series of long monologues with few interruptions and railed against a series of televisions hosts and programs — including Fox. Host Brian Kilmeade noted at one moment that it might be better if the president watched less television.