Reports of President Trump abruptly cutting off his “60 Minutes” interview with Lesley Stahl on Tuesday have been confirmed by footage Trump leaked ahead of its Sunday airdate.
Though Trump has denied earlier reports that he walked out, the video Trump posted on his Facebook page Thursday tells a different story.
Fast forward to the 37:30 minute mark to see the final exchange that lead Trump to decide he’s “had enough.”
The moment comes after Trump and Stahl are informed that they have five minutes left to complete the interview, but Trump decides to just put an end to it then.
“I think we have enough of an interview here,” Trump said, “OK, that’s enough. Let’s go.”
He thanks Stahl and says, “I’ll see you later” before he gets up to leave.
The tense interview really went sour when Stahl asked Trump a hypothetical question about what would happen if he doesn’t win the election.
“You’ve said that Attorney General Barr should go after President Obama,” Stahl said. “How would you feel if Joe Biden went after you?”
Trump replied: “He probably will because he’s a very dishonest guy.”
“They’re very lucky because the evidence is overwhelming and Attorney General Barr is a great general. They are very lucky,” he said. “I can’t tell you what’s going to happen, I don’t know, because I purposely like to stay out of it. I don’t like to get involved.”
Stahl remarked that she “didn’t want this kind of ending,” but Trump balked at her insistence on asking “tough questions.”
“Your first statement to me: ‘This is going to be tough questions,’” Trump said. “I don’t mind that. But when you set up the interview you didn’t say that. You said, Oh, let’s have a lovely interview. You don’t ask Joe Biden. I saw the interview with Joe Biden. It was a joke.”
Despite Stahl’s attempts to move Trump off of the Biden topic, he still complained that the former vice president always gets “softball” questions.
“I see Joe Biden getting softball after softball. I’ve seen all of his interviews. He’s never been asked a question that’s hard,” Trump said.
Stahl then asked: “Don’t you think you should be accountable to the American people?”
But Trump continued to interrupt, saying: “Excuse me, Lesley, you started with me and you said, ‘Are you ready for tough questions?’ That’s no way to talk.”
CBS released a statment, saying: “The White House’s unprecedented decision to disregard their agreement with CBS News and release their footage will not deter 60 MINUTES from providing its full, fair and contextual reporting which presidents have participated in for decades.”
Watch the full interview from Trump’s Facebook page below.
https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump/videos/350524406214941