President Trump gave a phone interview to Fox News Saturday, and in a rambling twenty-minute discussion with host Jeanine Pirro, he defended the government shutdown and pressed his insistence for a border wall. Pirro also raised a recent New York Times article that revealed that in the wake of his firing of James Comey, the FBI opened an investigation into whether Trump had ever worked for Russia.
"I’m going to ask you," said Pirro. "Are you now or have you ever worked for Russia, Mr. President?" Trump did not directly answer the question, and replied instead that he thought it's "the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked," and that the Times piece is "the most insulting article I’ve ever had written."
Pirro asked the president about another news story concerning Trump's relationship with Russia, a Washington Post piece describing the lengths to which Trump has gone to hide the details of his meetings with Vladimir Putin. "Washington Post, that’s basically the lobbyist for Amazon," said Trump of the Jeff Bezos owned-newspaper, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the news outlet he was speaking to is essentially the media arm of the Republican party.
The interview began with Pirro and Trump discussing the government shutdown, with Trump offering a graphic description of women "tied with electrical tape" being trafficked over the border as proof that his wall is a human rights necessity. According to NBC, however, "even Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security said they are unable to guarantee that the wall would have any impact the rate of trafficking."
To emphasize his willingness to negotiate an end to the shutdown, Trump repeatedly invoked the fact that he’s in Washington while some congressional legislators have left the city. "I’m in the White House and most of them are in different locations, they’re watching a certain musical in a very nice location," said Trump, referring to Hamilton’s 17-day run in Puerto Rico, an event designed to bring millions of dollars and media attention to an island still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Maria. Over 30 member of Congress are expected to attend the show during its run.
"I haven’t left the White House in months," said the president, who was in Texas visiting the border on Thursday.
Even with Pirro gently prodding him towards the topics at hand, Trump rambled throughout and returned frequently to a favorite topic: How much winning he's done. In one exchange, Trump took umbrage at Pirro's acknowledgment of the fact that Democrats took the house in November.
Pirro: When Nancy Pelosi won you very warmly, in November, congratulated her. Are you still confident you can get a deal down with her, or has that ship sailed?
Trump: No idea. Well, we won also. We won the Senate, and there are those that would say that the Senate is more important, and for the most part I campaigned for the Senate. And we got very little credit for that, like even you, you just said they won—we won the Senate, we actually picked up additional seats, we beat incumbents, Democrats, and almost everywhere I went, we won.
Pirro: You did, yes.
Near the end of the interview, Trump began ranting about his victory in 2016. "I was a better candidate than Hillary Clinton, she was a terrible candidate," he said. "And the fact is, I was obviously a good candidate, I won every debate, I won everything I did. And I won, and I won easily. 306 to 223 I believe, and that’s a big difference in the college, in the Electoral College." The actual tally was 304 to 227.
