Former President Donald Trump didn’t hold back his remarks in an interview with Fox News’ Howard Kurtz that aired on MediaBuzz on Sunday.
During his meeting with Trump, Kurtz discussed a wide range of topics, including immigration, Putin, “fake news,” and the “rigged election.” Whatever Kurtz threw at the former president, seemingly in an effort to trap him in his responses, he didn’t back down.
Kurtz began with one of the media’s favorite hot-button issues the use to spin a racist narrative against Trump… his opinions on the droves of illegal immigrants in America. With seemingly a pointedly biased tone, the Fox News host asked, “Why do you use words like ‘vermin’ and ‘poisoning of the blood?’ The press, as you know, immediately reacts to that by saying, ‘Well, that’s the kind of language that Hitler and Mussolini use.’”
“That’s what they say. I didn’t know that, but that’s what they say,” Trump responded, before putting Kurtz in his place about the reason there’s nothing wrong with how he rightfully describes the disastrous situation via the open border under the Biden administration and what that’s done to America.
Because our country is being poisoned. Look, we can be nice about a it, we can talk about, oh, I want to be politically correct, but we have people coming in from prisons and jails, long-term murderers, people with sentences that the rest are of their lives they’re going to spend in some jail in some country that many people have never even a heard of. They’re all being released into our country. These are murderers, these are people at the highest level of crime, and then you have mental institutions and insane asylums. I always say the difference is one is silence of the lambs. It’s a mental institution on steroids, okay?
Having been sufficiently countered in his ridiculous assumption Trump was being disparaging against individuals illegally coming into the country, Kurtz quickly turned to the left’s next favorite attack topic when it comes to Trump: Putin.
“Do you believe Vladimir Putin has some responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny?” Kurtz asked Trump.
Trump beat the host at his own game, responding to the ridiculous question that suggests the tired presumption Trump and Putin collude:
I don’t know, but perhaps. Possibly, I could say probably. I don’t know. He’s a young man, so, statistically he’d be alive for a long time. If you go by the insurance numbers, he’d be alive for another 40 years. So something happened that was unusual.
Having been beaten on the hot button issues he began with, Kurtz turned to the ridiculous: Beef between Trump and late night host Jimmy Kimmel…
“What’s up with you and Jimmy Kimmel?” Kurtz asked about the feud that made it all the way to the Oscars’ stage, likely in hopes of boosting the ego-stroking awards show ratings nobody is watching anymore. “Because during the Academy Awards you posted, ‘Has there ever been a worst host than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars? Less than an average person trying too hard.’ He read that on the air and took a crack at you. ”
“And what else did I say? I said some other pretty good things,” Trump responded.
“Were you getting even?” Kurtz asked.
“George Sloppadopoulos. George Sloppadopoulos,” Trump said, before unleashing the best burn of all time on the situation:
Now, look, Jimmy Kimmel is, he hits me, I guess, every night. His ratings are terrible. He’s not a talented guy. I hear he hits me all the time, so is I figured I’d hit him because I thought he was a lousy host. I put it out on Truth, which is on fire, by the way. TruthSocial is doing great. I never expected he was going to be reading it. Just prior to the movie of the year, which is the big one, right? That’s the big one. I think they get the man, the woman, now the move of the year. He reads my Truth on air…and now the big story is that they all a begged him not to do it, don’t do it, and he probably, stupidly, you know, he had to act in a short period of time, like minutes, right? He had minutes because he’s on air. He sees this thing and he wants to go out there, and he wants to, I guess, confront me. And he ends up reading my Truth. I said, “This guy’s even dumber than I thought.” The thing went viral. It’s been all over the world now, and all he had to do was keep his mouth shut.
Staying on the theme of media and the former president’s embattled relationship with media personalities and networks alike, Trump didn’t back down when questioned about threats against network broadcast licenses:
“After the Iowa caucuses, two networks didn’t carry your speech. I was very critical at the time,” Kurtz said. “But you said, ‘CNN and NBC should have their licenses, or whatever they have, taken away.’ Sounded like you were threatening to go after television outlets whose reporting you don’t like.”
In response, Trump said it was “incredible” to portray a candidate “as negatively as possible” for months then choosing to “don’t cover his speech” after he wins a primary.
I guess it was “Fake Tapper” or somebody turned it off, he said, “Turn it off.” I think, actually, MSNBC did do it — “MSDNC” — but they did do it. But I think it was CNN that didn’t cover it. Jake Tapper, who I used to know and actually sort of liked him, actually, but he hurts himself very badly when he does a thing like that. And he hurts the ratings, too. You look at CNN ratings, they’re so bad. So, you cover, though — I mean, think of it — you’re covering someone for a year, and this is the culmination, this is the big moment, and people want to watch it, and you say, “I’m not going to put his speech on.” How can you do that?
Kurtz had a final “gotcha” moment in the disastrous interview, which wouldn’t be complete without questioning Trump if he still believes the 2020 election was “rigged.”
“What fundamental thing would you say that people don’t understand about your appeal?”Kurtz asked Trump.
“So, you know, we ended up winning,” Trump said about his 2016 victory, adding, “we did much better in 2020. You know, I did millions and millions of votes more in 2020. I did much better. And you can cut this if you want, but the election was rigged. You know, Fox may want to cut that one out, that’s OK.”
Kurtz interjected, “Well, I would jut say, that hasn’t been proven in court.”
“Well, it was so rigged, it was so crazy, but we’re going to do it again,” Trump said.
