Donald Trump sparred with Fox News host Bret Baier in a tense interview on a number of topics Monday night, including the former president’s possession of classified documents and whether he believes anyone even watches Fox anymore.
The tit-for-tat was the latest in Baier’s interviews with presidential candidates and comes as Fox News plans to host the first GOP presidential debate on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee. Last month, The New York Times reported that Trump was unwilling to be interviewed by Baier because of his coverage of the 2020 election, during which Baier challenged Trump’s election-fraud claims. The two have not sat down together since 2018.
“First of all, I won in 2020 by a lot,” Trump told Baier when challenged on how he plans to attract independent votes in 2024, before repeating various unfounded claims about voter fraud and stuffed ballots.
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“You lost the 2020 election,” Baier pushed back, citing recounts and failed lawsuits to challenge the election’s outcome.
Trump, clearly frustrated, went on to criticize Fox News itself. When Baier said that “more independent voters watch Fox News than any other TV source,” Trump immediately responded, “A lot less than they used to watch it.”
“I’m no great fan of Fox,” Trump said later in the interview.
“You’re sitting here…” Baier said.
“Well, you gotta get your word out somehow, right?” Trump responded.
When challenged by Baier on the criminal indictment against him for mishandling classified documents, Trump denied waving around a highly sensitive plan detailing a potential attack on Iran–despite an audio recording obtained by federal prosecutors in which the former president allegedly expresses a desire to share the war plan with others. Trump denied bragging about the documents to people at his golf club Bedminster, N.J, as prosecutors allege.
“There was no document. That was a massive amount of papers and everything else, talking about Iran and other things. And it may have been held up or it may not, but that was not a document,” Trump told Baier, “These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things; golf shirts, pants, shoes, all sorts of things.”
“Iran war plans?” Baier asked.
“Not that I know of,” Trump replied.
Baier went on to challenge Trump’s hiring choices while president, based on a 2016 statement that he was going to surround himself with “only the best and most serious people.”
Baier read out a list of former allies who are now running against Trump, including his former Vice President, Mike Pence, and Nikki Haley, his former ambassador to the United Nations. Former national security advisor John Bolton and former attorney general Bill Barr were also former allies added to the list. Last week, Barr called Trump a “a consummate narcissist” who “constantly engages in reckless conduct” in an appearance on CBS. In response Trump called Barr a “gutless pig.”
“Why did you hire all of them in the first place?” Baier asked.
“Because I hired ten to one that were fantastic,” Trump responded, “For every person you named, I can name 20 people that loved the administration.”
