Television host Phil McGraw—known by his stage name, Dr. Phil—sided with Donald Trump on nearly everything during an interview with the newly convicted felon that aired Thursday, calling on President Joe Biden at one point to “stop pursuing” him and saying that only “stupid” people would believe that Biden wasn’t behind his recent conviction.
In the opening minutes of his interview with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, McGraw mentioned recent comments he had made regarding Trump’s New York criminal trial and his three remaining indictments.
“I called for President Biden to stop all of this now. And of course a lot of people said, ‘Oh, he can’t stop this; it’s a state case,’” McGraw recalled. “OK, that’s an explanation for stupid people, but for people who understand how this works behind the scenes and all, I say the same thing: They need to stop this. They need to stop pursuing you.”
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McGraw then lamented that “there have been so many attempts to get you off the board” since his fellow television personality announced his candidacy in 2015. He even tried to claim that, regarding one of Trump’s impeachments, “they changed the rules to try to make it high crimes and misdemeanors.” What McGraw meant by this wasn’t immediately clear.
“It seems to be never-ending,” he summarized, to Trump’s agreement.
McGraw at one point lavished praise on the former president, asking him why he continues to run for office despite the constant attacks.
“You’ve got a thick skin. You’re not one of those people who is afflicted with the need to be loved by strangers,” McGraw told Trump. “You’re a billionaire, you’ve got a great family, you’re a very dedicated father and people might not see that because you keep that kind of private.”
Regarding Trump’s conviction for falsifying business records to help his 2016 presidential campaign, McGraw took an odd stance. It is illegal, he suggested, for a co-defendant to plead to lesser charges on the condition that they provide testimony for the prosecution, even though doing so is common practice and not against the law.
“You don’t let someone that has been charged in the same case as someone else, and they made a plea deal, and said, ‘OK, I’m guilty of doing this’ because they were intimidated into doing it—the lawyer in your case…he bartered around out from 65 years of imprisonment down to three years and two years on this case… in exchange for giving them testimony against you,” McGraw said, doubting that Trump’s received a fair trial.
“That’s not supposed to come in, but it did. [David] Pecker making a deal—a non-prosecution agreement. That’s not supposed to come in, but it did. That got into the jury box. They got to hear all of that,” he said, referring to the former head of the National Enquirer’s parent company, AMI.
Within hours of the interview airing, McGraw went on CNN and made a similar argument—this time to stunned NewsNight anchor Abby Phillip, who attempted to explain how wrong he was.
“That’s kind of how a lot of these prosecutions work,” she said.
“Well, you will have to give me an example to respond to,” McGraw replied, “Because I just simply don’t agree with that.”
Trump, convicted on all 34 felony counts in New York and with prison time on the table, later told McGraw that he wouldn’t rule out trying to exact “revenge” on those who he felt have wronged him.
After McGraw told him that he doesn’t “have time to get even,” Trump acknowledged that “revenge does take time,” but added: “And sometimes revenge can be justified, Phil. I have to be honest. Sometimes it can.”
