Former President Donald Trump on Thursday ran to the loving arms of Newsmax to react to his former aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s bombshell Jan. 6 testimony.
And while he predictably railed against Hutchinson throughout the interview, he also made sure to complain that Newsmax would likely cut out his complaints about the “stolen and rigged election.”
Newsmax anchor Rob Finnerty, however, obsequiously reassured the disgraced ex-president that he would “not allow that” to happen.
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Not content with merely raging about Hutchinson’s testimony on his Truth Social account, Trump spent much of his Newsmax interview attacking Hutchinson as a “whack job” that he “hardly knew.” Additionally, he took shots at Fox News for “latching” onto the shocking revelations from Tuesday’s hearing, which detailed Trump’s willful attempt to orchestrate an armed coup.
“I heard Bret Baier say that which is obviously, sigh, strange. You know, I love Bret Baier,” grumbled the former president and voracious cable-news consumer.
Eventually, though, the conversation veered to Trump’s obsession over losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden and his bogus claims that widespread voter fraud was responsible for his defeat. In his opinion, the “Big Lie” should be the sole focus of the Jan. 6 committee.
“They don’t talk about any of the things that refute Jan. 6. They don’t talk about the election numbers. They don’t analyze the election,” Trump fumed. “The people were there because the election was rigged and stolen. They don’t want to do that. In fact, they don’t even want to hear that.”
He then turned his attention to Fox and Newsmax, who he believes are steering clear of election denialism due to the billion-dollar defamation lawsuits they both face from voting software firms Dominion and Smartmatic.
“And Fox doesn’t put it on and, by the way, you people don’t put it on either. You’re afraid of being sued or something,” Trump groused.
Finnerty, for his part, wondered if the ex-president was referencing far-right provocateur Dinesh D’Souza’s largely debunked election fraud film 2,000 Mules. D’Souza has previously griped that both Fox News and Newsmax suppressed any discussion of his movie.
“They’ll probably cut what I’m saying out,” an undeterred Trump continued, prompting the Newsmax anchor to reply: “Of course not!”
With Trump telling Finnerty to not “let it happen,” the morning news host dutifully responded that he “will not allow that” to occur. Trump then took a shot at Newsmax CEO and longtime confidant Chris Ruddy, wondering aloud if the network chief would cut out the election lies portion of the interview.
“Good, get it done fast,” Trump blared. “Get it done fast before Chris sees it. But, they might cut it out. Let’s just see. I hope they put it on. But this was about a rigged and stolen election that millions and millions of people felt is true.”
Trump went on to gush over D’Souza’s film as definitive proof of “ballot stuffing” and “all these different things that we have,” comments that Newsmax aired unedited on Thursday.
