'I'd give myself an A-plus': Trump's dumb and dumber Fox News interview
It was only fitting that the Fox & Friends co-host who looks like a perennial newly married bride should have been stood up by the man she was courting: Ainsley Earhardt spent the three hours of yesterday’s Fox & Friends waiting on the White House lawn for an interview that never materialized.
But on Wednesday morning, the world’s most eligible bachelor — well, technically the accused philanderer is married — deigned to give her the time of day. “I was so grateful that he sat down with me,” Ainsley gushed to her co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade on Thursday morning. What she got was a 22-minute “interview” during which her questions were more like a series of comments (“Why is [Michael Cohen] doing this? He was your lawyer!”) and gently tossed softballs (“How is our country’s first lady doing?”). She asked what grade President Trump would give himself. “I would honestly give myself an A-plus,” he said. Imagine how high the grade would be if he wasn’t being honest!
Earhardt asked Trump if he was going to be impeached. “If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. People would be very poor.” Next!
Earhardt asked him about the arrest of a suspect in the murder of Mollie Tibbetts — this is the case Fox News and only Fox News is treating as a major news event, to distract you from Trump’s troubles, and especially to further Trump’s immigration agenda. Of the suspect, said to be an illegal immigrant, Trump had no qualms about innocent-until-proven-guilty niceties: “Mollie was killed by this horrible man who came up from Mexico. … He was arrested by ICE, our beautiful ICE!”
The only interview with a “journalist” granted since the Paul Manafort convictions and the Michael Cohen plea deal turned out to be an occasion for Trump to babble semi-coherently while Earhardt asked semi-coherent questions: It was the dumb and dumber interview. In case you haven’t heard, Trump doesn’t like his former lawyer Cohen anymore, because he “flipped”: “Flipping — it almost oughta be outlawed, it’s not fair. I’ve had many friends involved in this — it’s called flipping,” said Trump.
“The press,” said Earhardt, groping for her words. “Is the press the enemy of the people?” “Not at all,” responded the president of the United States. “Just the fake news, which is a big chunk. How big a chunk? Somebody asked me, how big a chunk? I’d say 80 percent. It’s a lot.”
As was true of every question she asked, Ainsley had no follow-up, no pressing for clarity, no insistence on the truth. Instead, she smiled and nodded, and for once, I don’t blame her. When the president tells you 80 percent of the news is fake, you know you’re dealing with someone who doesn’t understand what “news” is anyway. In this, he was talking to the right channel. “Write in and tell us what grade you would give the President, here at Fox & Friends!” Ainsley trilled enthusiastically.
Fox & Friends airs weekdays at 6 a.m. on Fox News.
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