CBS Evening News Anchor Tony Dokoupil interviewed Donald Trump on Tuesday, and an unusual moment came when the president talked about what would happen if Kamala Harris won the 2024 election.
The president was claiming that Harris called the economy a “mess” under Joe Biden.
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“If she had walked in, you wouldn’t have a job right now. You probably wouldn’t have a job right now,” Trump told Dokoupil in an interview on the floor of a Ford plant in Detroit.
Check out the full interview below.
Then appeared to refer to President David Ellison, who became CEO of Paramount after his Skydance bought the CBS parent company last year. Alison’s father, Larry, is a longtime supporter of the president.
Trump said, ‘Your name is an amazing person. “Could be a bust. Well. Could be a bust. I doubt it in his case, but you never know. Let me just say, you wouldn’t have this job. You wouldn’t have this job, of course, whatever they’re paying you.”
Dokoupil later said that “I think I can get the job if the other guy wins.”
“Yes, but at a lower salary,” Trump replied.
The evening news The entire interview went on, Dokoupil said, and it lasted about 15 minutes.
During the conversation, Trump said he would take “very strong action” against Iran if the regime hangs protesters amid unrest across the country. The president, however, was not clear on what that meant. At other points, Dokopil did not challenge some of Trump’s claims, including that he “ended eight wars”. That has been challenged as hyperbole by the AP and other fact-checking sites.
Trump also claimed that “there is no inflation” and later said that he had brought them down “to a level that they haven’t seen in nine years.” In fact, consumer prices rose about 2.7% in December, according to the Labor Department, and inflation was below 2% at points in Trump’s first term. The CBS Evening News The anchor noted that “when I travel the country and I go everywhere and I talk to Americans every day, they tell me they don’t feel it.”
“I’ve only been here 11 months, okay,” Trump replied, adding that he “inherited a mess” and “we have the hottest country in the world right now.”
The most revealing part of the interview may have been when Dokopil questioned Trump about the shooting death of Renee Goode by an ICE agent last week.
Dokoupil noted that he spoke with Goode’s father, who is “a big supporter of yours.”
“He’s heartbroken after his daughter died. Your administration came out so quickly and said he’s a domestic terrorist. What do you want to tell his father now?”
Trump responded, “Well, I want to tell Dad that I love all of our people. They can be on the other side, like you said. He can be on my side.”
“He’s on your side,” Dokoupil said.
Trump responded, “And I think that’s great … and I bet you she was a very solid, wonderful person under normal circumstances, but very tough.” He then went on to defend ICE and blast Joe Biden, before turning to the video of Goode’s murder, and acknowledging that the videos are open to interpretation. Immediately after the killing, the Department of Homeland Security said Goode was trying to hit an ICE officer with his vehicle.
“When you look at that tape, it can be looked at two ways, I think,” Trump said. “But when you look that way, that car was pulled away. There are two versions of that tape that are much, much worse.”
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