President Donald Trump slammed The New York Times in a Fox News interview Saturday, calling the paper’s report that the FBI investigated him because of fears he may have been secretly working on behalf of the Kremlin as the “most insulting article” ever written about him.
He also called the Times in his phone interview with Jeanine Pirro a “disaster of a newspaper.” He usually refers to it as the “failing New York Times.” It reported Friday that the FBI launched its probe after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey — whom Trump called a “liar” in the interview.
When Pirro asked Trump “are you now or have you ever worked for Russia?” he didn’t directly answer the question, replying, “I think it’s the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked.”
He also criticized the Washington Post for its report Saturday that he went to “extraordinary lengths” to repeatedly conceal details of his private meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump insisted to Pirro that he’s not hiding anything and indicated he would be willing to share details of the talks.
“I’m not keeping anything under wraps. I couldn’t care less,” Trump said. “We had a great conversation,” he said, referring to his two-hour meeting with Putin in Helsinki in 2017.
Trump added, “We were talking about Israel and securing Israel and lots of other things. ... We talked about very positive things because, look, we are beating everybody.” He then veered into praise for the U.S. economy. He offered no other details about his meetings with Putin.
The rest of Trump’s interview sounded largely like a campaign speech — and included another push for his southwestern border wall. He touted Republican wins in the Senate in the midterm elections. “We won the Senate ... for the most part, I campaigned for the Senate. Almost everywhere I went, we won. But I’m only one person,” he said.
He also lashed Democrats for their refusal to allocate $5.7 billion for his wall. He insisted, without evidence, that the amount is “way less than other presidents” have requested.
“We need a wall, very simple,” he said. He reiterated his belief that he has an “absolute right” to declare a national emergency and order the wall to be built. But he said he’d rather see the Democrats “act responsibly.” He also repeated that federal workers are happy to forgo paychecks for the wall.
Trump lamented, “I haven’t actually left the White House for months,” except for a quick trip to Iraq. He failed to mention trips for golf, campaign rallies, the G-20 summit and visits to California fire scenes, among other travels. “I’m a worker,” he said.
Asked by Pirro what makes him such a great fighter, he responded, “Good genes.”
You can listen to Trump’s interview in the video above. Trump’s interview begins at 5:20. His attacks on the Times and the Post begins at 13:00.
