President Donald Trump abruptly ended an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, removing his microphone and storming off the set after moderator Kristen Welker repeatedly declined to accept his false claims about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, a proposed compensation fund for political targets, and election fraud.
Federal prosecutors and the FBI announced unspecified “multiple election fraud investigations” in California, and a prosecutor visited a Los Angeles ballot processing center. These probes follow public statements from Trump asserting, without providing evidence, that the state’s elections are rigged.
State election officials, voting rights experts, and non-partisan observers emphasize that there is no evidence of widespread, systemic fraud.
President Donald Trump ended an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, removing his microphone and walking off the set after moderator Kristen Welker repeatedly declined to accept his false claims about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, a proposed compensation fund for political targets, and election fraud.
The confrontation unfolded over roughly six minutes in the interview’s final segment, taped Friday in Wisconsin. Welker pressed the president for evidence he could not produce.
Trump claimed that FBI agents had ushered rioters into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He offered no proof.
“There’s no evidence of that, sir,” Welker said.
“Try looking at the tapes one time,” Trump replied.
More than 1,400 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. Approximately 170 have pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers, according to Justice Department records. Courts have rejected claims that federal agents instigated the violence, but on the first day of his second White House term, Trump issued pardons to all the terrorists involved in the insurrection.
The interview deteriorated further when Welker questioned Trump about a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund his administration had proposed. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers last week that the Justice Department was abandoning the fund following bipartisan opposition.
Trump defended the concept but would not say whether people convicted of assaulting officers on Jan. 6 should receive taxpayer money from it.
“I wouldn’t be inclined to say so, but I have to see it,” Trump said.
When Welker noted that 170 people had pleaded guilty to assaulting police, Trump pivoted to attacking former FBI Director James Comey, calling him a “dirty cop.”
Welker then asked whether Trump had evidence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Courts in multiple states, the Justice Department under Trump’s own attorney general, and independent election officials have all concluded there was no widespread fraud sufficient to change the outcome.
“There’s a lot of evidence,” Trump said. “There’s tremendous evidence. There’s nothing but evidence.”
Asked to provide evidence, Trump repeated his falsehood that the 2020 election was “rigged” and made an unsubstantiated claim that cheating was occurring in California’s ongoing primary vote count.
California allows mail ballots to arrive up to Election Day. State law requires signature verification on each ballot. Election officials have said the delay in final results reflects those verification procedures, not fraud.
“All I have to do is look,” Trump said.
“That’s not evidence,” Welker replied.
Trump then called NBC a “one-sided crooked network” and said, “Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”
He removed his microphone. Welker noted that she had traveled to Wisconsin for the interview. Trump, still audible, said he had sat with her in the rain and given her enough time.
“A country can never be great with a dishonest press,” he said.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the claims Trump made during the interview.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a Democrat, defended the state’s vote-counting process in a statement last week, saying accuracy requires time. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office called Trump’s election fraud claims a lie, writing on social media that it was “time to take the phone away from grandpa.”
In 2014, Boston Marathon bombing survivor Adrianne Haslet-Davis walked off the “Meet the Press” set in tears after producers allegedly broke a promise not to mention the names of the accused bombers during her segment, prompting host David Gregory to later apologize for the incident.
Trump has a longstanding pattern of alleging fraud in elections he does not win. In 2020, his own Department of Homeland Security called the presidential election “the most secure in American history.”
No evidence has emerged since to support his claims of a stolen election. No evidence has emerged to support his claim that FBI agents orchestrated the Jan. 6 attack.
The president offered none on Sunday. When Welker asked for it, he walked out.
Since its debut on Nov. 6, 1947, “Meet the Press” has featured world leaders including Indira Gandhi and Robert Mugabe, Cabinet members, presidential candidates, and numerous members of Congress, along with every U.S. president from John F. Kennedy onward.
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