Donald Trump (left), Piers Morgan.Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty; Frazer Harrison/Getty
While promotional clips of a highly publicized new interview betweenDonald TrumpandPiers Morgansuggested that the former president walked out amid a testy exchange, the Trump teamtells NBC Newsthose claims are untrue.
A widely seen trailer for the interview shared to social media this week shows Trump, 75, telling the 56-year-old Morgan: “I think I’m a very nice man, more honest than you, actually” and calling him “very deceptive,” before saying, “Turn the camera off” and appearing to stand up from his chair.
Trump’s communications director, Taylor Budowich, told NBC News that the “very deceptive” comment Trump made as highlighted in the trailer came as Morgan continued to ask the former president questions.
Budowich contended to NBC that the interview went on for more than an hour, despite being scheduled for 20 minutes.
In the audio Budowich provided to NBC and to the right-wing websiteBreitbart, Trump is heard saying “turn the camera off,” but it appears to be after the men have exchanged final pleasantries, with Morgan saying, “That was a great interview,” and “thank you very much, I really appreciate it.”
In a statement to Breitbart, Budowich said the promotional footage was “a pathetic attempt to use President Trump as a way to revive the career of a failed television host. It is also another example of President Trump being right, as he told Piers Morgan that the host was dishonest to his face, and Piers, for the first time in his life, didn’t disappoint.”
Budowich did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Trump’s interview with Morgan seems to focuses largely on his unfounded and continued claims that he won the 2020 presidential election over Joe Biden.
Biden, who won both the electoral and popular votes, has been in office since January 2021.
Despite Trump’s baseless allegations of wrongdoing, officials in nearly every state, including both Democrats and Republicans, have foundno evidence of widespread voter fraudin the election.
That hasn’t stopped Trump from pressing his case, though. Among his supporters and rally attendees, the topic of the 2020 election also remains of intense interest.
“There are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress, I possessed unilateral authority to reject electoral college votes,” Pence — who recently told Fox News hehasn’t spoken to Trump in nearly a year— said. “Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election.”
Morgan has repeatedly touted the promo for his upcoming Trump interview on social media, noting the backlash over how it was edited.
“Take a chill pill, Mr President - it’s a great interview, even if you did lose your rag a bit,” he wrote in one Twitter post.
In another tweet, responding to criticism fromCaitlyn Jenner, he wrote, “You haven’t seen the interview, nobody has because it hasn’t aired yet.”
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source: people.com
