There were many highlights from Fox News Sunday Chris Wallace’s hour-long interview with President Donald Trump on Sunday, but one was especially unusual.
It came after Wallace asked Trump about his 2020 rival Joe Biden. Joe Biden is senile?
That launched Trump into one of his signature campaign themes, that Biden isn’t completely with him and couldn’t handle the job. In the interview, Trump said that Biden “was not competent to be president” and that “he does not know that he is alive.” Last week, in an interview with Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Trump also bragged about getting a cognitive test on a visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and “expedited” the exam.
Wallace, however, noted that in a Fox News poll, Biden beats Trump on the question of who is more competent.
Related story
President Donald Trump Tweetstorm – The Sunday Edition
Trump replied, “Well, I’ll tell you what, let’s do a test. Let’s do a test right now. Let’s go down, Joe and I will do a test. Let me take the same test that I took.”
Wallace later said that he also took the test, when he heard that Trump passed it, and that it was not the “most difficult test.”
“They have a picture and it says ‘what’s that and it’s an elephant,'” Wallace said.
Trump, however, challenged him on that point, calling it “misrepresentation.”
“Yes, the first questions are easy, but I bet you can’t even answer the last five questions. I bet you couldn’t, the last five questions get very difficult, ”he said.
“Well, one of them counted from 100 to seven,” Wallace said.
“Let me tell you …” said Trump.
“Ninety-three,” replied Wallace.
Trump later said, “You couldn’t answer many of the questions.”
“Okay, so what’s the question?” Wallace said.
I’ll get you the proof. I would like to give it. I guarantee that Joe Biden was unable to answer those questions. And I answered all 35 questions correctly, “Trump insisted.
During the interview, Wallace also challenged Trump on the issue of coronavirus testing, and the president’s claim that the recent increase in cases is due to more people being screened.
“It’s not just that the tests have increased, it’s that the virus has spread,” Wallace said. “The positivity rate has increased.”
“Many of those cases are young people who would heal in one day,” Trump said. “They have the cold and we put it as a test … Don’t forget, I guess it’s like 99.7 percent, people will get better and in many cases they will get better very quickly.”
The interview began with an exchange on the coronavirus mortality rate.
When Wallace said the United States had the seventh highest death rate in the world, Trump questioned it, saying he believes “we have one of the lowest death rates in the world.”
“That is not true, sir. We had 900 deaths in a single day, “said Wallace.
Trump then referred to his press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany. “Do you have the numbers, please? Because I heard we had the best death rate. “
“I hope you show the stage because it shows what the fake news is about,” Trump said.
“I don’t think it is fake news, but I will, we will put up our statistics,” Wallace said.
In a voiceover, Wallace explained that his program “was with numbers from Johns Hopkins University, which charted the death rate of 20 countries affected by the virus. The United States ranked seventh, better than the United Kingdom but worse than Brazil and Russia. “
The program then showed the White House table, which was from the European CDC showing that Italy and Spain were worse, but that countries like Brazil and South Korea “were better.”
“Other countries that perform better like Russia are not included in the White House picture,” Wallace said.
In the tweets, Trump criticized Wallace, something the Fox News Sunday anchor pointed out at one point.
“Some people were surprised when you agreed to this interview, to sit with me,” Wallace said, adding, “Especially because of some of the bad tweets you said about me. Mike Wallace wannabe. Nasty and nasty. After that, you I will say that my son Peter, whom you met, called and said unpleasant, no, unpleasant, perhaps.
Then Wallace asked, “It seems like one of his strengths is that I put the Democrats on the show and asked them questions.” And I guess the question I have is, don’t you understand that it’s my job to put Democrats and Republicans out? And ask probing questions how do I ask Republicans?
Trump replied: “I am not a big ‘Fox’ fan, I will be honest with you. They have changed a lot since Roger Ailes. And I see people like [Rep. Eric] Swalwell, whom I don’t even know, appears on the show, he got less than 1 percent, suddenly he’s … being interviewed for endless hours. “
Wallace then played back clips of interviews with Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and former FBI Director James Comey, asking difficult questions.
“I would like to think that I treat everyone equally,” Wallace said.
Trump praised Wallace as a “very talented person,” but said, “It just seems to me that you are very likely to be kind to Democrats and I may be wrong about that, Chris, but it’s an honor to be with him.” Okay, I love it. “
