Trump’s Tremendous Bowl LIV interview: eight minutes of pettiness and braggadocio

Presidents giving interviews earlier than Tremendous Bowls has change into a practice — Obama fielded questions about Benghazi and his detractors; Trump has answered questions concerning the immigration and the turnover on his employees.

Whereas the questions will be powerful, given the spirit of the day, these interviews aren’t alway probably the most rigorous of workout routines. However Trump discovered himself earlier than an exceptionally pleasant interviewer this time round, sitting down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity forward of the sport between the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.

Their dialog was much less of an interview and extra of a possibility for the president to assault in opposition to his enemies unchecked for simply over eight minutes — railing in opposition to Democrats who impeached him, making bizarrely incorrect claims concerning the 2020 Democratic presidential area, and even making peak jokes about former New York Metropolis Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

When requested about whether or not he’d be capable of work with Democrats following his impeachment, the president replied he wasn’t certain, saying, “I see the hatred — they don’t care about equity, they don’t care about mendacity,” an announcement that would not be heavier with irony given Trump’s personal nicely documented tough relationship with the reality.

Hannity nodded in settlement, as Trump went on, saying, “the entire thing was nonsense,” that’s was “very, very unfair,” and that “my household suffered due to all this, and lots of different households suffered additionally.”

He didn’t tackle his position in pressuring Ukraine to dig up grime on his political rivals, or the White Home’s refusal to cooperate within the impeachment inquiry. As a substitute, the president accused Democrats of impeaching him in hopes of brightening their 2020 prospects, saying, “They only wish to win; it doesn’t matter how they win.”

In a lightening spherical, wherein Hannity inspired the president to say the very first thing that got here to thoughts, Trump attacked Democratic presidential candidates.

“Have a look at Sleepy Joe, what’s happening with him? He’s having a tough time,” Trump stated of former Vice President Joe Biden. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, he accused of being a liar, saying, “I name her ‘Fairy Story’ as a result of every part’s a fairy story … this girl can’t inform the reality.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders, Trump claimed, is a “communist” who obtained married in Russia. The declare prompted Hannity’s solely try to appropriate the president; the Fox Information persona reminded the president that the candidate really took a trip to the then-Soviet Union shortly after his marriage, and that he wasn’t married there.

Trump did, nevertheless — as he has just lately carried out on Twitter — declare the Democratic Nationwide Committee will not be being truthful to Sanders, seeming to reference reports of some disquiet amongst sure Democrats about Sanders’s latest rise within the polls by claiming the Democratic Occasion is “rigging it in opposition to him,” echoing discord following the 2016 Democratic primary.

The president had maybe his harshest phrases for Bloomberg. He once more criticized the DNC in talking of Bloomberg, arguing it was unfair the celebration modified the talk guidelines in a way that appears to profit the mayor, earlier than attacking Bloomberg for being brief. (Bloomberg is about 5’8”).

“He needs a field for the debates,” Trump stated. “Does that imply everybody else will get a field?”

Trump leveled related assaults in opposition to Bloomberg Sunday morning on Twitter, writing, “Lots of the adverts you’re watching had been paid for by Mini Mike Bloomberg. He’s going nowhere, simply losing his cash, however he’s getting the DNC to rig the election in opposition to Loopy Bernie.”

Bloomberg’s campaign responded with an announcement that reads: “The president is mendacity. He’s a pathological liar who lies about every part: his faux hair, his weight problems, and his spray-on tan.”

The president did make some constructive statements — about himself.

He claimed that due to his arduous work, “there’s a revolution happening, I imply a constructive revolution,” significantly amongst minority communities, whose lives he stated have change into higher beneath his watch.

He additionally took credit score for a powerful financial system, for having carried out a “super job” helping China in its struggle in opposition to the coronavirus, and summed up his time in workplace like this: “No one’s made achievements like we’ve made, so many alternative issues.”

These kinds of statements aren’t new, and even sudden from the president — he talks like this on a regular basis on Twitter, at his rallies, and at press conferences. Nonetheless, this marks the primary time he has been in a position to ship such statements unchecked earlier than such a big and various viewers — everybody watches the Tremendous Bowl, not simply Trump followers or journalists.

It additionally is not stunning that Hannity — who is nice mates with Trump — didn’t attempt to appropriate him apart from his comment about Sanders. However the truth that this all should have been anticipated doesn’t make it any much less disturbing that the president of america was given nearly ten minutes to deal with the nation, and spent it not answering urgent questions of nationwide concern, however attacking his rivals in extremely petty methods.