President Donald Trump lost his composure after Fox News' Chris Wallace fact-checked him concerning Democrat Joe Biden's position on police reform.
Trump claimed in the interview, set to air Sunday, that Biden wants to “defund the police.” In a clip released Friday by Fox News, Wallace asks why violent crime is up in major cities including Chicago and New York City. “How do you explain it and what are you going to do about it?” Wallace says.
“I explain it very simply by saying they're Democrat run cities, they're liberally run, they're stupidly run,” Trump responds.
“Liberal Democrats have been running cities in this country for decades—” Wallace says.
“Poorly,” Trump interjects.
“Why is it so bad right now?” Wallace says.
“They've run them poorly,” Trump says. “It was always bad, but it's gotten totally out of control, and really it's because they want to defund the police, and Biden wants to defund the police.”
“Sir, he does not,” Wallace responds, fact-checking the president.
“Look, he signed a charter with Bernie Sanders—” Trump says.
“It says nothing about defunding the police,” Wallace responds, cutting Trump off before he has a chance to lie again.
“Oh, really? It says abolish, it says defund — let's go!” Trump says, throwing up his hands before slapping them on his legs in disgust, then turning to his staff and saying, “Get me the charter please!”
That's where the interview clip ends, but Wallace offers this follow-up: “That led to a very interesting exchange where he had his staff go out and get the highlights from that 100-page compact that the Biden team and the Sanders team had signed. And he went thought it and he found a lot of things that he objected to that Biden has agreed to, but he couldn't find any indication, because there isn't any, that Biden sought to defund and abolish the police.”
On Twitter, Wallace earned praise for standing up to Trump and calling out his lie, and before long the veteran reporter was trending.
“Give me the charter, please.” Look at how dismissively Donald Trump talks to his staff. The body language. The tone. The man has zero respect.
— Russell Drew (@RussOnPolitics) July 17, 2020
It's wonderful when reporters call Trump out and make a total fool of him. Kudos, Chris Wallace! pic.twitter.com/53x5vkWDdQ
I cant believe Trump agreed to do an interview with Chris Wallace!! 🙀🙀He is NOT Sean “Fred Flinstone” Hannity or Tucker “White Supremacist” Carlson who will let Trump say any LIE unchecked!! #ChrisWallace checks him when he lies about @JoeBiden!! This is how you do it!! 👇👇 https://t.co/vmwxMpVxHy
— Dan Pereira (@ddanpereira) July 17, 2020
Chris Wallace called out the lie, didn't back off, and forced Trump's lying ass to take a break from the interview and Wallace still pointed out after “searching” Trump was still wrong. It wasn't even hard to do. The rest of the interviewers are just too chickenshit to do it
— Stephen White (@sgw94) July 17, 2020
Trump throws a temper tantrum when someone dares to fact check him.
— Thor Benson (@thor_benson) July 17, 2020
I'm surprised he agreed to do an interview with Chris Wallace. https://t.co/qOnbeSYd7r
Any reporter who continues to refuse to fact check trump because they fear him or care about access should be embarrassed and humiliated that a Fox reporter like Chris Wallace has the courage to do it every damn time.
— Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) July 17, 2020
Narrator:
— ABlackWomanWhoDontGiveAF*ck (@battletested5) July 17, 2020
This was the moment when trump realized he lost Fox News
Chris Wallace pic.twitter.com/42DhzPx7U8
