President Donald Trump sat down with the Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo on Thursday for what should have been a softball interview from his favorite media conglomerate. Instead, the president managed to poison even this ostensible safe-space into a decidedly hostile atmosphere, getting good and whiny after Bartiromo very reasonably asked Trump why he absolutely will not stop feuding with John McCain, who has spent the past seven months being dead.
“I didn’t bring this up, you just brought it up,” Trump whined in the interview, further portions of which are airing on Friday morning, when Bartiromo pointed out that McCain can’t “punch back” against Trump’s attacks this week because, again, he is dead.
Attempting to pivot away from what is clearly a touchy subject for the president, Bartiromo responded by lobbing a softball to to Trump, asking whether he feels “a responsibility as president to bring the nation together?”
“I do,” Trump replied. “I think I am, in a certain way, bringing it together. I can tell you that a big portion of this nation is united like it’s never been united before.” Trump then went on to brag about how great his administration has been for different groups, race by race.
But a clip that aired Friday morning showed that, when Bartiromo noted that bringing up John McCain was decidedly not bringing the nation together, Trump snapped.
“I could say I have no comment,” Trump, visibly agitated, shot back. “But that’s not me.”
He continued:
You shouldn’t have brought it up. Actually, I thought you weren’t supposed to bring it up, but that’s okay. Fake news every once in a while.
You heard it here first, folks. Fox is officially fake news!