He had to defend Trump after he reportedly cut short a '60 minutes' interview.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows appeared on Fox Business Wednesday morning to defend Donald Trump's "60 Minutes" interview and deride journalist Leslie Stahl as biased.
"He didn't walk out," Meadows claimed. In fact, Trump abruptly ended the interview and refused to return for a planned follow up.
Claiming that he'd seen every minute of the footage, Meadows concluded that Stahl "came across more like an opinion journalist than a real reporter."
"Journalism should have standards," he added. "And we need to get to the bottom of it."
CNN reports that sources claimed Trump had gotten increasingly frustrated with Stahl's tough questioning. That frustration was evident in a tweet Trump later sent accusing Stahl of refusing to wear a mask. In fact, Stahl had walked in with a mask and planned to wear it on her way out.
For months, Trump refused to wear a mask. In April, as the virus ripped through the northeast, Trump declared that he wouldn't wear a face covering.
"The CDC is advising the use of nonmedical cloth face covering as an additional voluntary public health measure. So it’s voluntary. You don’t have to do it. They suggested for a period of time, but this is voluntary. I don’t think I’m going to be doing it," Trump said at the time.
In August, as virus cases soared in the rest of the country, Trump again questioned the efficacy of masks: "Maybe they're great, and maybe they're just good. Maybe they're not so good."
He mocked Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for taking the basic safety step, chiding him for wearing "the biggest mask" he'd ever seen during the first presidential debate. A few days later, Trump fell ill with COVID-19.
Trump's poll numbers continue to tank, in part due to widespread perceptions that he mishandled the pandemic. Support for Biden has surged in key battleground states.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
