Donald Trump has largely avoided real-time fact-checking interviews. But on Sunday, he gave an interview on Fox News and was directly challenged on some of the campaign’s most obvious falsehoods.
The resulting exchange became a case study in the tactics used by former presidents when faced with facts that contradict their statements.
Trump has repeatedly denied knowledge of information that has long been available to the public, questioned sources, and then pivoted to unrelated topics.
But in some respects he stood by his words without bending or equivocating. He said he absolutely believed that political opponents were “enemies from within” that posed a greater threat than foreign enemies.
Below are notable moments from Trump’s interview with Fox News’ Howard Kurtz.
Armed mob on January 6th: “I never heard anything like that.”
Kurtz questioned Trump’s recent description of January 6, the day his supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as a “day of love” and questioned why the former president I asked him if he understood that the American people had love for him. It looked like a dark day.
Trump didn’t back down from that explanation, and when Kurtz countered by pointing out that hundreds of people have pleaded guilty or been convicted, many have been charged with assaulting police officers. He quickly diverted to another topic. . He then claimed that no one was killed on January 6 and that “no one had a gun here either.”
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