Donald Trump turned a question about Mitch McConnell into criticism of TIME. Trump criticized the media outlet for asking “negative” questions. The president shifted focus to his broader criticism of the media during the interview.
Trump criticized TIME’s interview questions after being pressed about Mitch McConnell’s health
Donald Trump appeared for an interview with TIME at the White House. He was asked whether Senator Mitch McConnell should resign because of his health. Trump did not directly answer the question. Instead, POTUS criticized the news outlet for asking “negative” questions.
Trump said, “It was a disappointment to a lot of Republicans. So that’s just—well, Sleepy Joe gave pardons to everybody. He gave them to Fauci. He gave them to this. But you mean I’m not allowed to give them, but Sleepy Joe’s allowed to give them? This ain’t gonna be much of a story.”
Trump added that the news outlet had been asking questions but had not asked him a positive one.
He said, “You haven’t asked me one f*cking positive question. All of this. What about this? What about that? All negative. Why are you devoting all this time to the White House?”
Trump defended his work on the White House, including repairs he said addressed leaks when it rained, while pointing to his work amid ongoing wars.
He said, “You know how I do, I do that out of my back pocket. I pay for a lot of it, but I fix it because the White House should look like that. It shouldn’t look like—if you would have stood in that balcony and looked at that wall, half the wall was falling. It’s actually dangerous.”
“People are walking under; cr*p was falling off it all the time. Every time it rained, it was leaking; horrible. Now it’s perfect, and I would say that I should be given credit for fixing the White House because I’m also doing very well with the war. I’m doing very well with another war that we already won, Venezuela,” he added.
He also criticized the outlet for not asking questions about Venezuela. He said, “Do you notice you haven’t asked me a question about Venezuela?”
Questions surrounding Mitch McConnell came after the senator returned to the Senate following a three-month absence.
