President Trump sat down for a rare interview
with a network that wasn't Fox News.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
Trump almost never does interviews
with anyone other than a friendly outlet,
like, for example, "Fox & Friends."
In fact, he just did one with them on Friday
where they kicked off the interview
with this hard-hitting exchange.
-It is the President's birthday.
-The President is turning 73 today.
-Mm-hmm.
-And he is joining us by phone right now.
Good morning to you, Mr. President.
-Good morning. -Happy birthday.
How do you plan to celebrate?
-Well, I think I'll just work, if you want to know the truth.
-That doesn't surprise us.
-Come on. You got to have a cake or something.
-I don't have time to celebrate. -What about cake?
-Yeah, we'll have a little piece of cake tonight.
-They talk about him like he's a child.
"The President turns 73 today, and that's why we're doing
our show live on location from Chuck E. Cheese!"
So that -- that is --
Right there, that's the kind of interview Trump's used to.
Also, you can see why because when Trump sat down
with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos,
he was tripped up by even the simplest questions.
For example, Trump has blocked Democrats in Congress
from reviewing his financial records.
In the ABC interview, Trump tried to claim
there was nothing suspicious in those records,
but he couldn't get past the fact
that his chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney,
who was in the room, was coughing during his answer.
-They're after my financial statement, the Senate.
They'd like to get my financial statement.
At some point, I hope they get it.
-You gonna turn it over? -No. At some point, I might.
But at some point, I hope they get it because it's a --
-[ Coughing ]
It's a fantastic financial statement.
And let's do that over.
He's coughing in the middle of my answer.
-Yeah. Okay. -I don't like that, you know?
-Your chief of staff.
-If you're going to cough, please leave the room.
-I'll come over here.
-You just can't -- You just can't.
-Just to change the shot? -Sorry.
-Okay. You want to do that a little differently then?
-Yeah. We'll just change the angle.
Yep. Thank you.
-So, at some point -- So, at some point, I look forward to --
Frankly, I'd like to have people see my financial statement.
-Just remember that the next time Donald Trump says
he has a great healthcare plan,
the plan is if you cough, get the [bleep] out of here.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Now, it's not that I feel bad for Mick Mulvaney,
but you know there's a pretty good chance
they set up the cough as a signal and Trump forgot.
"If I accidentally start saying
I want Congress to see my financial records,
you know, give me some kind of signal,
something simple like a cough."
"Uh, sure, but won't a cough be distracting?"
-"No, a cough is great!
I mean, it's not like I'm going to lose my mind
when I hear a cough."
[ Laughter ]
Also, I love -- I love that Trump thinks his answer
was so good that the coughing ruined it.
Dude, you'd be better off if every answer you gave
was interrupted by coughing.
For example, what does this mean?
-They'd like to get my financial statement.
At some point, I hope they get it.
-You won't give it to them, but you hope they get it?
What does that mean? Are you playing hard-to-get?
"Oh, you want my financial statement?
Well, it's right here. Chase me. Chase me."
[ Applause ]
But the fun part of this interview
was watching Stephanopoulos set Trump up
by tossing him a few softballs that were right
in his wheelhouse in order to warm him up
and then hitting him with the tough questions.
For example, there was the part
where Stephanopoulos greeted Trump in the morning
and asked him how much sleep he got,
and the conversation veered into
which meals Trump likes the most.
-How much sleep?
-Probably, I average four or five hours, I guess.
-Are you a big breakfast guy?
-I'm not a breakfast guy at all, fortunately.
-No?
-I like the lunches, but the dinners is what I really like.
-Now, that's the kind of interview Trump likes to give.
He wants the same questions you'd ask while FaceTiming
with your grandpa in his retirement home.
"How was your birthday, Grandpa? Did you have breakfast?
Oh, you like dinner more? That's great.
Is someone coughing in the background?
Oh. Oh. Everyone's coughing. Okay."
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
Also, by the way...
how predictable is it that Trump is anti-breakfast?
Of course, Trump is against the most important meal of the day.
"I don't like to front-load my energy.
I like to fill up my belly at night and have a fitful sleep
so I wake up nice and paranoid."
But this is how you rope-a-dope Trump.
You bring the rope, he brings the dope.
You soften him up with a dumb question like this
to get him going, and then you hit him with
a tougher one about something like the Mueller Report,
and when Stephanopoulos did that,
Trump was clearly thrown off kilter.
-If you answer these questions to me now,
why not answer them to Robert Mueller under oath?
-Because...
they were looking to get us for lies,
for slight misstatements.
-You didn't answer questions on obstruction.
-Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I did answer questions.
I answered them in writing. -Not on obstruction.
-I don't know. I answered a lot of questions.
They gave me questions. I answered them in writing.
-Not on obstruction.
-Look, George, you're being a little wise guy, okay,
which is, you know, typical for you.
-Did you just call him a little wise guy?
Did you -- Did you also tell him
to go home and get his shine box?
Every time you think Trump couldn't sound more like
a Scorsese character, he finds a way.
This interview should have had a voiceover from Henry Hill.
Why not answer them to Robert Mueller under oath?
-I knew they were cops. Only cops talk that way.
If they had been wise guys, I wouldn't have heard a thing.
-Stephanopoulos also asked Trump
about the evidence contained in the Mueller Report
that he obstructed justice.
In fact, more than 1,000 former prosecutors
signed a letter saying there was enough evidence to indict Trump.
But when Stephanopoulos asked Trump about that,
Trump dismissed it.
-Robert Mueller said he's not reached a decision
that could not exonerate you,
and he laid out all that evidence.
More than a thousand former federal prosecutors --
-Oh, that's -- They're all politicians.
Hey, George, look, I know more about prosecutors
than you'll ever know.
[ Laughter ]
-That doesn't sound as good as you think it sounds.
That's like if you're watching "Law & Order" with a buddy
and they go, "See, his mistake was throwing the body
in the river without weighing it down.
You gotta weigh it down! Everybody knows that!"
And, of course, Stephanopoulos also got Trump
to make a shocking admission that if a foreign government
offered him dirt on a political opponent,
he would definitely take it.
-Your campaign this time around, if foreigners,
if Russia, if China, if someone else
offers you information on opponents,
should they accept it or should they call the FBI?
-I think maybe you do both.
I think you might want to listen.
I don't -- There's nothing wrong with listening.
-Wow, dude. You would have been better off
if THAT answer had been interrupted by coughing.
-Should they accept it or should they call the FBI?
-I think they...
-[ Coughing ]
-"Stop coughing. I'm good."
But in a way, it was --
was at least refreshing
to finally get an honest confession from Trump,
because before this interview, Trump was still pretending
he had no interest in colluding with a foreign government.
For one thing, there were the all-caps tweets
screaming "no collusion," and last week,
Trump even lied to reporters and claimed the Mueller Report
had actually shown that his campaign rejected
contacts from the Russian government.
Trump made that comment while sitting next to
the president of Poland,
and he couldn't help but get him involved.
The Mueller Report spoke. They were very disappointed.
It said no collusion and no obstruction and no nothing.
And, in fact, it said
we actually rebuffed your friends from Russia.
-His friends? Why --
Why are you dragging him into it?
Are you trying -- Are you trying to frame him?
"I had nothing to do with Russia,
but you should, uh, talk to this guy over here.
He's guilty as hell."
So, with all this going on, you'd be forgiven
for not trusting Trump when to comes to Russia.
And even if you put aside Trump's latest comments,
there's all the damning evidence about his campaign's contacts
with Russia, his constant praise for Vladimir Putin,
and even how excited Trump is to see him.
I mean, look at that.
Even Putin seems kind of bummed to be with him.
This looks like a family photo of a corny dad
on a road trip with his goth teen.
It should be at the Grand Canyon.
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
"Could you at least --
Can you at least smile for one picture?
We drove 30 hours.
I like to listen to your music in the camper."
Well, if you are concerned, apparently you're not alone.
As we learned this weekend,
even intelligence officials don't trust Trump
with sensitive information when it comes to Russia.
-The United States is reportedly ramping up cyber attacks
on Russia's electric power grid,
and "The New York Times" says potentially crippling malware
has been placed deeper into the Russian grid than ever before.
-This from "The New York Times" story --
two administration officials said they believe Mr. Trump
had not been briefed in any detail.
Pentagon intelligence officials describe broad hesitation
to go into detail with Mr. Trump about operations against Russia
for concern over his reaction and the possibility
he might countermand it
or discuss it with foreign officials.
-Wow. They can't even give the President of the United States
sensitive details about Russia
because they're afraid he'll blab about it to Putin.
This is probably why Trump spends all of his time
showing off new paint colors for "Air Force One"
because that's the only thing his aides trust him to do.
That's why Putin --
That's why Putin looks so bummed in those photos.
"Do you have any classified secrets, Donald?"
"Oh, yeah, we're painting 'Air Force One'
red, white, and...blue."
[ Laughter ]
Trump keeps going on TV --
keeps going on TV and giving us more evidence against him.
Meanwhile, Democrats are having a weird debate over whether
they should impeach him or focus on beating him in 2020.
If anything, it seems like the answer is simple.
-You do both. -This has been "A Closer Look."