President Trump sat down
for an interview with Chris Wallace,
the only reporter at Fox News
who isn't trying to become the next press secretary.
And you can tell that he isn't
because this was no softball interview.
In fact, it was pretty much a master class
in how not to let Trump get away with his usual bullshit.
Like, you know how Trump is always bragging
about how well the United States is doing with the coronavirus?
Well, here's what happened
when he tried that move with Chris Wallace.
I think we have one of the lowest mortality rates
-in the world. -That's not true, sir.
Well, we're gonna take a look.
We had 900 deaths on a single day this week.
We will take a look. Ready?
I... You can check it out.
Could you please get me the mortality rate?
-MAN: Yeah. -Kayleigh's right here.
I heard we had one of the lowest,
maybe the lowest mortality rate anywhere in the world.
Do you have the numbers, please?
Because I heard we had the best mortality rate.
The case feed doesn't always agree on countries
as, uh, Dr. Birx points out, and this is...
Number one low mortality rate.
I hope you show this in here, 'cause it shows
what fake news is all about. Okay, go ahead.
I don't think I'm fake news. I-I... We'll put...
-There you are. -We'll put our stats on.
You said we had the worst mortality rate in the world,
-and we have the best. -I said you had...
WALLACE: All right, it's a little complicated, but
bear with us. We went with numbers
from Johns Hopkins University,
which charted the mortality rate
for 20 countries hit by the virus.
The U.S. ranked seventh,
better than United Kingdom, but worse than Brazil and Russia.
The White House went with this chart
from the European CDC,
which shows Italy and Spain doing worse,
but countries like Brazil and South Korea doing better.
Other countries doing better, like Russia,
aren't included in the White House chart.
Oh, you see?
Chris Wallace did two things right there
that Trump absolutely hates.
He proved him wrong, and he made him do homework.
And the funniest part about this to me isn't
that Trump used a bullshit chart
to prove that America has the best mortality rate.
It's that even on a bullshit chart, it's still not true.
I mean, if you just want any chart
that's gonna show how well you're doing, man,
just go all the way with it.
And that wasn't the only time Trump tried to bring receipts
that he didn't actually have.
Here he is attempting to prove
that Joe Biden said he wants to defund the police.
They want to defund the police,
and Biden wants to defund the police.
No, sir, he does not.
Look, he signed a charter with Bernie Sanders.
I will get that one,
just like I was right on the mortality rate.
Did you read the charter that he agreed to?
-It says nothing about defunding the police. -Oh, really?
It says "abolish," it says...
-Let's go. -All right, well, you...
-Get him the charter, please. -All right...
Chris, you've got to start studying for these.
He says defund the police?
He says defund the police.
They talk about abolishing the police.
They talk about illegal aliens pouring...
I look... I look forward to seeing that.
-Sanctuary cities. -Sir, I'm not disagreeing
with you on any of those.
I'm disagreeing about defund police.
-He said... -WALLACE: The White House never
sent us evidence the Bernie-Biden platform calls
for defunding or abolishing police, because there is none.
(laughs)
Oh, man, I don't care how many times I watch it.
It is priceless, seeing Trump flail around,
trying to find a fact that he made up.
And it actually shows you how his brain just kind of
mixes up everything he reads
into one big information smoothie.
Because clearly, he read that Biden wants
to abolish immigration detention,
and he also read that Biden wants police reform,
and then, his brain just mashed them up
into "Biden wants to abolish the police."
I kind of want to give Trump a book to read
just to see how he would explain it back to me.
"Green Eggs and Ham is a tragic story
"about two eggs that want to marry a ham.
"They want to get married.
They love each other."
But again, another great fact-check from Chris Wallace.
And I got to admit, I love Chris Wallace, the journalist,
but Chris Wallace, the dad, must be a nightmare.
His kids are probably coming home like,
"Yeah, school is fine. You know, we just did a bunch of work.
I just put my head down and worked."
"Well, actually, I have photo evidence here
"of you spending all day under the bleachers vaping
while making out with Samantha."
And honestly, it got to the point
where Chris Wallace wasn't just fact-checking Trump.
He was fact-shaming him.
Because for years now, Trump has been bragging
about what a good score he got on some cognitive ability test.
And yesterday, Wallace flat-out told Trump
that his test score ain't shit.
WALLACE: In the Fox poll, they asked people,
who is more competent?
Who's got...? Whose mind is sounder?
Biden beats you in that.
Well, I tell you what. Uh, let's take a test.
Let's take a test right now.
Let's go down. Joe and I will take a test.
Let him take the same test that I took.
Incidentally, I took the test, too,
when I heard that you passed it.
-Yeah. How did you do? -It's not that hard...
-Well, it's not the hardest test. -No, but the last...
No, no, no. You see, that's all misrepresentation.
It's all misrepresentation, because, yes,
the first few questions are easy,
but I'll bet you couldn't even answer the last five questions.
I'll bet you couldn't. They get very hard,
the last five questions.
Well, one was them was, count back from 100 by seven.
Let me tell you. You couldn't answer...
-(laughing) -You couldn't answer...
-All right, what's the question? -...many of the questions.
-I'll get you the test. I'd like to give it. -All right.
But I guarantee you that Joe Biden
could not answer the questions.
-Okay. -Okay?
-You talk about... -And I answered
all 35 questions correctly.
(laughing) Wow, guys.
This is sort of making me sad now right now,
'cause Trump is trying so hard to claim he's a genius
because he passed a test
where you have to identify an elephant.
Which, let's be honest, even for Trump, is too easy.
I mean, if they wanted to test Trump,
they shouldn't have asked him to identify an elephant.
They should have asked him to identify his second daughter.
Yeah. That would have been impressive.
Is it... is it this one?
No, that's Jared, sir.
Okay. But I was close, right?
And also, counting back from a hundred by seven
is super easy.
Anyone can do it. It's, 100,
93, uh...
(clock ticking)
86. You don't have to be a genius.
And you know what? Jokes aside,
I actually do feel reassured
that Trump passed that cognitive test.
Because someday, when terrorists threaten
to kidnap the Washington Monument
unless the president correctly identifies an elephant,
you know Trump's got that shit handled.
(like Trump): It's that one.
It's the rhino with the long nose.
Now, Wallace covered a lot of ground in this interview,
but no matter the subject, Trump managed to make it weird.
For instance, when Wallace asked Trump
about army bases named after Confederate generals,
this is what he said.
The National Defense Authorization Act,
the NDAA, you have threatened to veto it,
because in the bill-- and this is supported
by Republicans as well as Democrats--
it would rename army bases named for Confederate generals.
We won two world wars, two world wars,
beautiful world wars, that were vicious and horrible,
and we won them out of Fort Bragg,
we won out of all of these forts
that now they want to throw those names away.
Go to that community where Fort Bragg is,
in a great state-- I love that state--
go to... go to the community,
say, "How do you like the idea of renaming Fort Bragg?"
And then what are we gonna name it?
You gonna name it after the Reverend Al Sharpton?
Okay, I'm sorry, what?
Two beautiful world wars?
This dude really can objectify anything.
(like Trump): We've had two beautiful bangaboo world wars.
Totally tens.
That is such a dumb thing to say
that they didn't even think to put something like that
on the cognitive test.
Should we ask people about both world wars
and see if they find them attractive or not?
No. Forget it. Nobody's brain is that broken.
So the elephant should look like this, yeah?
Also, how insulting is it
to say that people might rename the bases after Al Sharpton?
Of course they should rename it after Al Sharpton.
Think about how terrifying that would be for enemy soldiers.
(speaks German)
Here comes the Al Sharpton Brigade!
They're gonna call us out on our racism!
We're gonna get so cancelled.
This almost go without saying,
but there's a giant middle ground
between naming bases after Confederate generals
and naming them after Al Sharpton.
I mean, America has had lots of non-Confederate generals.
And Trump should know that-- he's fired a lot of them.
I mean, you can make any problem sound ridiculous
if you pretend Al Sharpton is the only solution.
President Trump, we need universal health care!
Oh, who's gonna be your doctor? Al Sharpton?
But here's the thing. As incredible as it was
to see Trump face a real interviewer,
nothing Wallace says is gonna convince Trump
that he's wrong about anything.
Because, as Trump showed,
even when he is already being proven wrong,
he still insists that eventually he's gonna be right.
Dr. Fauci at the beginning said this will be pass,
don't worry about it, this will pass. He was wrong.
-But you made mistakes, too. -I guess everybody makes mist...
I was gonna say, you said at one point...
I think we're gonna be very good with the coronavirus.
I think that at some point
that's going to sort of just disappear, I hope.
-I'll be right eventually. -(laughs)
-I will be right eventually. -I understand.
You know, I said, it's going to disappear. I'll say it again.
It's going to disappear. And I'll be right.
(like Trump): Eventually, I'll be right.
That's not how being right works.
If you guess the wrong answer at trivia,
you can't get a point by claiming that eventually
one of the answers will be Marge Simpson.
But that answer does expose the fundamental truth about Trump.
He's much more concerned about being able to say he's right
than about actually being right.
If coronavirus ends up wiping out the entire planet
except for Trump, he'll be standing at a podium
all by himself, saying,
"You see, folks? It totally disappeared.
I was right."
Well, that's our show for tonight.
But before we go,
America is facing a nationwide poll shortage right now,
and it's because most poll workers are over 60.
And with COVID still in the air,
they are, understandably, not showing up.
But the thing is, fewer poll workers means
fewer polling stations are gonna be open.
And it means that there's gonna be longer lines
that not everybody can afford to stay and wait in,
especially in communities of color.
The good news is though most poll working is paid,
and, in some states, you can be as young as 16 to do it.
So if you're interested and you have the time,
this is your chance to save Granny, protect democracy,
and get some of that money, too.
All you have to do is sign up at the link below to learn more.