Supporters of President Donald Trump likely saw his Tuesday primetime ABC interview as a chance for retribution, given the network’s past history with him.
(To say that ABC has nakedly opposed Trump for some time now would be an understatement.)
Critics of Trump likely saw this ABC interview as the ultimate “gotcha” opportunity, a chance to nail him on any number of perceived grievances.
Somehow, both sides probably walked away feeling a little disappointed, at least based on one particularly viral segment of the ballyhooed interview.
Trump, speaking on a wide range of topics, was inevitably asked about the Department of Government Efficiency by ABC News’ Terry Moran.
You can watch that bit below:
“We also found tremendous waste, fraud, and abuse, as you know” Trump said, describing some of the accomplishments of the Elon Musk-led (for now) DOGE. “We found a lot of fraud. There was a lot of fraud.
“Fraudulent things were taking place, and we ended that, and those [perpetrators] are going to be suffering.”
Do you trust the mainstream media?
It was at this point that Moran swooped in for that aforementioned “gotcha”-moment.
“Just, a legal note, fraud is a crime,” Moran began. “There have been no referrals to the Justice Department on any of this.”
“Well, you don’t know that, do you?” Trump sharply interjected. “How do you know that?”
(Two seconds of utter, awkward silence.)
“Have their been referrals? Are there referrals?” Moran asked.
“How would you know that, that there were no referrals?” Trump snapped back. “There were referrals.”
“There’s been no investigation from the Justice Department …” Moran started, before Trump cut him off.
“How do you know that?” Trump asked.
“I’m asking you, sir,” Moran said.
“No, you’re not asking me,” Trump retorted. “You made a statement. You’re not asking anything.”
“Now, I’m asking you.”
Trump, again, reiterated that criminal fraud referrals had been made to the DOJ, before this specific line of questioning gave way to broader topics about DOGE’s initiatives (naturally covered in as negative a light as possible by Moran).
For Trump supporters, it’s undeniably a bit disappointing that Trump wasn’t able to drop some bombshell that Nancy Pelosi or someone of her ilk had been criminally referred to the DOJ.
Instead, we just sort of got a blanket response.
And, for the record, there doesn’t appear to be any public records available of criminal fraud referrals to the DOJ. Did Trump just make this up on the spot to “own” ABC? It would be naive to call that an impossibility.
But at least Trump had the gumption and wherewithal to defend his DOGE initiatives — and perhaps due to confidentiality he couldn’t divulge more.
For ABC, this debacle was just the latest in a long line of incidents that has eroded the network’s trust with centrists and Republicans.
Even if Moran were right, it’s the height of sleaze and sliminess for him to have framed this particular line of questioning the way he did. It was so clearly a way to embarrass the President of the United States, that even Ray Charles would’ve cringed.
And, again, if this were ABC’s first foray with battling Trump, maybe you chalk it up as a struggling network grasping for relevancy.
(Heck, you can probably ascribe that description to ABC regardless.)
But it’s not the first time Trump has clashed with ABC. Heck, two of ABC’s biggest names were sidelined for this primetime interview because of their checkered past with the president.
And Moran decided that he wants to join that rogue’s gallery with ambushing DOGE questions?
It’s pathetic, beta, “pick me”-energy coming from the ABC host, and even the few ABC fans left out there can’t deny that.
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