Donald Trump is a chaotic force, but so is Piers Morgan. Over a year ago the English reporter stormed off a live TV broadcast after he was criticized for attacking Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. He subsequently left the program he was on permanently and now has his own new show, Piers Morgan Uncensored. On Wednesday, he previewed a big interview get: Donald J. Trump. But there was another angle to the story: The former president, Morgan claimed, had done something similar to what he’d done last March.
Not so, claims Trump. But it’s not just one of his usual bald, likely fictitious assertions. NBC News acquired audio of the interview, provided by a Trump spokesperson, that tells a different — albeit confusing — story.
Morgan claimed — and a preview seemed to show — that Trump got miffed when his interviewer called him out for falsely claiming that he’d won re-election in 2020, as he’s been doing for the last year-and-a-half (except when he accidentally isn’t). Trump calls Piers, with whom he’s been chummy, “dishonest” and a “fool.”
That wasn’t necessarily the end of the interview, Morgan claimed. Trump started talking, yet again, about that hole-in-one he awarded its own weird press release a few weeks ago. Morgan had claimed that Trump then gave him a “hateful” look at left. But on the audio, the two men can be laughing and thanking each other, with no dramatic storming off — or at least a dramatic storming off averted.
“That was a great interview,” Morgan can be heard saying.
“Yeah,” Trump says.
“Thank you very much,” Morgan respond. “I really appreciate it.”
At this point, Trump can be heard saying, “Turn the camera off.”
The Trump team are claiming the preview was deceptively edited to imply a huffy, abrupt conclusion to the chat, even editing the “Turn the camera off” so that it arrives earlier than it did.
The audio has not yet been made public, but it could be that the famously volatile Trump, who is prone to flipping out on journalists, almost vamoosed only to calm down. Perhaps that will be reflective in the full interview, which won’t air until April 25. Maybe this is just an overly dramatized ad intended to boost viewership and nab headlines.
You can find out when the interview airs on Piers Morgan Uncensored on April 25.
(Via NBC News)