Former President Donald Trump on Thursday night blasted what he called “softball” questions asked by reporters during President Joe Biden’s first press conference earlier in the day.
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Speaking to Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Trump said Biden’s presser was like a “different world” compared to when he faced questions from the Washington press corp.
“It was like softballs, like you’re throwing softballs — and it’s just a different world,” the former president said.
“Nobody’s seen anything like it. It’s very sad to watch actually, they’re feeding him questions, they’re easy questions,” Trump said.
The press pool at Thursday’s briefing was limited to 25 reporters and Biden only took questions from a list of journalists whose names and outlets he read from a cue card.
Trump noted in the interview how Fox News’ Peter Doocy was not called upon by Biden.
In Thursday’s press conference, Biden at times lost his train of thought, forgetting questions and pausing for extended periods of time.
But Trump didn’t directly attack Biden’s handling of the briefing — instead criticized questions posed by members of the Washington media.
“They were strange questions and they were asked in a very interesting way,” Trump said.
The former president then riffed on a range of topic, including reports that he may open his own social media platform after being banned from Twitter.
But, Trump said, he has grown accustomed to issuing short press releases, which he has done since getting knocked off the social media site.
“I almost like it better, I think I do like it better,” Trump said of the releases.
“I put out statements now … and the statements are picked up by everybody.”
Many of Trump’s remarks had to do with Biden’s policies regarding the U.S.-Mexico border.
Host Laura Ingraham played for Trump a video clip of Biden appearing to accuse Trump of leaving migrant children to “starve to death” on the Mexican side of the border.
“When an unaccompanied child ends up at the border, we [aren’t] going to let them starve to death and stay on the other side — No previous administration did that either, except Trump. I’m not going to do it,” Biden told reporters.
The remarks drew a sharp reaction from Trump.
“First of all, it’s just the opposite,” Trump said. “By the time we finished what we were doing [on the border], very few people were coming up because they knew they weren’t going to get through. We stopped ‘catch and release’ — which was a disaster.
“The very biggest thing was, we had the Remain In Mexico policy, and that means that we wouldn’t allow people to wait in our country until they were totally checked out, which most of them didn’t get checked out, and they would go back to their own country.”
“If young kids were with parents, but a lot of times, they weren’t, and we would take care of them, but … what they are doing now is outrageous. And they should finish the wall.”
The conversation then turned to matters in the nation’s capital. Trump accused the Democratic majority in Washington of “destroy[ing] our country.”
“They can’t be allowed to destroy our country, and at the southern border, they are destroying our country, and gasoline prices are going up. We are energy-independent. I created that,” he said.
“But in another couple of months, we won’t be, and take a look at what is happening to the price of gasoline. It’s [increased] over a dollar, that is like a big tax increase to people. That is the same thing, equivalent, and even greater than a big tax increase. It’s terrible.”
Later in the interview, Trump ripped the Biden White House for what he called an “absolute embarrassment” in Anchorage, Alaska, last week.
National security adviser Jacob Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a diplomatic meeting with top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi.
Ingraham noted to Trump that Yang lectured Blinken on perceived American shortcomings like the unrest seen across the nation and the prevalence of Black Lives Matter.
“Did the Chinese ever lecture you or your people about America’s racism problem?” she asked.
“We never had anything like that happen. … That was an absolute embarrassment to our country. I could not believe it,” Trump fumed.
“We should have walked out. Nobody ever talked to my group that way, have nobody ever talked to me that way, I can tell you that.”
“If they did, I would have doubled up the tariffs — which, frankly, were something we probably should have done, anyway. I took in billions and billions of dollars from China. We were bringing businesses back. It was really going well. And China respected us. They never spoke to us the way they spoke [to Biden’s team].”
Later in the interview, Ingraham asked Trump about the uptick in minority voters’ support for the GOP ticket in 2020, noting that a friend of hers remarked he’d “never seen a Republican work harder for minority votes — yet they trash him as a racist.”
“I did criminal justice reform, which Obama and Biden could not get done. They failed miserably. I did Opportunity Zones, and I created the best unemployment numbers in the history,” Trump responded.
The former president argued that when Biden or a Democrat is faced with an issue or question they can not respond to proficiently, “they throw out the race card.”
“When they can’t get you on something, they throw out the race card. It’s a different world right now. We did things that nobody thought could be done: Criminal justice reform was a very, very big thing, and I guess Biden tried. I know Obama tried. They couldn’t get anywhere. I got it done.”
“Mr. President, [Biden’s] DHS is going after people who may be your supporters, who they believe are ‘domestic extremists’ because they say things like, ‘Let’s take back our government.’ Are you concerned about that?” the host asked.
Trump said the true concern should be Antifa and Black Lives Matter, pointing to nearly a year of violent attacks outside the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse in Portland, Oregon.
The former president remarked that Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who he referred to as a “radical left” Democrat, “can’t take it anymore.”
“[Wheeler] actually said he can’t take it anymore. You have to see what the streets of Portland look like. They have been burning the city down, and nobody does anything about it, and they don’t go after those people,” Trump lamented.
“But they go after people — I guess you would call them leaning toward the right,” he said.
Trump voiced concern that the government could potentially surveil people who “wave American flags [and] love our country,” if his perception of the DHS report is true.
“They don’t go after Antifa, who kill people, by the way; who burn down our cities. Look at what they did to Seattle. They took over a big parcel of land in Seattle — and had I not got in the National Guard ready to go in… they just gave up the land.”
“Had we not gotten the National Guard in there, you would not have Minneapolis anymore. It would have been burned down to the ground. Those are the ones you have to worry about,” Trump said of the violence that erupted following the death of George Floyd.
Trump added that the newly constructed fence around the U.S. Capitol is also “disgraceful”, remarking that the rioters of January 6 should not have illegally breached the building.
He went on to rip Acting District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin for his appearance on CBS’ “60 Minutes” program.
Sherwin was later rebuked by a judge for going on the long-running newsmagazine.
“I watch this gentleman on “60 minutes” the other night, it was horrible what he said,” Trump said in response.
“He totally compromised a case, and what he said was so horrible, but they don’t talk about Antifa. They don’t talk about BLM. They don’t talk about any of the other groups that are on the left, that are really dangerous.”
