Sam Stein (2:07)

Okay, I'm referring obviously to the fact that Donald Trump sued paramount over the 60 Minutes interview that they did with Kamala Harris right before the election. They had made a cut, a normal editing cut that happens all the time. In her interview, he said it was an in kind contribution to her campaign. It was ridiculous. Paramount, however, happened have a fair amount of business before the government, including a merger with Skydance, that they want to complete. And so they paid the fine and they bought the Free Press. Now we're here. We are with Trump One year later from a roughly around then sitting down for six minutes. In reality it was a 90 minute interview they announced on the show. Obviously, if you are familiar with the title of the show, it's 60 Minutes. So they couldn't air all 90. They did, they did edit it down. They did put a full transcript up online, which I'm grateful for and I'm just joking. No one should sue them. Stupid. All right, well, what are your main takeaways from the substance of the interview?

Will Salton (3:00)

Well, first of all, it's just interesting to see a deranged man expressing that kind of confidence. Close. I mean he's nuts. He's completely nuts. So we can go through some of the reasons, but like to see him up close with that, with that camera angle. You know, he's got the orange face, he's got the pink behind it, the pre bronze look.

Sam Stein (3:17)

Right.

Will Salton (3:18)

But he's so confident in his delusions. And Sam, this interview, this was the first time that he came back from all the. So we have the shutdown going on here with Trump going overseas, you know, getting Asia, Middle east, and this is the first time he comes back and he really gets grilled on what's happening here.

Sam Stein (3:36)

Yeah, well, so what's interesting about. I guess not that interesting, but what's notable in the transcript actually makes clear they started the interview itself with a hefty portion of foreign policy. It's like China, Venezuela, Israel. And then it was after that they went into the domestic stuff, which I found interesting because when you watched it on tv, it started with the domestic stuff and then went to the foreign policy. And it felt like just as a sort of a theater critic here, his energy got sort of zapped over the course of the interview. When in reality, if you look by the transcripts, he was starting with the foreign stuff and he just wasn't as interested as, as the, as he was with the domestic stuff. On the domestic stuff he talked about the shutdown, which was what they aired first. What were your, what was your main thoughts on how he was approaching it?

Will Salton (4:27)

Well, he wasn't approaching it. I mean, that's the crazy thing. Here's this guy who's like projecting such action overseas. I'm doing all this stuff with trade deals, with nuclear, with the Middle east and all that. Norah o' Donnell asks him what. She literally says, what are you doing as president? What are you doing as president to lead us out of the shutdown?

Sam Stein (4:44)

Right.

Will Salton (4:44)

And he says they just have to keep voting. They just have to. It's a they thing all we're doing.

Guest/Commentator (4:49)

Is we keep voting. I mean, the Republicans are voting almost unanimously to end it, and, and the Democrats keep voting against ending it.

Will Salton (4:57)

He has no answer to what he personally will do. He's like, I won't be extorted. He will not lead. And this is him looking right in the camera and saying, I'm not going to do anything. It's not my fault, not my job.

Sam Stein (5:08)

Right. And the juxtaposition was kind of interesting because there was a point when he was asked about, and again, foreign policy, domestic policy, but he was asked about his meeting with Putin in Alaska. And Nora o', Donnell, she says, you, you rolled, I'm quoting here, you rolled out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin in Alaska. And he interjects pretty quickly, and he goes, well, I roll out the red carpet for everybody.

Mom/Interviewer (5:30)

I mean, you rolled out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin in Alaska. But there's been.

Guest/Commentator (5:35)

Well, I roll out the red carpet.

Sam Stein (5:36)

For everybody, but not everybody. He's not talking to Democrats. Like, that's some. That's someone he will not roll out the red carpet for. He won't roll out any carpet for them. He'll put a sombrero on them.

Will Salton (5:49)

Am I hallucinating or didn't Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, come into the Oval Office and get berated. Yeah. By Trump and J.D. vance. Like, I don't think of that as a red carpet. Like, that was more like a red wedding.

Sam Stein (6:04)

I mean, you said thank you once.

Guest/Commentator (6:07)

A lot of times.

Sam Stein (6:08)

No, even today.

Will Salton (6:10)

So it seems like it's not exactly a fair.

Sam Stein (6:12)

Did you workshop that line? No, I just like, that's pretty good, man. Okay. Yeah, that was notable, the other part. And again, read the transcript because it becomes more apparent how little plan he actually has when you read it. But she's like, well, this is all about health care. And, you know, what is your plan? Like, if you don't like Obamacare, you think it sucks, what's your plan? And he's just like, we'll get on it. We'll get to that. And then she's like, but what's your plan? And he's like, well, we'll deal with that. We almost got rid of Obamacare, and it's terrible, but we'll do it.

Mom/Interviewer (6:44)

So you're saying your plan is to tell the Democrats to vote to end the shutdown.

Sam Stein (6:49)

Correct.

Guest/Commentator (6:49)

Very simple.

Mom/Interviewer (6:50)

And that you will put forward a health care plan?

Guest/Commentator (6:52)

No, we will work on fixing the bad health care that we have right now. We have terrible health care at. Too expensive for the people. Not for the government, for the people.

Mom/Interviewer (7:01)

But, Mr. President, with all due respect, you've been talking about fixing the health.

Guest/Commentator (7:05)

Care insurance pension because of the Democrats.

Mom/Interviewer (7:07)

But since 2015, you've said you'd fix.

Guest/Commentator (7:09)

I've been talking about it for a long time. We almost did it. We were one vote short. We would have had great health care.

Sam Stein (7:13)

And he clearly has no plan. I mean, just. Absolutely. Which isn't a surprise. Obviously, they've been going around this thing for, you know, a decade now, and they don't have a plan to replace and they never will. You think he'd have something to say with a little bit more substance, but not. Not this guy.

Will Salton (7:28)

Yeah. No. I mean, what is the number of times that Donald Trump will be asked this question and will not have an answer to it? And we keep having the same thing. It's the Groundhog Day. Right?

Sam Stein (7:37)

Like, what was the campaign one? Process.

Will Salton (7:40)

Concepts. I have concepts of a plan. So just a yes or no.

Mom/Interviewer (7:43)

You still do not have a plan.

Guest/Commentator (7:45)

I have concepts of a plan.

Will Salton (7:47)

And like, so like, Sam, you know how politics works? The politician, like, you go back with your team and they're like, okay, that was not a great answer. Let's have something for next time. But it's been next time and next time and next time, and he still got nothing.

Sam Stein (7:59)

Yeah, no, nothing. They got nothing. Let me ask you, how'd you think Nora did.

Will Salton (8:04)

I thought she was okay. The thing, the big look, the big problem with Trump. See, I watch everything Trump does.

Sam Stein (8:09)

Yeah.

Will Salton (8:09)

And what Trump really likes is to have 20 reporters around, and he's got like, more than 10 of them. Are these.

Sam Stein (8:15)

Yeah. Because you can stop. You could be like, oh, no, no, no. Next question. Yeah, yeah, totally.

Will Salton (8:18)

So that's the loser.

Sam Stein (8:21)

Your network is a failing network. Yeah.

Will Salton (8:23)

You're. You're fake news, NBC, fake news, abc. So he goes to somebody else. And now this president has like 15 people out of the 20 who are just these nutball right wing, you know, non reporters, sycophants who just feed him what he wants so he always can move on. So what I thought was great is you have one interviewer, and she gets to persist if she does her job. And, and I think she did try to, you know, get him to answer her questions.

Sam Stein (8:46)

Yeah, No, I think people are generally, not always, but often a little too tough on the Trump interviewer because he is. Whatever you want to say to the guy. He, he's, he's very good at deflecting. And bullshitting and getting out of there. I mean, it's very hard to pin him down and he'll talk over you and, like, it's just a really hard job. I thought she did a good job. There are parts where, like, he's just going to steamroll. And there's one part where he did. And, you know, they, they made the push back on the edit, which I thought was important. That was when she was pressing him on these political prosecutions. Comey and Bolton and Letitia James. This is verbatim. Did you instruct the Department of Justice to go after them? And Trump says no, and not in any way, shape or form.

Guest/Commentator (9:28)

No, you don't have to instruct him because they were so dirty, they were so crooked, they were so corrupt that the honest people we have, Pam Bondi's doing a very good job. Keshe Patel's doing a very good job. The honest people that we have go after him automatically.

Sam Stein (9:43)

And I'm just thinking to myself, I know I saw that truth social post. Like, I didn't hallucinate that. I saw that truth social post. Now, she didn't mention truth social post. They did include that in the edit, though.

Mom/Interviewer (9:54)

But in a true social post from September addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi, President Trump endorsed the idea that former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were guilty as hell.

Will Salton (10:09)

Right. But I think they owE TRUMP About $20 million for doing that, because that wasn't in the interview. Right.

Sam Stein (10:14)

Like, this is a lawsuit coming, but.

Will Salton (10:17)

This is like where the mental illness comes in. The guy just looks you right in the face. And Sam, I think he believes his own bullshit. I really do. But so he says, he says, not in any way, shape or form. He just erases from his mind. And they. So they show the thing in which he's literally. The thing begins with Pam. Go back to these three.

Sam Stein (10:36)

It was literally a direct message.

Will Salton (10:38)

Yeah.

Sam Stein (10:40)

Right.

Will Salton (10:41)

So, like, so, you know, you really do need them at that point to just put up there on the screen as they did. Like, here is the evidence that this man is lying to you.

Sam Stein (10:50)

To your point, like, because the lies and the mistrust come so rapidly, it's really impossible to sort of stop and be like, no, no, no, no. But there were a few where I thought more pushback could have come. So he said this. We had the worst inflation in the history of our country, and now we don't have inflation. It's at 2%. It's the perfect inflation. I mean, that's just statistically wrong. We had a 12 month report, it was at 3%. And he just went and said that. This one kind of was funny to me because I don't know, I've researched this one and done some reporting on it, but they're talking about tariffs and whether they've led to inflation. He said, we have no inflation. We have no inflation. Biden had inflation and he didn't have tariffs. He didn't use tariffs. You know why he didn't use them? Because he's not smart enough to use him. And in fact, this is why it's so funny. Biden continued Trump's tariffs and enhanced them. Like that became a big thing, that Biden wouldn't eliminate the China tariffs on electric vehicles.

Will Salton (11:47)

And Trump himself, in other appearances has said that Biden continued some of his tariffs. So like the guy's like, it's like he says, tells you one story and then he tells you another story. Can I just pick on the inflation thing for a second? Look, Trump bullshits people all the time and like the inflation rate is one of them. He'll tell you it's this average person, like, I don't know what the inflation rate is. But Trump gets specific about prices and he'll tell you the price of eggs has gone down, the price of bacon has gone up, the price of this or that. And real people, ordinary people, they can answer that question. Cause they buy things, they can tell you whether. So when Trump says the price of something has gone down, a grocery, and he says, when he says it's gone down and that they know that it's gone up, that kind of stuff won't wash. And I wonder if he can get really nailed on that in the election.

Sam Stein (12:28)

Well, it's funny that you said that because he wasn't. That's when they asked about the grocery prices, he wasn't very specific about that except for saying, yeah, the price of beef has gone up, but we're working on inflation.

Guest/Commentator (12:38)

Oh, you're wrong. They went up under Biden, right now they're going down. Other than beef, which we're working on.

Sam Stein (12:43)

But he was very specific on the macro stuff. So the inflation stuff. But you know, just how far we've come. Honestly, he did say, you know, Classically, Trump, the 2020 election was, quote, rigged and stolen. And it just kind of, it was like a, it was like a little raindrop in a river. Right. It's like, it's so immaterial at this point and so inconsequential to these interviews and yet you think about you like, this is the biggest, most pernicious lie that he tells. And we're past the point where people feel the need to push back about it because it's just so constant. It's very sad.

Will Salton (13:17)

He does, he's so. He has said this probably about 150 times since he, since he returned. And not only does he say it, Sam, now he says the part where he says, just what you did. I say this, I used to say, and people would object. Now I say it and no one even argues with me. The fact that, you know, oh yeah, he says that now more than more than once. So the fact that he doesn't get pushback anymore, including from the press that are just too jaded, like they've said it undertimes that it's not true, so they just stop and he gets away with it. And now he's advertising that as some kind of acknowledgment that he's, that he was right.

Sam Stein (13:47)

And people might be saying, well, why didn't Nora just say that's not true, Mr. President? And she probably could have. But if he says that, if you say that's not true, you get, you know, 10 minutes of him relitigating it in a way that you know exactly how it's going to go. So you do have to make that call. But it is so depressing that he even notices how bad this is. I want to just, I want to read you my favorite part. Well, one of my favorite parts, let's play the mom, Donnie. One where he talks about their respective looks.

Mom/Interviewer (14:13)

Some people have compared him to a left wing version of you, charismatic, breaking the old rules. What do you think about that?

Guest/Commentator (14:20)

Well, I think I'm a much better looking person than him. Right.

Sam Stein (14:23)

That was, that was a real chuckle. But that way wasn't my favorite line. My favorite line was him talking about there's this news report that they're going to start to test nuclear weapons again. And obviously that's not great, right? Like we, I don't think anyone's like super psyched that we're going to like test nuclear weapons. And it's not great because he believes that Russia and China are testing nuclear weapons or Russia, North Korea and our own government saying, no, that's not true, they're testing the launchers. Anyways. He says this. He goes, doesn't it make sort of sense? You know, you make, you make nuclear weapons and then you don't test. How are you going to do that? How are you going to know if they work. Right, Right.

Will Salton (15:03)

But, Sam, I think you put your finger on it when you talked about the launchers. Okay. What does it mean to test nuclear weapons? Right. There's all kinds of things you can test in the system without detonating the damn thing. Right?

Sam Stein (15:13)

Right.

Will Salton (15:13)

So, yes, there are tests conducted to make sure that parts of the system work. But if we get to the point where you've got to, like, set it off, like, that's where we sort of cross this line.

Sam Stein (15:22)

Oh, no. And then if you start really, like, going down the logical rabbit hole here, which I did. I mean, does he think that you have to, like, test all of them? Like, how do you know if one works and not the other? Like, what are we talking about, big guy? Ah, this is tough stuff.

Will Salton (15:37)

I mean, here's he. He does tariffs, right? And he doesn't really understand how tariffs work, but he talks about it, and that's one thing. But when we shift over to nuclear weapons and he's doing the same ignorance, that's a big problem.

Sam Stein (15:47)

This is. This is. Guy at the end of the bar after a few drinks stuff here. It's like, you know what? How do we know they work if you haven't tried them? It's like, yo, buddy, just have another beer. All right? Before I.

Will Salton (15:57)

We don't let those people get in a car, much less give them nukes.

Sam Stein (16:02)

Okay, I have a. I have a. A quiz for you, but before I do that, I want to know if you have any final observations or thoughts of things you want to talk about from this interview.

Will Salton (16:13)

There was one other thing that I thought was so weird. He was asked about nuking the. He said he's going to nuke the filibuster. Right? He's like, nuke the filibuster.

Sam Stein (16:19)

Get this just to be clear, because we just talked about nuclear. Not literally nuke, but. Yes, go ahead. Right.

Will Salton (16:26)

And so Norah o' Donnell says to him, John Thune, the Senate Majority Leader, says he's not gonna do that. And Donald Trump says. He goes, well, that's too bad.

Mom/Interviewer (16:35)

He said today he wasn't gonna do it.

Guest/Commentator (16:37)

Well, that's too bad.

Will Salton (16:40)

And that's all he has to say. This is a guy who snaps his fingers and Republicans fall in line. So he's like, oh, that's too bad. When in the history of the world is. Trump said, oh, that's too bad. If he wanted to do it, Sam, you know, he would make them do it.

Sam Stein (16:52)

Well, the alternative theory. I do think he wants to do it because he's been bringing it up since term one. And he always gets rebuked. The alternative theory is that he's. There's like some things he gets his back into, and then there's some things if you just tell him no, he's kind of like a big wimp about it. And maybe he doesn't spoil for the fight all the time, but you think he's, you don't think he actually wants it?

Will Salton (17:11)

I think this is. I think if he were desperate to end the shutdown.

Sam Stein (17:14)

Yeah.

Will Salton (17:14)

He would make, he would make them do this.

Sam Stein (17:16)

If he turned the screws to thin. Maybe. Maybe. Okay, here's your quiz. I think you're gonna do fine here. A repeated name that came up during this interview was Joe Biden. He blamed Joe Biden for just about everything. Like, just about everything. You know, you could go down the list. We read a few of them. Inflation, jobs, Venezuela, drugs, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Iran, everything. It was Biden, Biden, Biden. All right, this is a 90 minute interview. How many times in that interview do you think the word Biden was uttered? And that includes Biden administration. Oh, hell.

Will Salton (17:55)

The problem is you've seen the whole transcript and I've only watched the Internet.

Sam Stein (17:58)

I control F'd. Yes, I'm talking about the whole transcript. If you had to guess how many times Joe Biden was mentioned in this.

Will Salton (18:08)

I literally only saw Biden. I shockingly saw him mentioned few times relative to how often Trump usually mentions Biden. You know, I would guess 10.

Sam Stein (18:20)

Wrong way. Wrong. 42. 42.

Will Salton (18:24)

Those were edited out, Sam. I'm telling you, those were edited out.

Sam Stein (18:27)

42 times he mentioned Biden. He did. Wow. He mentioned Obama 10 times.

Will Salton (18:31)

Right.

Sam Stein (18:32)

Maybe you're thinking about Obama. Yeah, No. A lot of cat, a lot of blame casting here.

Will Salton (18:36)

Look, the larger the truthiness is Trump mentions Biden all the time. And it's just so weird because he wants to kind of erase Biden, but it's like the, the new boyfriend who can't stop talking about the old boyfriend.

Sam Stein (18:47)

Yeah.

Will Salton (18:48)

You know who's really the king here? It's the guy who keeps being mentioned by the one who came after you.

Sam Stein (18:54)

It's so true. All right, man, this was fun. Nothing else. Trump should do these more so we have more fun videos to make. Will Salon. Thank you, buddy. Talk to you later. For everyone who watched us, appreciate it. Appreciate you watching us. We do this for you. We, we sift through these transcripts for you.