Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on Trump’s walkout from NBC interview

[0:00] President Trump walks out under tough questioning from NBC. [0:04] Democrats face character questions ahead of a battleground Senate race. [0:08] And President Trump's influence is once again on the ballot in South Carolina. [0:12] Here to unpack it all is our Politics Monday duo. [0:15] That's Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR. [0:20] Great to see you both. [0:21] Good to be here. [0:21] Let's start with this interview that's getting a lot of attention. [0:24] I think it's fair to say Trump officials proudly talk about how accessible this president is to the press. [0:29] We know he takes a lot of questions on the fly in the Oval Office before leaving from the South Lawn [0:35] and even on very brief phone calls from reporters all the time where he ends the conversation when he wants to. [0:41] He rarely sits down for extended, rigorous, one-on-one interviews like the one with Kristen Welker on NBC's Meet the Press. [0:49] As we played earlier, he got very frustrated, Tam, under questioning about his anti-weaponization fund [0:55] and about rigged election claims she was asking for evidence about. [0:59] What stood out to you about how angry the president got in response? [1:03] Well, so much of the questions that he takes, as you described, the calls, all of that is on his terms. [1:11] He's calling on the questions that he's answering the questions that he wants. [1:15] And when he gets a question that he doesn't like, he very frequently attacks the journalists, most especially female journalists. [1:23] And he attacks them in very personal terms. [1:25] You saw at various points during this interview him criticizing going after Kristen Welker and her questioning and her professionalism. [1:33] She stood up for herself. [1:34] But this, at the end, as he's walking out, he was being pressed on this, you know, the soft spot for him, [1:44] which is the 2020 election and his whole idea that the election was stolen and the election rigging [1:50] and all of the things that he's been talking about for all of these years. [1:53] Basis ideas, we should underscore here, right? [1:55] Yes, and that is why it is central to his identity, and it continues to be something where he doesn't have a good answer to the question of where's the evidence. [2:06] Amy, how did you look at this? [2:07] And also this larger argument where the White House is always saying he's so available, he's very accessible to the press. [2:13] Right. [2:13] Well, listen, if you said, why do you think the president chose to go on to a major platform, a Sunday show? [2:21] I would say, well, probably because we're in a war in Iran, although which he calls not really a war, but there's that. [2:29] And voters are very upset, number one, about the actions being taken in Iraq and the repercussions of it, namely higher inflation, gas prices, [2:39] and that here's an opportunity for the president to explain his thinking. [2:43] Where are we going in Iran? [2:45] What's the timeline? [2:46] To give some clarity to that, and to also empathize with Americans who are saying, yeah, but my gas price went up, inflation is still high, they're in a farm state, fertilizers too expensive. [2:57] That was a great opportunity to do that. [2:59] He provided none of that in this interview. [3:03] So really, I think he uses it, to Tam's point, as an opportunity for him to say what he wants to say, be on the record for the issues that matter to him. [3:12] I do think it's more, though, than just obsessing about 2020 that becomes problematic. [3:18] And Lisa obviously did a whole piece on this before we came on, of really undermining the integrity of elections and the idea that as we go into 2026 election time, [3:30] the president's numbers aren't looking particularly strong, the difficulty that Republicans are going to have to hold on to both houses in this upcoming election, [3:40] undermining this as a rigged election is only going to further the frustration, division that we have in this country about how our elections are handled [3:55] and what it means to actually have a free and fair election that Americans can agree whether they won or lost was actually valid. [4:04] Well, I know you've both been following the lead-up to the primary elections in Maine tomorrow, very closely. [4:11] Fair to say, barring, rather, any kind of extraordinary upset, Graham Plattner is likely to win the Democratic nomination. [4:18] Susan Collins is likely to win the Republican nomination. [4:21] Of course, there's a number of scandals around Plattner that have only grown in recent weeks from this list, I have to say, [4:27] from the Nazi tattoo to sexting while married to ex-girlfriends alleging violence. [4:31] Plattner denies any violence, we should say, but on everything else, he says he's transformed. [4:36] And this is how one of his supporters actually sees it. Take a listen. [4:40] It's refreshing to have someone actually own up to stuff that they've done and say, [4:46] yeah, that wasn't such a great idea. I'm working to be a better person. [4:51] Why? Because that's what we all need to do. We all have for us. It's not a perfect world. [4:57] So, Tam, not for Republicans, because I think President Trump has moved the bar so far, [5:02] but for Democrats, this sort of stuff would have been disqualifying not long ago. What's changed? [5:08] I think that if you talk to a lot of Democrats, they would say, Susan Collins. [5:14] They really see Maine as a solid pickup opportunity. And any chance that there was for Democrats to put [5:25] forward a different candidate, and establishment Democrats absolutely did want to put forward a [5:31] different candidate, Governor Janet Mills, who was seen as a strong recruit by Chuck Schumer and the [5:39] Senate Democrats, by the time she got into that race, Graham Plattner already had huge momentum. [5:46] He was like riding a wave, and she's there paddling, and she can't, she just can't catch it. [5:50] It was too late by the time she got in. And so now at this point, Democrats have the front runner that [5:57] they have. And, you know, I think that there are lots of nuances here. And a Democratic primary is [6:06] also different than a general election. And I think that we really will see a test, not just in [6:11] Maine, but also in Texas, where Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee in the Senate race, all of his [6:18] dirty laundry was aired in that primary, and he won anyway. And so I think there is a question of [6:23] whether, you know, primary electorates are different than general electorates, or whether we're in a new [6:29] era where the sort of scandals that would have taken down a politician don't matter anymore. [6:33] Yeah. And the, by the time some of those first Reddit posts came out, Graham Plattner had already [6:40] built and established this sort of grassroots following. I was actually up in Maine the day of, [6:47] or the day after those first Reddit posts were revealed. And sitting at an event, someone comes [6:54] up to introduce Graham Plattner and said, well, we all know this is probably the Democrats in [6:59] Washington who leaked this, right? So the lack of faith and trust in the establishment, whether it [7:05] is the candidates that they pick in Maine establishment, or whether it's the quote unquote [7:11] establishment in Washington, and the lack of faith too, in how rumors like this get into the mainstream [7:19] media also important. But I think Tam's point about the primary is also critical. I don't think [7:26] Graham Plattner is losing support from Democrats. This is a blue state. So theoretically, you only [7:31] need to win Democrats to win. But this is where Susan Collins comes in. If you look at her success [7:37] over the years, it's not because she is winning Republicans, more Republicans. It's that people who [7:44] voted for Joe Biden in 2020 crossed over and voted for Susan Collins. And the number one group to do this [7:51] were women. She won women by three points. Joe Biden won women in that state by more than 23 points. [7:58] If Graham Plattner is going to win in Maine, he's got to win women who crossed over to vote for Susan [8:05] Collins. We're not going to find out whether he can do that tomorrow night. [8:10] Let me ask you too about South Carolina, because their gubernatorial primary, the Republican primary is [8:15] also tomorrow. From Louisiana to Texas, Amy, as you have seen, we've seen President Trump's influence [8:21] in being able to oust incumbents for his pick to make it ahead. In South Carolina, he's pushing for [8:26] Lieutenant Governor Pam Yvette. How do you look at this? What's going to happen here? [8:29] Yeah, I think she's definitely a frontrunner in this. But these are also South Carolina and all these, [8:35] many of these southern states have runoffs. And so getting that nod is really important. Where the [8:41] president has yet to weigh in is in Georgia, which has a actually next week has a runoff in the Senate [8:48] race there. I think that is also notable. Yeah. And I will just say in South Carolina, [8:53] a governor's race is different than a Senate race or a congressional race. And so I am certainly [9:01] watching whether President Trump's influence is as strong when you're when you're looking at a state [9:06] race versus a federal race that has federal implications for how he's able to govern. [9:13] Tamara Keith, Amy Walter, thank you both very much. [9:16] You're welcome. [9:16] Support journalism you trust. Support PBS News. Donate now or even better, start a monthly contribution today.