TRUMP INTERVIEW SEEN TO GO VIRAL

Late last week, Fox News teased Chris Wallace’s interview with President Donald Trump by running a brief clip — a testy exchange between the president and Wallace, according to the briefing paper of Poynter Media Studies, a go-to-site for the media community.

Poynter said that "In the clip, Trump said that his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, wants to defund the police. Wallace interrupted, “Sir, he does not.”

Trump pointed to the unity platform that Biden signed with Sen. Bernie Sanders. Wallace quickly — and correctly — pointed out that it “says nothing about defunding the police.”

Then Trump halted the interview after saying, “Oh really? It says ‘abolish.’ It says ‘defund.’ Let’s go!” He turned to a staff member off-camera and said, “Get me the charter, please.”

During an appearance with Fox News colleague Bill Hemmer, who aired the clip, Wallace said, “But he couldn’t find any indication — because there isn’t any — that Joe Biden has sought to defund and abolish the police.”

At that point, you knew the “Fox News Sunday” interview was going to be a whopper of an interview. And it most certainly was. It was a masterful performance by Wallace, who was extremely prepared, was quick on his feet and did not hesitate to call out the president.

Wallace pushed the president on a number of issues that likely will play a key role in deciding the November election.

A big issue is the coronavirus, another topic where Trump called on staff to bring him numbers that were different than the ones presented by Wallace. Trump insisted that cases are up because testing is up, but Wallace smartly noted that testing is up 37%, while positive cases are up 194%. “It isn’t just that testing has gone up,” Wallace said, “it’s that the virus has spread.”

In another bizarre exchange, Wallace asked, “You said our children are taught in school to hate our country. Where do you see that?”

Trump said, “I look at school. I watch, I read, look at the stuff. Now they want to change — 1492, Columbus discovered America. You know, we grew up, you grew up, we all did, that’s what we learned. Now they want to make it the 1619 Project. Where did that come from? What does it represent? I don’t even know, so.”

Wallace said, “It’s slavery.”

Trump, incredibly, said, “That’s what they’re saying, but they don’t even know.”

Around and around it went, including another exchange about mental fitness and Trump’s claim that he recently aced a cognitive test. When Wallace quoted polls that showed Americans believe Biden is more competent than the president, Trump said, “Well, I’ll tell you what, let’s take a test. Let’s take a test right now. Let’s go down, Joe and I will take a test. Let him take the same test that I took.”

Wallace said he took the test online and said, “It’s not the hardest test. They have a picture and it says, ‘What’s that?’ and it’s an elephant.”

Trump said, “No, no, no. You see, that’s all misrepresentation. … Because, yes, the first few questions are easy, but I’ll bet you couldn’t even answer the last five questions. I’ll bet you couldn’t, they get very hard, the last five questions.”

That’s just a few examples. Watch for yourself. Ultimately, how the president did is your call. But there’s not much debate about how Wallace did. He was excellent.

Veteran newsman Dan Rather tweeted, “A tip of the Stetson to Chris Wallace. A consummate pro. Tough. Prepared. Fair. Always ready with a fact check and a follow-up question. I imagine there is quite a scene at the White House trying to contain the fallout.”

Axios’ Jonathan Swan tweeted, “I think I’ve watched every television interview Donald Trump has done since announcing his candidacy in 2015. Chris Wallace just did the best one, and by some distance.”

In today’s wild news cycle where something seems to be happening every day and what happened yesterday is quickly forgotten, Wallace’s interview might actually have staying power. It was a disastrous interview for Trump, but for Wallace it was a shining moment — mostly because he did what a good journalist does by asking tough questions, calling out his subject if they say something incorrect and doing it all in a professional way.