Trump carries on his Twitter tirade against Lesley Stahl and ‘60 Minutes.’
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Version 0 of 1. President Trump continued his taunting of the “60 Minutes” anchor Lesley Stahl on Twitter Wednesday, tweeting several photographs of himself with the CBS star he has been angry with since an as-yet-unaired interview she conducted with him at the White House on Tuesday that he called “fake and biased.” Among the images Mr. Trump posted were a sequence in which his press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, presented Ms. Stahl with a large book filled with what he said were his achievements on health care, an issue on which even some Republicans admit his record is thin. Mr. Trump wrote that Ms. McEnany was providing Ms. Stahl “with some of the many things we’ve done for Healthcare. Lesley had no idea!” Ms. McEnany tweeted one of the same photos on Tuesday evening and wrote that Ms. Stahl “couldn’t believe how HUGE it was and said, ‘I can hardly lift this!!’” But Mr. Trump’s tweet on Wednesday became fodder for ridicule online. Noting that Mr. Trump has never delivered on regular promises to unveil a comprehensive health care plan to replace Obamacare, which he has worked to eliminate, Twitter users shared memes in which the book was variously filled with hundreds of blank pages, the names of people who had lost health insurance under Mr. Trump’s presidency, or even obituaries for some of the more than 200,000 Americans who have died from coronavirus. Not so, Ms. McEnany said in an email. “It was a very large book of everything President Trump has signed — executive orders and legislation — to improve health care for Americans over the past three and a half years,” she wrote. “All of these items are public, just compiled in one place in this book.” Mr. Trump grew irritated with Ms. Stahl’s questions during a 45-minute sit-down with her at the White House on Tuesday. According to people familiar with the exchange, the president refused to participate in a subsequent “walk-and-talk” that had been planned with Ms. Stahl and Vice President Mike Pence. He later tweeted a short video clip showing Ms. Stahl in the White House without a mask. Mr. Trump also tweeted on Wednesday several photographs of Ms. Stahl speaking to him on camera, providing no commentary and thus leaving their point unclear — but perhaps suggesting he is ready to make good on a threat he tweeted on Tuesday to release White House video of their interview before “60 Minutes” airs on CBS Sunday. The interview with the president is scheduled to be broadcast Sunday, and will also feature an interview with former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Senator Kamala Harris and Mr. Pence were also interviewed for the broadcast. Norah O’Donnell spoke with Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris. “You have to watch what we do to ‘60 Minutes,’” Trump told supporters in Erie, Pa., on Tuesday night. “You’ll get such a kick out of it. You’re going to get a kick out of it. Lesley Stahl’s not going to be happy.” |