'What's going on?' Critics charge 'very weak' as Trump pulls out of another TV interview

17 October 2024

With less than three weeks to Election Day, as the polls tighten and early voting is underway in dozens of states, Donald Trump has pulled out of yet another mainstream media network TV interview, the third in less than a week, this time with NBC News.

“Overnight,” CNN‘s Brian Stelter writes in his newsletter, “I learned of another planned Trump interview that was suddenly scrapped. NBC News thought it had secured a sit-down with Trump to discuss the economy and other matters, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter. The interview was expected to take place in Philadelphia on Monday and correspondent Christine Romans (a CNN alum) was set to be the interviewer, I’m told. But then it was called off by the Trump team.”

Trump also pulled out of a scheduled interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” which aired its interview with Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, on Sunday. Also this week he abruptly canceled an interview with a pro-Trump CNBC host.

Trump this week did appear in a staged Fox News town hall that was taped and edited, filled with GOP women voters hand-picked and invited by Fox News that aired Wednesday morning. Stelter described it as “very friendly.” He appeared on a Univision town hall Wednesday night and did not do well in front of undecided Latino voters in Miami who asked him several questions he could not or would not answer. Trump also did not do well in a live interview with Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait at the Economic Club of Chicago, during which he grew defensive and attacked the host.

Stelter says Trump’s canceled NBC interview was “postponed,” according to one of his sources, “and NBC is in discussions to reschedule it…”

“Look,” Dante Atkins, an expert in strategic communications and campaign management, wrote in response to the Harris campaign’s post highlighting Stelter’s reporting, “if I were asked about climate change and I responded by talking about how I got awards for mixing sand and water, I would cancel the rest of my interviews too. Trump’s best shot at this point is to hide from the public so they don’t see just how bad his sundowning is.”

Atkins appeared to be referring to Trump’s damaging Univision town hall, and the ex-president’s Philadelphia town hall Monday night where he stopped answering questions after taking just four from the audience, waited for two medical events to be addressed, then spent more than 30 minutes on stage playing his favorite music and dancing. Several internet commenters suggested Trump is suffering from dementia and was “sundowning.” The New York Times’ Paul Krugman cited “Trump’s bizarre behavior” and his “cognitive decline.”

The Bulwark on Tuesday reported since Trump’s only debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, he isn’t giving interviews to the mainstream media.

“In recent weeks, Trump has almost exclusively decamped to outlets that are already in his tank. Since the September 10 presidential debate, with the exceptions of a Las Vegas ABC affiliate and a quick NewsNation hit, nearly all of Trump’s 14 one-one interviews have been with interviewers ranging from friendly to sycophantic.”

The Harris campaign’s Ammar Moussa wrote: “Trump cancelled on 60 Minutes, is refusing a second debate, and is hiding his medical records. What’s going on?”

Vanity Fair’s Molly Jong-Fast remarked, “This seems very weak of Trump.”

Democratic strategist Matt McDermott added, “If Kamala Harris had canceled three major sitdown interviews in the past week, headlines across America would be demanding answers as to what the candidate is hiding.”

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