Donald Trump leaves contentious ’60 Minute’ interview with Lesley Stahl, goes on Twitter attack
President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Muskegon County Airport on Oct. 17 in Norton Shores, Mich.More: After Fauci said he’s not surprised Trump got COVID-19, president calls top disease expert a ‘disaster’ More: ‘Puff piece’: President Trump was not pleased with ’60 Minutes’ Nancy Pelosi interview Trump added, cryptically, „much more to come.”„Lesley had a mask on leading into the interviews as appropriate,” the person said.
Trump brought up the incident during a rally Tuesday night in Erie, Pa., telling supporters: „You have to watch what we do to ’60 Minutes … You’re gonna get a kick out of it. Lesley Stahl’s not gonna be happy.”
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany also tweeted about Stahl, posting a picture of the CBS correspondent holding a book listing the administration’s health care policies.
„She couldn’t believe how HUGE it was and said, “I can hardly lift this,” McEnany said of Stahl.
The Trump interview is scheduled to be part of a „60 Minutes” program on the election to air Sunday.
The CBS program will broadcast taped interviews with all four national candidates: Trump and Pence, as well as Biden and running mate Kamala Harris.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lesley Stahl: Donald Trump leaves contentious ’60 Minutes’
Leaked Reports Show White House Knew Of COVID-19 Spike As Trump Downplayed Crisis
The reports show that White House officials watched as the number of states in the “red zone” ― a region with newly diagnosed COVID-19 case rates above 100 per 100,000 people over the previous week, and lab test positivity results above 10% ― jumped from 18 to 31 between Sept. 13 and Oct. 18.
The reports also show a dangerous disconnect between the task force’s findings and Trump’s actions. In its Sept. 20 report, the task force warned the number of states in the “red zone” had ticked up to 18. Wisconsin was seeing a particularly high increase in positive cases, at 145%. Yet, on Oct. 1, Trump held two more rallies in the state.
By Oct. 18, the task force reported that 31 states were in the “red zone.” A day later, Trump told campaign staffers on a call, “People are tired of COVID. … People are saying, ‘Whatever. Just leave us alone.’ They’re tired of it. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots,” referring to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci.
The task force calls for more testing in all 50 states, contradicting Trump’s claim that he has “done too good a job” on testing. It also urges “red zone” states to put mask mandates in place, as governors in some of those states ignore the recommendations and embrace Trump’s false claims that “there’s a lot of problems with masks” and “85% of the people that wear masks catch it.”
“The White House reports released today show that President Trump’s contempt for science and refusal to lead during this crisis have allowed the coronavirus to surge,” Clyburn said in a statement. “Contrary to his empty claims that the country is ‘rounding the turn,’ more states are now in the ‘red zone’ than ever before. … It is long past time that the Administration implement a national plan to contain this crisis, which is still killing hundreds of Americans each day and could get even worse in the months ahead.”
You can read the six task force reports, dated Aug. 16 through Sept. 20, at the links below:
White House spokesperson Judd Deere accused Clyburn of misrepresenting Trump’s response to the coronavirus crisis.
“In the midst of an ongoing pandemic, some members of Congress have chosen to irresponsibly issue a partisan statements [sic] completely for the purpose of falsely distorting the President’s record to protect the health and safety of the American people and save millions of lives,” Deere said in a statement. “The Coronavirus Task Force has been providing tailored recommendations to individual states for months encouraging Governors and local health officials to act immediately while at the same time President Trump and the entire administration has reminded Americans to follow CDC recommendations and best practices to slow the spread as we work to reopen.”
A spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the White House coronavirus task force, did not respond to a request for comment.
But a White House aide who would only speak without being named said Pence has told state leaders to “feel free to share [the reports] as widely as you want to.”
More than 220,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and more than 8.2 million have tested positive, according to Johns Hopkins’ Coronavirus Resource Center.
Renowned infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm said Sunday that “the next six to 12 weeks are going to be the darkest of the entire pandemic” and raised concerns about the lack of leadership on the issue.
“When I was on this show last on Sept. 13, we had 33,000 cases reported that day,” Osterholm said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Friday, we had 70,000 cases, matching the largest number we had seen back during the really serious peak in July. That number, we’re going to blow right through that.”
“This is more than just science,” he added. “This is bringing people together to understand, why are we doing this? This is an FDR fireside chat approach. And we’re just not doing that.”
This story has been updated to include a comment from the White House.
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Trump abruptly ended his ’60 Minutes’ interview after 45 minutes and then tweeted about host Lesley Stahl not wearing a mask inside the White House
- President Donald Trump ended his interview for „60 Minutes” abruptly on Tuesday after just 45 minutes of filming, according to CNN.
- Trump was supposed to return for a „walk and talk” with Vice President Mike Pence but did not do so.
- The news broke shortly after Trump tweeted a video of „60 Minutes” host Lesley Stahl not wearing a mask inside the White House.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Something happened during the taping of President Donald Trump’s interview for „60 Minutes” that led him to end the interview early, according to CNN.
Trump did 45 minutes of taping with host Lesley Stahl before he walked out and did not return for a scheduled „walk and talk” taping with Vice President Mike Pence, according to CNN.
According to CNN, Trump told producers he believed they had enough material for the interview.
Shortly before the news broke, Trump tweeted a video of Stahl not wearing a mask inside the White House.
Sit-down interviews with the big networks have gone south for Trump before.
Trump has done far more one-on-one interviews with Fox News, though those have also sometimes created issues for him, like when he made news over the summer after a talk with „Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace in which he talked about taking a cognitive test.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris are also set to do „60 Minutes” interviews to air alongside Trump’s, though they did theirs remotely from one another.
Trump and Pence were supposed to appear together, but after Trump walked out, Pence’s will be done separately, according to CNN.
All these interviews are scheduled to air on Sunday night.
Read the original article on Business
Russia calls for collective security in Gulf, US blames Iran
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia’s foreign minister called for collective efforts Tuesday to prevent a large-scale war in the Persian Gulf and got strong support from all Security Council members except the United States, which called Iran the major culprit and urged that it be held accountable for supporting terrorists and destabilizing the region.
Sergey Lavrov told a high-level virtual council meeting that a worst case scenario was avoided earlier this year following the U.S. killing of Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, and warned that “the situation remains fragile and could become dangerous and unpredictable again.”
But Russia, which holds the council presidency this month, believes that “if we work together openly and impartially, and if we pool our political will and our creative potential, we will be able to help the states of the Persian Gulf overcome this difficult historic period and create an effective system of collective security,” he said.
Robert Malley, president of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, warned that “the regionwide conflict that now looms largest across the globe is a conflict nobody apparently wants — a conflict triggered by tensions in the Gulf region.”
“It is far from inevitable,” he said, but “a single attack by rocket, drone or limpet mine could set off a military escalation between the U.S. and Iran and their respective regional allies and proxies that could prove impossible to contain.”
“An inclusive, collective regional security dialogue aimed at lessening tensions may have only a small chance of materializing, and an even smaller chance of success, but under current circumstances it would be irresponsible not to give it a try,” Malley said.
There was no shortage of ideas on promoting collective security from council members.
U.S. allies Britain, France and Germany all supported confidence building measures in the Gulf and stressed their support for the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of in 2018 — but they also sharply criticized Iran for destabilizing activities.
Two days after the lifting of the U.N. arms embargo on Iran over U.S. objections, French Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere urged possible weapons suppliers and recipients “to exercise the utmost restraint and responsibility in considering the consequences that possible transfers could have for regional security and stability, and to draw the necessary conclusions.”
Britain’s acting ambassador, Jonathan Allen, said Iran has continued to transfer arms to regional groups and told the council the UK would work “to find a suitable solution to Iranian proliferation.”
German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen criticized human rights violations in Iran, where, he said, “civilian and political rights are violated every day,” prisons “are the most abhorrent in the whole region,” and “religious minorities like the Baha’i are persecuted.”
U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft, meanwhile, dismissed any idea of collective security for the Gulf, touting instead the Trump administration’s new approach to the Middle East, including its key role in promoting diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Responding to Russia’s promotion of security for the Persian Gulf, Craft said: “Respectfully, I think the solution is much easier: This council must simply muster the courage to hold Iran accountable to its existing international obligations.”
“The United States recognizes that Iran is the single greatest threat to peace and security in the Middle East,” she said.
She pointed to Iran’s development of ballistic missiles and support for proxies in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, saying that “the United States will continue to hold Iran accountable, even if it means we must act alone.”
“What makes America special is that we are unafraid to stand up for what is right,” Craft said. “And I don’t need a cheering section to validate my moral compass.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the U.S. deployment of nearly 50,000 troops in the Persian Gulf in 29 military installations, with more than 300 combat aircraft, and its hundreds of billions of dollars of arms sales “have enhanced neither the security of the external powers, nor of the region.”
“We need collective efforts by regional countries to establish inclusive dialogue and security networking in this region,” he said. “Otherwise, we will all be engulfed in turmoil for generations to come.”
Zarif said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s proposal for a Hormuz peace and security initiative launched a year ago awaits a response from regional leaders.
Lavrov reiterated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative to hold an online meeting of leaders of the five permanent Security Council members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — along with Germany to discuss ways to bring peace to the region.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the first step toward de-escalation is identifying viable confidence-building measures such as ways to combat the coronavirus, promote economic recovery, ensure unhindered maritime navigation and arrange religious pilgrimages.
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, proposed “a platform for multilateral dialogue for the Gulf region,” starting with incremental progress on energy, shipping, trade and other less sensitive issues.
“Dialogue will not be smooth sailing nor will it reach its goal overnight,” he said. “But no matter how long the journey might be, step by step we’ll eventually reach the destination. The first step for dialogue, even a small one, will be one giant step toward peace.”
