Trump Gets Testy After Fox Host Fact Checks Him To His Face

During an interview with Fox News host Howard Kurtz that aired over the weekend, Donald Trump became testy when Kurtz told him that the lie that he’s pushing about migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio has been repeatedly debunked. Trump snapped and insisted that the geese were disappearing, but even that claim has already been resolved – a white man was shooting the geese, as revealed by police records. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what happened.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

This past weekend, uh, Fox News, Fox News host Howard Kurtz, to be exact, aired an interview that, of course, he pre-taped with Donald Trump. And in the interview, Donald Trump became very testy after Kurtz decided to fact check him to his face about his lies, about the migrants in Springfield, allegedly eating pets. A talking point that has been repeatedly debunked. It's been debunked by the very person who started it. It's been debunked by law enforcement. It's been debunked by politicians at the local and state level. But nevertheless, Donald Trump is still out there pushing that conspiracy theory, which he did most recently last week during his town hall on Univision. So Kurtz decided to call him out for it. Kurtz said, quote, I take your point that 15 to 20,000 legal Haitian immigrants settling in that area causes a lot of friction. But when you said, and you know, it's gone viral.

They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats. You said you were just reporting what had been said, but why not say now? Well, look, that turned out to not be true. And Trump replied and said, I don't know. I don't know if it's true or not. I read something and Kurt said, you don't know if it's true or not, it's been debunked. And then Trump snapped back and he said, well, what about the goose, the geese? What about the geese? What happened there? They were all missing. And then Kurtz tried to jump in and say, well, there was one. And then Trump interrupts and says, Howie, I have no idea. I said something. The big problem is that you can't put 30,000 people into a 50,000 person town or city and expect this city to even survive or do well. What they've done to Springfield, Ohio is very, very unfair.

And I mean, there are a lot of stories. There are a lot of other stories that I've heard that have had horrible stories. I haven't said it. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. But that's a story that was reported and I said that, but why don't you go after the newspaper that wrote it? Don't, don't, don't, don't blame me. He said, and Kurt said, well, I think it's been debunked by local officials to which Trump replied, I don't think it's been debunked at all. I think nobody talks about it except you, that that statement doesn't even make sense. But what Kurtz was trying to add in there, when Donald Trump was like, well then what about the geese? They may not be eating the cats and the dogs, but they're eating the geese. Right. Well, on that front, there was a story that came out about a week and a half ago, maybe two weeks. Um, there was somebody that was killing the geese in the park, turns out to be an old white man that was going down there and killing the geese. And he was fined $200. He was arrested. Uh, the police released that. And the guy was like, ah, sorry. Yeah, I've been killing the geese. Oops, I guess I won't do that anymore. So the one part of the story that had a tiny bit of truth

To it, turns out the white guy was the one doing it. That's what Kurtz, I think, was trying to interrupt Donald Trump and say, but of course he did a very sad job with it. And I love the fact that Trump's like, I have no idea. I said something. He's like, I don't know if it's true. I just said it. That tells you everything you need to know about Donald Trump, who he is as a person, why he does the things he does. I don't know. I just do it now, does that sound like the temperament that you want in somebody who wants to be the next president of the United States? 'cause to me, absolutely not.