WASHINGTON — An audio recording obtained by NBC News appears to present that former President Donald Trump’s extremely publicized interview with Piers Morgan didn’t finish with Trump storming off the set, as edited promotional video clips counsel.
Instead, in accordance to the recording, which was offered by Trump’s spokesman, the 2 males thanked one another and laughed on the conclusion of the interview for Talk TV, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Talk TV, which is ready to debut Monday, teased the interview — billed as “the most explosive interview of the year” — in a video abstract that is dramatized with cinematic music and portrays Trump as being indignant concerning the content material of questions Morgan requested. The video and the alleged walkout had been reported in an article by the New York Post, which can be owned by News Corp.
“Turn the camera off,” Trump says at the close of the video clip as he appears to rise from his chair. “Very dishonest.”
But the audio of the end of the interview appears to tell a different story. The two men laughed and thanked each other, the recording shows. There are no signs of Trump’s storming off set.
“That was an excellent interview,” Morgan says in the audio at the end.
Trump agrees with a “yeah.”
“Thank you very a lot. I actually recognize it,” Morgan says.
That’s when Trump says, “Turn the digicam off.” By then, the former president had already risen from his chair, according to his communications director, Taylor Budowich, who supplied the audio to NBC News.
Budowich alleged that the show’s producers deceptively edited the video by splicing the sound of Trump saying “flip the digicam off” to make it falsely appear as if he made the statement while he was rising in anger.
As for Trump’s saying “very misleading,” he made the comment after a frustrated Budowich called out Morgan for dragging out the interview and falsely and repeatedly saying he had one last question, only to ask more.
Trump had expected the interview to last 20 minutes, Budowich said, but it stretched on for more than an hour. Toward the end, Budowich called for the last question, but the audio appears to show that Morgan asked several more, including one related to “Celebrity Apprentice.”
“Is that the final query? You’ve mentioned ‘the final query’ 4 instances now,” Budowich told Morgan. “So I really feel such as you’re mendacity at this level.”
“I’m not mendacity,” Morgan said.
Trump then said, “Very misleading.”
Morgan then asked more questions.
While the interview appeared to be tough, as Morgan called Trump out for lying about the stolen election, his final question was a figurative softball — about the hole-in-one Trump recently boasted about shooting on a golf course.
“We have nothing to comment beyond the public information (i.e. the video clip and Piers’ column in the NY Post),” a News Corp spokesperson wrote in an email to NBC News. A producer for Morgan did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
Budowich blasted the company.
“This is a pathetic attempt to use President Trump as a way to revive the career of a failed television host,” Budowich told NBC News. “It is also another example of President Trump being right, as he told Piers Morgan that the host was dishonest to his face and Piers, for the first time in his life, didn’t disappoint.”
The friction over the interview overshadowed a rare admission from Trump that he wishes he had behaved differently in office — and a familiar defensiveness about his comportment.
“Would I like to be a bit of bit completely different? Yes,” Trump said, according to the recording. “But if I didn’t act the way in which I acted, it might haven’t been an excellent success.”
Trump said he felt “underneath siege” at the beginning of his presidency, as federal and congressional investigators homed in on allegations that his campaign worked with Russia during the 2016 election.
“I had to struggle again, and I had to struggle again robust. If I didn’t struggle again robust, I wouldn’t have survived,” Trump said. “I had two jobs to do: run the nation very well and the second was to survive.”
At an earlier point in the exchange, according to the video clips released by Talk TV, Morgan told Trump the 2020 election was legitimate — a contradiction of Trump’s ongoing lie that he was unfairly robbed of an election win.
“It was a free and truthful election,” Morgan said. “You misplaced.”
In the clips released by Talk TV, Trump says, “Only a idiot would assume that.”