President Donald Trump got into a heated argument with PBS NewsHour White House correspondent Liz Landers, calling her a “rotten reporter” after she pushed back on his claims of election fraud. The incident happened as Trump was leaving the White House for Cincinnati, Ohio.
According to The Daily Beast, Landers had asked Trump why the FBI issued a federal grand jury subpoena for records related to the 2020 voter results in Maricopa County, Arizona. Trump suggested the FBI probably thought the election was “rigged,” and Landers directly said that it was not.
“Really? How do you know?” Trump responded. Landers then brought up his own former attorney general, saying, “Your own attorney general in 2020 said that there was no measurable voter fraud.” Trump interrupted her and asked, “Oh, really? You don’t think it was rigged?” He then added, “I think it was rigged. And if you say it wasn’t rigged, then you’re a rotten reporter.”
Trump’s own appointees have previously confirmed no fraud changed the 2020 election outcome
The attorney general Landers cited, Bill Barr, was appointed by Trump himself during his first term. In December 2020, Barr stated that the Justice Department had “not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.”
Arizona’s Republican governor at the time, Doug Ducey, also backed the state’s election results. Ducey posted on social media in November 2020 that he had been “pretty outspoken about Arizona’s election system, and bragged about it quite a bit, including in the Oval Office.” Trump has faced scrutiny on other fronts as well, including health violations at his Chicago hotel property.
Donald Trump gets owned by reporter Liz Landers and he melts down and calls her “rotten.”
— Art Candee
What a disgraceful man.
pic.twitter.com/89Xkd2ZENb(@ArtCandee) March 11, 2026
The 2020 presidential election saw Trump lose to Joe Biden, who won 306 Electoral College votes and 51.3 percent of the popular vote. When asked to comment on the exchange with Landers, the White House simply pointed back to Trump’s Wednesday statements.
This is not the first time Trump has insulted a female reporter who asked him a tough question. Last month, he went after CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins after she asked him about survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, calling her “the worst reporter” and saying “CNN has no ratings because of people like you.” He also told others in the room, “She’s a young woman. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile. I’ve known you for 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face.”
A few days after that, Trump told Washington Post reporter Natalie Allison that she had a “very bad attitude” after she asked about his immigration policies. His administration has also drawn criticism for cutting subway funding in New York City. In November, he also snapped at Bloomberg’s White House correspondent Catherine Lucey on Air Force One when she asked about Epstein, reportedly telling her, “Quiet, piggy!”
