An interview with Donald Trump from TV therapist Dr Phil appeared to contain abrupt cuts – with a social media account connected to the presidential campaign of Joe Biden suggesting the edits had been made to cover up the Republican’s “gaffes and confusion”.
The former president sat down with Dr Phil in an interview that was published on Thursday evening.
But it has quickly been criticised for being fawning, while Dr Phil has been accused of pandering to Mr Trump.
The account Biden-Harris HQ posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, appearing to show a series of Mr Trump’s answers to certain questions that have been stitched together.
“Dr. Phil’s interview of Trump appears to abruptly cut out Trump’s gaffes and confusion,” the Biden-affiliated account wrote.
The edits appear to have been made as Mr Trump was asked by Dr Phil about claims the Chinese government has bought land near US military facilities.
Another social media user who shared the Biden-Harris HQ video suggested these kinds of edits were becoming commonplace for interviews with Mr Trump.
“This keeps happening with every Trump propaganda interview,” MeidasTouch wrote. “These edits are bizarre.”
Journalist Aaron Rupar claimed on X at the start of this week that a Fox interview with Mr Trump published on Sunday had also been “heavily edited”.
Reacting to that video, other users accused the news channel of being too friendly with Mr Trump.
“Trump’s interview on Fox & Friends was clearly heavily edited,” wrote Mr Rupar.
Dr Phil’s hour-long interview with Mr Trump was staged at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Social media users reacted to the interview harshly, accusing the former therapist turned TV host of “pathetic” fawning over Mr Trump.
At one point, Dr Phil told the recently convicted former president that he believed he had been “muzzled” by a judge in his New York hush money trial, during which the jury found Mr Trump guilty on all 34 counts.
The TV star told Trump that he hoped that Joe Biden would step in and prevent the legal cases against the former president, two of which are state and not federal jurisdiction.
Dr Phil also claimed that he had been to the border and been told by officials there – without providing evidence – that 13 million migrants had been let into the US.
