Donald Trump has released an audio recording in an effort to show that he didn’t storm out of an interview with Piers Morgan, as a promo video for his new show suggested.
The men can be heard cordially ending the interview on the recording, thanking each other and laughing as they wrapped up the filming for the Talk TV show Piers Morgan Uncensored.
Talk TV is run by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which is also in charge of Fox News.
The new channel is set to go on air on Monday and the promo suggested that it was “the most explosive interview of the year”. A video summary with bombastic music appears to show Mr Trump being frustrated at Mr Morgan’s line of questioning.
The video and the supposed storming off were reported on by the New York Post, also run by News Corp.
“Turn the camera off,” Mr Trump says at the end of the promo as he appears to stand up to leave. “Very dishonest.”
But the leaked audio at the end of the video seems to show a different story.
“That was a great interview,” Mr Morgan says.
“Yeah,” Mr Trump responds.
“Thank you very much. I really appreciate it,” Mr Morgan adds.
It’s at this moment that Mr Trump says “turn the camera off”. Trump communications director Taylor Budowich told NBC News that by this point, Mr Trump had already stood up.
Mr Budowich said the line “turn the camera off” was edited into the promo to make it appear as if Mr Trump was saying it as he was standing up in a rage.
“Very deceptive,” Mr Trump said after an annoyed Mr Budowich criticized Mr Morgan for elongating the interview by repeatedly asking for one last question but then carrying on.
While Mr Trump thought the interview would take 20 minutes, according to Mr Budowich, it took more than an hour.
“Is that the last question? You’ve said ‘the last question’ four times now,” Mr Budowich told Mr Morgan. “So I feel like you’re lying at this point.”
“I’m not lying,” Mr Morgan said.
“Very deceptive,” Mr Trump said. Mr Morgan then asked further questions, including one about Mr Trump’s show Celebrity Apprentice, on which Mr Morgan appeared.
Donald Trump Jr slammed the promo on Twitter for being “misleading and deceptive”.
“I learned all my promo skills from you guys on Celebrity Apprentice! Nothing misleading or deceptive about it, Don – your dad just got very annoyed when I told him I don’t believe the 2020 election was rigged or stolen,” Mr Morgan responded. “Aside from that, it was a terrific interview.”
Mr Trump said in a statement that Mr Morgan “attempted to ... deceptively edit his long and tedious interview with me. He wanted to make it look like I walked out on the interview when my time limit of 20 minutes went over by an hour. The good news is that the interview was taped by us as a means of keeping him honest”.
“We have nothing to comment beyond the public information (ie the video clip and Piers’ column in the NY Post),” a News Corp spokesperson told NBC News.
“This is a pathetic attempt to use President Trump as a way to revive the career of a failed television host,” Mr Budowich told the outlet. “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.”
Mr Trump said on the recording that he wished he had acted a bit differently in office.
“Would I like to be a little bit different? Yes,” Mr Trump said. “But if I didn’t act the way I acted, it would have not been a great success.”
The former president said he felt he was “under siege” during the start of his term amid investigations into allegations of collusion with Russia during the 2016 election.
“I had to fight back, and I had to fight back strong. If I didn’t fight back strong, I wouldn’t have survived,” Mr Trump said. “I had two jobs to do – run the country really well and the second was to survive.”
“It was a free and fair election,” Mr Morgan said about the 2020 vote in clips released by Talk TV. “You lost.”
“Only a fool would think that,” Mr Trump responded, according to the footage.
