Former President Trump pushed back against criticism that he rambled during a phone call with Fox News after Vice President Harris’s Democratic convention speech last week, claiming the network asked him to do what ultimately was a brief interview.
“Bret Baier of FoxNews called me, I didn’t call him, just prior to the Kamala Convention speech, and asked me if I would like to critique her after she is finished. I agreed to do so!” Trump wrote early Sunday on Truth Social.
Trump dialed into Fox News to speak with Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum last Thursday immediately after Harris concluded her nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
During the call, Trump appeared to accidentally press buttons on his phone’s keypad while he seemingly ranted about Harris’s speech. Baier and MacCallum attempted to interject at various points as the former president continued to talk. The call ended after 10 minutes, when the anchors told Trump the network ran out of time.
The former president’s phone call was mentioned by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who wrote in an opinion piece, “He followed up the posts with a scream-of-consciousness call to Fox News, filibustering Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum for 10 minutes until Baier abruptly cut him off to throw to the Greg Gutfeld comedy show.”
Responding to this Sunday, Trump wrote, “I didn’t call other media outlets that asked me to go on, they called me. The Fake News, like often ‘gilted’ Maureen Dowd of the failing New York Times, wrote incorrectly that I was making the calls.”
“WRONG!!! I don’t have to make calls to go on TV, or anything else — They call me! It’s called Ratings, I guess, and I’m the ‘Ratings Machine!'” he added.
The Hill reached out to Fox News for comment on Trump’s claim.
Trump repeated some of his criticism of Harris’s speech Sunday, calling it “nonspecific and weak,” arguing, “no fracking, crime, inflation or anything else of interest” was mentioned in the remarks.
“Delivery was a C+, with far too many and speedy ‘thank you’s’ at the beginning,” he wrote.