MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle has revealed the strongly worded response Donald Trump gave her when he answered her call during the election.
Appear in Lukas Thimm’s live show So many problems, Ruhle first praised the president-elect for his accessibility compared to his Democratic counterparts.
The progressive host said she had been asking for an interview days before the race went in Trump’s favor.
Surprised that he even answered, she recalled asking the campaigning Republican for a filmed sit-down.
Trump told her no, but it was Ruhle’s description of the rejection that had the crowd laughing and gasping.
“The day after Donald Trump had that crazy rally at Madison Square Garden. I rolled the dice, called him on the phone and he answered,” Ruhle recalled telling Thimm, while speaking on the topic of misinformation.
“I didn’t call to chat,” Ruhle continued. “It wasn’t an on-the-record conversation. I said you just said a lot of public things. I would like to have an interview with you. We still have five days before the elections.
“He told me to go fuck myself,” Ruhle revealed with a laugh.
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President-elect Donald Trump told an MSNBC journalist to keep looking when he was asked for an interview a few weeks ago in the waning days of the election — but it’s the progressive news host’s description of the rejection that has the raises eyebrows
“He told me to go fuck myself,” joked 11th Hour and NBC News host Stephanie Ruhle, 48, telling the never-before-heard anecdote about Lukas Thimm’s live show So Many Issues
“He clearly said no,” Ruhle – formerly editor-in-chief of Bloomberg Television and editor at Bloomberg News – continued, turning more serious.
“But my point is that I was able to reach him by calling his phone.”
By comparison, she said she had to deal with about 50 handlers when she tried to contact Biden and Kamala Harris.
“But the opposite of that, if I wanted to contact Vice President Harris or President Biden, there’s fifty people between me and I could write a note that might reach out to someone to get a hold of someone.” , Ruhle said in a speech. stunning reversal.
“Then something could end up in a mailbox near them via Pony Express and a pigeon,” she joked.
By contrast, when it came to Trump, she said, she simply dialed his personal number.
“I called DJT to say, ‘Yo, can I have an interview,’” Ruhle recalls, laughing about the ordeal.
She then described her own experiences with both Biden and Harris after interviewing them during their respective campaigns.
“I called DJT to say, ‘Yo, can I have an interview,'” Ruhle recalled of how easy it was to get Trump on the phone for the botched interview, compared to his Democratic contemporaries
The news anchor first told the anecdote and then described how difficult it was to deal with the approximately “50” handlers who stood between her and the Democratic candidates, first Biden, whom she interviewed in May 2023.
In the past, Ruhle had defended Harris against criticism that she was avoiding the tough questions — a topic that came up during the discussion during the call. Ruhle interviewed Harris in September after she became the Democratic nominee
“In those fully structured environments, you never have a human moment,” Ruhle said of those sit-downs.
“And here’s the thing about Donald Trump: Love him or hate him, and when I say he keeps it real, he keeps it real.
“But he’s lying, (but) people know what they’re getting.”
Harris, by contrast, addressed her in September with the careful cadence of a career politician — a profile that many have grown wary of.
“Just like with traditional media, the White House is in charge.
“When I interviewed President Biden, they gave me ten minutes, okay?” Ruhle said. A politician can throw out one answer in fifteen minutes.’
Ruhle framed Trump as more authentic.
Biden’s team, she said, tried to censor certain topics, such as tough questions about whether he would pardon his son Hunter.
“A perfectly reasonable question,” Ruhle recalled of the May 2023 interview in the Oval Office.
“As soon as I said those words, President Biden’s team waved in front of the camera, started yelling and screaming and stopped the interview.
Ruhle then went on to publicly reflect on how the American people were seemingly fed up with “polished” politicians giving them rehearsed “soundbites” — like Harris’ ill-fated appearance on The View in October, where she said she wouldn’t do anything differently than her predecessor.
“That immediately went further, that is public, that was in the transcript, that became its own story, and then they punished us.”
In the interview, the president is heard answering, “First of all, my son did nothing wrong. I trust him. I have confidence in him. It affects my presidency because I am proud of him.”
Biden complained about the “negative” press coverage of him over the past three years, adding, “Everything is negative.”
‘I’m not critical of the press, but when you turn on the television, you can only get a hit if there’s something negative, you know. You don’t do that – that’s number one anyway.’
Biden’s team then decided to end the interview.
Neither development appeared in the final version, she revealed.
Biden caused a stir earlier this month by announcing he will pardon his son before leaving office.