In a newly released trailer for the upcoming series “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” former President Donald Trump appeared to lose his cool in a sit-down interview with Morgan.
At one point during the interview, Trump demanded, “Turn the camera off.” He also called Morgan “very dishonest” and said he is a “fool” for thinking the 2020 election was conducted fairly.
****BREAKING NEWS****
👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/WdJnPJyMwG— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 20, 2022
In an Op-Ed for The U.S. Sun, Morgan explained that he had flown to Mar-a-Lago to interview Trump for the first episode of his new show, which premieres Monday.
Less than ten minutes before the interview was set to begin, Morgan said a member of his production team handed him a piece of paper.
“This is a collection of quotes you’ve apparently said about President Trump in the past two years,” the team member said. “Someone sent it to him in the last hour, and the quotes are not good. In fact, they’re really bad.”
“As I hurriedly scanned the 3-page white paper document, my heart sank,” Morgan wrote.
He said the quotes were “by far the worst things I’d ever said about a man with whom I’d been friends for 15 years, but I felt they were justified when I said them, and I still do now.” The team member told him Trump was “very upset.”
At Morgan’s request, he went into Trump’s office to discuss Trump’s frustrations. He said the former president was holding the document and said, “What the f*** is this?”
Trump proceeded to read some of the quotes, pausing between each one. They included instances of Morgan calling him a “supreme narcissist,” “monster” and “mafia mob boss.”
Trump’s reaction may have been a bit unhinged. With that said, it’s hard to blame him for being angry about these accusations from a supposed friend.
Eventually, Morgan said he made the decision to own up to the quotes.
“I’ve always been critical of you when I’ve felt you deserved it … but as you know, I’ve also written and said many supportive things about you too,” Morgan recalled saying. “This is a one-sided hatchet job designed to stop you doing our interview.”
Morgan said he told Trump, “I don’t intend our interview to be confrontational. … A lot of time has passed since I said those things, and a lot has happened in the meantime.”
After Trump read another quote in which Morgan suggested after the Capitol incursion that he should be removed from office, Trump was ready to cancel the interview. Then Morgan brought up Trump’s recent hole-in-one.
After some further discussion of his golf game, Trump reluctantly agreed to do the interview.
When Morgan left the office and went back to his team, he said his executive producer asked how Trump was.
“He’s very annoyed, more annoyed than I’ve ever seen him,” Morgan said he responded. “Spitting blood, in fact. But he’s going to do it.”
In Morgan’s words, the first 60 or so minutes went well as the two talked about “everything from Ukraine, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, Kim Jong-Un and nuclear weapons, to the Royals, transgender athletes, Twitter and Joe Biden.”
Yet despite his promise not to be confrontational, Morgan admitted to pressing Trump about the 2020 election and the Capitol incursion.
“I told him I believe he lost the supposedly ‘rigged, stolen’ election, I repeatedly pointed out his failure to produce any evidence of the widespread voter fraud he insists occurred to rob him of his presidency, and I blamed his refusal to admit defeat for the deadly riots at the Capitol,” Morgan said.
Once again, Trump had a right to be upset about this. Morgan suggested the interview would be friendly, but he instead launched into leftist talking points blaming Trump for the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump attempted to end the interview again, but Morgan said the two had not yet discussed Trump’s hole-in-one.
He said Trump briefly sat back down to talk about golf “before abruptly jumping to his feet, looking hateful, and barking at the shocked crew: ‘TURN THE CAMERAS OFF!’”
“Barking” is a bit of a strong term for Trump’s tone in the clip, but it’s clear he was upset. Again, the frustration was justifiable, but the reaction could have been more measured.
“The next day, I sent Trump an email thanking him for his time and included these words: ‘You had every right to get annoyed and call me a fool for not believing the election was stolen from you, but I also have every right to my opinion, and I wasn’t going to lie to your face just to avoid annoying you,’” Morgan said. “‘The best friends are the most honest/critical ones, not the sycophants.’”
While Morgan’s point is valid, an honest friend would have talked to Trump directly, not slammed him behind his back to the establishment media.
That might be why Trump has yet to respond to him 10 days later, Morgan wrote on Wednesday.
“Perhaps we’ll never speak again, and our friendship is over?” Morgan said. “I hope not.”