During a Thursday Oval Office press availability, Donald Trump took time out to complain about still not getting credit for turnout at his first inauguration, and then snapped at multiple reporters who questioned him on the stalled Iran war negotiations.
On MS NOW, “Way Too Early” fill-in host Sam Stein shared a clip of the president rambling about the National Mall reflecting pool that he is having cleaned up, before taking time out to whine that his inauguration crowd was listed at 25,000 instead of the million he continues to claim showed up despite all evidence to the contrary.
That was followed by a “Morning Joe” supercut of Trump snapping at and insulting reporters attempting to get an idea about how long the unpopular war will continue.
Those questions led Trump to tell one reporter, “I hope the fake news people like you, I hope the fake news are going to be able to write about it accurately,” saying to another, “You’re such a disgrace. Did you hear what I just said?” and calling a third persistent reporter a “wise guy.”
After viewing the clips, co-host Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist piled on the president, with Scarborough pointing out that Trump is slated to attend the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night and sarcastically suggesting, “The president getting together with a group of people that he loves and admires as much as he loves and admires the press, deep respect, and so many members of his Cabinet who share his respect for the press will be seated at the table in the room that night.”
Geist jumped in with, “I mean, the fragility on display in the last two clips ... ” which caused his MS NOW colleague to burst out laughing.
“Sam Stein just showed the president going out of his way to say that his crowds were bigger than those for Martin Luther King during the ‘I Have a Dream' speech,” Geist continued. “And then the inability –– those were not gotcha questions in the Oval Office about the war with Iran. Those were very basic questions about where the war is headed and a timeline that he's been setting, timelines again and again, two weeks, 4 to 6 weeks.”
“It doesn't inspire confidence,” he dryly added as his co-host continued to laugh.