NBC accused of editing out Trump rant about election theft as host tried to make him 'stay on track'

According to a report from Mediaite, viewers who tuned in to NBC's highly publicized "Meet The Press" interview with Donald Trump broadcast last weekend did not get to see him argue with host Kristen Welker about the 2020 election that he still seems to believe was stolen.

As Mediate's Tommy Christopher is reporting, the interview ran 78 minutes but the initial exchange between the former president and the newly appointed host was left on the cutting floor.

Christopher claimed, "The stunning first 9 minutes and 44 seconds of Kristen Welker’s interview with ex-President Donald Trump were largely edited out of Meet the Press — but they’re an illustrative 9 minutes 44 seconds," with Mediaite posting the controversial clip without divulging where it came from.

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What the clip showed, as MSNBC's posted transcript confirmed, was that the highly criticized interview got off to a rough start with the former president asserting, "The election was rigged. There’s no question about that. There’s so much proof on it. Even if you go to the more modern-day proof with the — they call it Twitter Files, FBI and Twitter, or you take a look at the Amazon stuff or the Google stuff, or you take a look at '2,000 Mules,' you take a look at all of the ballot stuffing that’s on tape, you take a look at the fact that the legislatures didn’t approve a lot of the things that were done in the elections, and they had to approve. And we could go on forever. We could go on forever. But, but no. I want somebody that’s going to be strong, respected, tough, and fair."

With Welker pointing out that his accusation has been "debunked," Trump shot back, "It hasn’t been debunked. It’s on camera," to which the NBC host parried, "As you know, let’s — But I do want to keep moving forward," but it didn't end there with Trump continuing to make assertions about the election prompting Welker to plead with him to move on.

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The Mediate report doesn't include a disclaimer noting that they have contacted NBC for comment.

You can read the transcript here.