‘Major smash’: Trump ‘whiffs’ when asked for specifics on vow to bring down prices
Donald Trump was asked twice to share specifics on his economic plans, but offered none. Instead, the Republican presidential nominee who recently helped launch his family's new cryptocurrency venture attacked his Democratic opponent and rambled about the Presidents of Russia and China, while vowing to cut the cost of energy without stating how that would happen.
In an interview that aired Sunday on the Sinclair network, which broadcasts under local affiliates of Fox News, ABC, CBS, and NBC, "Full Measure" host Sharyl Attkisson asked Trump: "What are the specific mechanics of how prices come down? You know, the steps that would be taken in a second term for you?"
Trump began his response by attacking Vice President Harris, saying, "first of all, she can't do an interview. She could never do this interview because you ask questions like give me a specific answer. She talks about her lawn when she was growing up."
He continued his attacks before going after President Joe Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, then moving on to oil and geopolitics.
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"This woman is not equipped to be president," Trump claimed of Harris (transcript via Attkisson's "Full Measure" website.) "She's not equipped to deal with President Xi, who I was very, I took in hundreds of billions of dollars with him and Putin. We had no war with Putin. Remember, and I'm just gonna go off just for this. With Bush, they took a lot. Russia. With Biden, they're trying to take everything. With Obama, they took a lot. With Trump, Russia took nothing. Just remember that, you know, it's a little, a little chart. But what happened? And when you look at what took place was so sad, when they took over, they cut the oil way down and oil started going through the roof. It was gonna go to $10 a gallon. It was gonna go to numbers that nobody's ever seen. And so they went back to the Trump drilling, they said, 'let it go back'. That was the only good thing. But they stopped because I would be there, but four years later, I would be triple what the number was. Right now they're just about even where I was. But they only did that because of the fact that they eventually have an election coming up."
"And you remember at the beginning what happened. That's one of the reasons that Putin went in because it went to $100 a barrel instead of $40 a barrel. And he could fight all the wars he wants with those kind of numbers, cause he's a big seller of oil and gas. So what happens is they went back to what I was doing, just said reopen. Just reopen. It wasn't hard. It's so crazy what they wanna do. They're gonna destroy lives. They're gonna destroy the, what they have done to this country. And especially in the sense of allowing millions and millions of people come in because that's something, you know, we can fix the gasoline situation and we can fix the, anything."
Attkisson then asked Trump: "Do prices come down magically because it's not them?"
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"They come down with energy and they come down with interest rates. We're gonna get, as I told you, we're gonna get energy down by 50% in 12 months," Trump vowed, offered no specifics on how he would do that. "We're gonna have it. It's gonna be a major smash on energy. If you look at the energy for, and I'm not just talking about cars, I'm talking about air conditioning, heating your basic energy, operating a bakery, operating any kind of a business, it's all having to do with energy. That was where they started wrong. When they cut way back on what I did, and again, just so you understand, they then let it go back to where it was, which was very smart thing. Otherwise you would've had, I think you would've had a depression if you want to know the truth. But energy was rising at a level that nobody had ever seen. And then they said: 'Go back, go back'. They were telling people: 'Go back to your wells, go back to drilling, go back to fracking. Do whatever you have to do.' But if they win the day after, they're going all the way. They were only doing that because of an election coming up. They're going all the way. It's madness. And what they've done to our country is mad."
The White House responded to an NBC News reporter's post of Trump's remarks.
"Asked how he’d lower prices, Trump goes on a worryingly incoherent tear about drilling, showing he’s unaware we’re producing record amounts of oil," said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates. "Not mentioned? His plan for a $4,000 sales tax increase on the average family that even *Republicans* say will worsen inflation."
NBC News' Garrett Haake also responded, writing: "Trump whiffs on giving a specific answer here about lowering prices. He currently leads Harris on dealing with the economy by 9 points, according to our new @NBCNews national poll."
In July, The Guardian described Sinclair as a "TV giant known for rightwing disinformation," and wrote: "Media analysts say Sinclair, known for anchors reciting script in lockstep, promotes conservative talking points." Also citing media analysts, The Guardian said Sinclair uses "trusted local news channels to spread disinformation and manipulated video of Joe Biden."
Last week at a town hall, Trump was asked how he would bring down the cost of food.
He made similar remarks, vowing to cut the price of energy by 50 percent, without explaining how he would do that.
Presidents don't set the price of gas.
Watch Trump's town hall remarks below or at this link.
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