Trump is swiping viewers from his own convention.
As Patricia Smith stood on the stage of the Republican National Convention and blamed the death of her son in Benghazi on Hillary Clinton, the Fox News channel cut away for an exclusive interview with the party’s presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.
For nearly 11 minutes on Monday night, Trump overshadowed his own party’s convention with a telephone interview that provided no major news.
Trump commented on how chants by protesters calling for the death of police officers is “not acceptable” and said that he would look into ways to punish them for their words.
He declared himself “the least racist person that there is” and bragged that he is “doing great” with minority voters because of his promise to create more jobs and lower the unemployment rate.
He praised his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, and continued to claim that he has always been opposed to the Iraq War, a claim fact-checkers have deemed dubious. He declared that “60 Minutes” had been fair to him during a recent interview but that reports that he was uneasy about picking Pence were “pure fiction by the press.”
Trump also attacked his former rival, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has declined to attend the convention.
“Look, I beat him very badly,” Trump said, as the convention continued. “I won 38 states. I won the highest number of votes in the history of the Republican Party — second was very, very far away. I beat him very, very soundly, and you have to understand, this was a contentious — some people say the most contentious primary they’ve ever seen, either party. If I were him and got beaten that badly, I probably wouldn’t show up either.”
Trump noted that Kasich signed a pledge promising to support the Republican nominee and that “from a standpoint of honor, I think he should show up.” He also said that Kasich should have dropped out of the race “many weeks earlier than he did.”
Trump said that his supporters can expect him to give a “relatively long speech” on the final night of the campaign on Thursday and that it will touch on law and order, borders and security, cutting taxes and regulation, fixing the “depleted military,” replacing Obamacare and other things.
“It’s going to be a pretty large speech,” Trump said.
Fox News then resumed airing the Republican National Convention.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics-live/liveblog/republican-national-convention-updates/