Why? CNN's Kaitlan Collins and Khalil Abdallah explain: "Trump walked out of the interview because he was frustrated with Stahl's line of questioning, one source said. Another person said the bulk of the interview was focused on coronavirus."
Which makes perfect sense given what we know about the President.
This is a President who has, throughout his life, lived in a self-created bubble. He keeps a very tight inner circle, which he populates, primarily, with family members and "yes" men and women. Anyone who veers from the preferred storyline -- which is, always, "you're great, Mr. President" -- is either pushed out of his inner circle or fired.
(Note: Ivanka Trump said Monday that her father "actually wants to hear from people who vehemently disagree with him." Which is a very funny joke. Except I think she was serious.)
This bubble extends, typically, to the media interviews the President chooses to grant. On Tuesday morning, Trump called into "Fox & Friends," the morning show on the conservative cable network that effectively functions as a cheerleading squad for the President and all of his policies. On Wednesday night, he will appear in an hour-long town hall hosted by Eric Bolling of Sinclair Broadcast Group, another conservative TV outlet.
According to CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller, Trump has given 10 times as many interviews to Fox as he has to any outlet since he became president. Here's Knoller's count:
Fox News (all platforms): 115
Wall Street Journal: 10
NBC/CNBC: 9
Washington Post: 8
Reuters: 8
New York Times: 8
CBS: 7 (including Tuesday's "60 Minutes" interview)
Associated Press: 2
As the 2020 election has grown closer -- and poll after poll suggests that Trump is a clear underdog against former Vice President Joe Biden -- the President has retreated deeper and deeper into the comfy confines of the conservative media world -- where he is still portrayed as a winner fighting for America and Democrats and the media are deeply corrupted forces, covering up various illegal activities. Or something.
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But occasionally, Trump is forced to break out of that bubble in hopes of reaching voters outside of his hardcore base. And that's when the trouble arises. Because actual journalists outside of Trump's self-affirming bubble ask real and tough questions. Questions about his mishandling of the coronavirus. Questions about his trouble with telling the truth. Questions about his questionable Twitter habits.
Last week, Trump sat down for a primetime town hall with NBC's Savannah Guthrie. And, predictably, it didn't go well for Trump. Mostly because Guthrie refused to let him just say things that were untrue or filibuster on things he didn't want to answer. Trump made news -- not the good kind -- with his refusal to disavow QAnon, an Internet conspiracy theory that the FBI labeled as a potential domestic terror threat, an
