Former President Donald Trump delivered pointed remarks on "Fox & Friends Weekend," taking aim at the media, former Rep. Liz Cheney, and recent criticism over a joke about Puerto Rico made at a rally. With just days left until the 2024 presidential election, Trump took the opportunity to air grievances about what he calls the media's "loss of credibility" and Cheney's continued opposition to his political influence.
Speaking with Fox News, Trump singled out "60 Minutes" and The Washington Post as examples of news organizations he claims have lost public trust. "They don't have credibility anymore," he said about The Washington Post. "They have no credibility. The media has to have credibility, and the media doesn't have any credibility." Trump's comments come after recent controversy surrounding a "60 Minutes" interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, which he alleged was edited to mislead the public. CBS, however, pushed back on these claims, saying, "the interview was not doctored" and that the program "did not hide any part of the vice president's answer to the question at issue."
Trump also didn't hold back when discussing his political rival, former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, whom he criticized for her foreign policy stance. Referring to Cheney's past support for military interventions, Trump labeled her a "nutty war hawk" and "radical," claiming she "wanted to go to war with anybody that moves." He added, "She's like a war hawk. She wanted to lose a lot of people, lose a lot of soldiers. Put the nation in trouble." Trump's criticisms extended to Cheney's father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, whom he referred to as "a nut job just like her father," but added, "she's probably worse than her father 'cause she's not as smart."
The friction between Trump and Cheney escalated further following a remark Trump made about Cheney at a Glendale, Arizona, event on Thursday. "Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?" Trump told the crowd. "Let's see how she feels about it." Cheney, interpreting Trump's words as a threat, responded on X, formerly Twitter, with a strong condemnation. "This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant," she wrote.
Trump, however, dismissed the backlash to his comment about Cheney as a "media hoax." In a follow-up interview on Saturday, he insisted that the controversy was fabricated by the press, saying the "fake news ... is trying to make something out of it." He reiterated his belief that Cheney is a warmonger, stating, "All I'm saying is she was a nutty war hawk. She wants to go to war with anybody that moves."
The former president also weighed in on a recent controversy sparked by a joke made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at one of his rallies, where Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as "literally a floating island of garbage." Trump denied having heard the joke and emphasized his support for Puerto Rico, saying, "Nobody's been better to Puerto Rico than me." While the joke drew backlash, particularly from Puerto Ricans, Trump downplayed the incident, calling it "one little joke early in the show when nobody had started going into the arena practically." He went on to criticize the media for focusing on the joke, arguing that it overshadowed what he described as "a gorgeous unbelievable patriotic evening."
Despite his criticisms of both the media and Cheney, Trump turned his message toward the upcoming election, saying that concerns over the economy and immigration were motivating his return to politics. "This is a nation in decline," he said. "We can turn it around, but we have to get out and vote." His comments reflect a broader effort to mobilize his base, urging them to vote as a solution to the challenges he says are facing the country.
