earnest, the white house press secretary to barack obama and having served that role, if you put on your press secretary cap, what do you think watching the president this morning? well, you be know, chris what s extraordinary about it, i was actually thinking in the car today about the most probably the most controversial interview that president obama did in his eight years in the white house, at least controversial with the white house press corps. an interview he did with the woman named glow zell green, she was a youtube star. her distinguishing feature was she wears green lipstick in videos. and the thing about it is that we always made the case even to white house journalists who were insulted that he would talk to her instead of them, was we never viewed an interview with green as a substitute for engaging with professional journalists. we saw it as an opportunity for us to expand the audience and go to people who may not be getting political news. and what is striking to me
the most controversial interview that president obama did in his eight years in the white house, at least controversial with the white house press corps. an interview he did with the woman named glow zell green, she was a youtube star. her distinguishing feature was she wears green lipstick in videos. and the thing about it is that we always made the case even to white house journalists who were insulted that he would talk to her instead of them, was we never viewed an interview with green as a substitute for engaging with professional journalists. we saw it as an opportunity for us to expand the audience and go to people who may not be getting political news and what is striking to me about this is that president trump always only goes to the same source. and it explains why his base is loyal but small and not growing. and you know, even in watching the interview and some of the clips you played today, the journalists sitting on that couch and the hosts sitting on that couch were not
if you re committed to the trump agenda, why did you go around the president and the white house and give pay raises to two staffers. i did not. my staff did. i found out about this yesterday and i corrected the action. embattled administrate ker scott pruitt admitted he lied when he claimed earlier this month he had just found out about improper raises to two of his favorite aides. facing a grilling on capitol hill, pruitt testifying under oath admitted he had known about one of the raises in advance. but he was defiant when pressed on mird yad of scandals insiting that reports of his misconduct which led to at least an ten federal investigations were drummed drummed up by his politicalmys.
the interview on television just like of else as trump paced the halls of the white house residence in his bathrobe. why do you think, senator, he doesn t do any interviews with anyone other than these small selected outlets? well, i think one reason is he doesn t remember what he said from up with day to the next as we know. the new york times has documented more than 2,000 lies. and one thing i learned early on, as a member of the senate and before that the house and before that local government is this, don t say one thing to one person and one thing to another. that s what this guy does. and that can t keep track of it. so i think he s too afraid to go on a program where people will actually hold him accountable. we saw what he said in the past about people who take the fifth amendment. he said that they were part of the mob. now, his sometime attorney, michael cohen, takes the fifth.
the top of the fbi. it s a disgrace. and our justice department which i try and stay away from but at some point i won t. at some point i won t. and that was just one part of a genuinely unnerving performance by the president first thing this morning. an unhinged 30-minute rant that according to reports is not all that different from how he spends much of his day on the phone was confidantes outside the white house. according to the new york times, maggie haberman trump aides putt for months to keep him from doing what he did this morning, the thing that makes him happiest. calling fox & friends as if it was one of his private conversations. it s not hard to see why his staff did not want him to do this. while the president was raving like a worked up talk radio caller, you could watch the hosts, his most friendly interviewers squirm in their seats and try to steer him away from the brink of self immolation. one day after michael cohen invoked the fifth amendment in the daniels c