NBC’s Savannah Guthrie on Thursday pressed President Trump on his retweet of a post espousing a conspiracy theory about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, telling the president that he is not someone’s “crazy uncle” who can retweet anything.
“I know nothing about it,” Trump said, of the false theory that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden orchestrated the death of a Navy SEAL to cover up the “fake death of bin Laden.”
“That was an opinion of somebody. That was a retweet. I put it out there. People can decide for themselves,” he continued.
“I don’t get that. You’re the president,” Guthrie shot back. “You’re not like someone’s crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever.”
“I do a lot of retweets, and frankly, because the media is so fake and so corrupt if I didn’t have social media … I wouldn’t be able to get the word out,” Trump said.
The contentious exchange was one of many in Trump’s town hall with the “Today” show anchor and a number of Florida voters in Miami.
Trump and Biden were originally slated to take place in a town hall-style debate on Thursday. However, the debate was canceled after Trump refused to agree to take part in a virtual debate.
The prime-time network news appearance marked Trump’s first since being diagnosed with coronavirus.
When Guthrie pressed Trump on whether he was tested during the day of the first presidential debate, Trump said he did not remember.