President Trump defended his comments to critics in the media in recent weeks, saying he needs “to fight back” against the treatment he’s received.
“If you’re reelected, you’ve got nothing to prove. You’ve done it again. Couldn’t we expect to see a different style from you?” Fox News host Steve Hilton asked the president in an interview that aired Sunday evening.
“First of all, I understand that 100%, but I haven’t been treated fairly,” Trump responded. “I have to fight back.”
“If I don’t fight back strong, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now talking to you,” he said. “So it’s not like — gee, I’d like it to be calm too.”
Trump also defended his coronavirus response, adding that a vaccine is close to completion.
“I wouldn’t have gotten all of these things [done],” he said. “I can give you a list that’s four pages long: right to try, all of the medical things that we’ve done. Even the vaccines,” he said.
“We’re almost going to have a vaccine. Somebody else would have taken years to get it. If I had a different attitude, that list would be one-tenth as long as it is.”
Some in the media and critics of the president have attacked Trump for his response to the virus.
“This is so unfair. Let’s just get to the heart of it,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of Trump’s coronavirus response on Face the Nation in July. “The point of all of this is this president — I have a new name for him, Mr. Make Matters Worse. He has made matters worse from the start. Delay, denial, it’s a hoax, it’ll go away magically, it’s a miracle, and all the rest.”
