There were some tense moments during an interview President Donald Trump did with Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo regarding his continued bashing of the late Sen. John McCain.
Bartiromo sat down with Trump on Thursday for an interview that will air Friday morning. The network released snippets of the interview, including a part about Trump's ongoing feud with McCain — the Republican senator, war hero, and former POW who died last August following a battle with brain cancer.
"You spent a good portion of your time in Ohio the other day trashing John McCain," Bartiromo said. "Sen. John McCain is dead. Why are you doing this?"
Trump replied, "It's not a good portion of my time, it's a very small portion. But if you realize, about three days ago, it came out that his main person gave to the FBI the fake news dossier. It was a fake, it was a fraud, it was paid for by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. They gave it to John McCain, who gave it to the FBI for very evil purposes. That's not good.
"And the other thing, he voted against repeal and replace [Obamacare]. Now, he's been campaigning for years for repeal and replace. I'm not a fan. After all of this time, think of this. Repeal and replace. We would've had great healthcare."
Bartiromo then pushed back, reiterating the point McCain is no longer living.
"But Mr. President, he's dead. He can't punch back. I know you punch back, but he's dead," she said.
Trump then got more defensive, saying, "I don't talk about it. People ask me the question. I didn't bring this up. You just brought it up. You asked the question."
Bartiromo interjected and replied, "You talked about it this week."
Trump then repeated his point about the press asking him about McCain rather than him bringing up the topic — despite the fact Trump tweeted disparaging remarks about McCain last weekend and also spoke ill of him, unprompted, during a speech Wednesday.
"You asked me the question. When I went out yesterday to the [press] scrum, they asked me the question. When they ask me the question, I answer the question. But you people bring it up, I don't bring it up," Trump told Bartiromo.
"I'm not a fan, he was horrible what he did with repeal and replace. What he did to the Republican Party and to the nation and to sick people that could've had great healthcare was not good. So I'm not a fan of John McCain, and that's fine."
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