Donald Trump’s seemingly apologetic tone when he was interrupted by a pastor mid-speech and told to stay on message is no more. Now, he’s retreated to Fox News to lash out at Rev. Faith Green Timmons.
But according to an NPR reporter who was in the room during the incident, Trump has resorted to outright lying about what happened.
This Thursday morning during a phone interview with Trump, Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy referenced a Facebook post on Timmons’ page that read, “HE WILL NOT USE US, WE will EDUCATE HIM!!!” Doocy then asked Trump if he thought “they were out to sabotage you.” (The Facebook post was later deleted.)
“Something was up,” Trump said, calling the Rev. Faith Green Timmons a “nervous mess.”
“I noticed she was so nervous when she introduced me,” Trump continued. “When she got up to introduce me she was so nervous, she was shaking. I said, wow, this is kind of strange. Then she came up. So she had that in mind, there’s no question.”
But according to NPR reporter Scott Detrow who was in attendance, things didn’t go down the way Trump characterized them.
“The Rev. Timmons introduced Trump to the predominantly African-American crowd of about 50 people, and she didn’t appear nervous at all,” Detrow said.
“…Trump shifted into a version of his now-standard stump speech, blasting free-trade deals like NAFTA and pointing out that then-President Clinton completed the international trade deal.”
Detrow then described what many saw on the widely circulated video from yesterday, where Timmons approached him as the GOP nominee descended into a diatribe against Clinton.
Trump told Fox and Friends that the audience was chanting, “Let him speak, let him speak.” But Detrow called bullsh*t on that claim.
“That isn’t true,” Detrow reported. “In fact, several audience members began to heckle Trump, asking pointed questions about whether he racially discriminated against black tenants as a landlord.”
“And that’s when Timmons — who Trump said Thursday had planned to ambush him — stepped in to defend Trump, saying the Republican nominee was ‘a guest of my church, and you will respect him.’”
“Thank you. Thank you, Pastor,” Trump responded according to Detrow.
Detrow said that the audience continued to challenge Trump before the press was “hastily escorted out of the room.”
In a post on Facebook post Wednesday evening, Timmons responded to Trump’s claims in a simple and straightforward fashion.
Watch Trump’s interview on Fox and Friends in the video below:
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