On MS NOW's The Weeknight, Angelo Carusone discusses the importance of journalists challenging Donald Trump's claims of rigged elections
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From the June 8, 2026, edition of MS NOW's The Weeknight
MICHAEL STEELE (CO-HOST): I want to pick up where we all left off here. Because I think each of us has kind of put, layered in -- not a complex picture of this president and his reaction when he's challenged by facts, especially when those facts are given to him by a woman. What does that say, when you saw that, what does that say how much Kristen Welker, who is a consummate -- she wouldn't be in the seat if she wasn't a consummate professional, right? Doing the job week in and week out, the credibility she has, not just with her journalist colleagues, but with the American people who watch her programing and listen to her voice. When they saw the president of United States call this woman stupid --
SYMONE SANDERS (CO-HOST): Or crooked.
STEELE: -- or crooked because he didn't like the fact that he basically got caught in the lie that he's been trying to shell out there.
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): I mean, I think that's the important thing here. This is a confrontation. She asked for the evidence. That was the trigger. That's really what started this entire, this sort of escapade is that he -- and that's why he reacted. His best option in that moment was actually to walk off set. Yeah, he's emotional. We already know that. He can't -- we know all these things, right? He did misogyny, all of these things.
But to me, what is important for in terms of a lesson for the future, is that he was pressed for the word evidence, and he realized that the best option that he had in that moment was to bail, was to pull the ripcord. And that's because it exposes what this is, what's really going on here, as you sort of talked about in your intro. This isn't about Spencer Pratt.
STEELE: No.
CARUSONE: Or even really about Trump's emotions, although that's a factor here. This guy does have -- he's an unhinged conspiracy theorist. It's about keeping the engine running. It's about keeping the machinery of misinformation and disinformation warm, because this is going to be the mechanism that is used as we get closer and closer to the midterms. And so, that's what this is really about. And what he couldn't have in that moment was him collapse when confronted with evidence. It's not like when he's out there broadcasting on Truth Social, right? That's a one way conversation. He can throw anything into the pipeline and it gets turned into a product by the MAGA ecosystem. That is video evidence. And it was better for him from his perspective, to keep the lie going, to walk off, and take his lumps, and look ridiculous than to actually have to collapse. He's doesn't even have a good story right now. It's all -- he doesn't have anything to hang on. I mean, it is just calling it rigged and moving on. And that's the important -- to me, the takeaway is that it does matter when he's confronted and challenged, and it's why it's important that everybody that has an opportunity continues to do that.