Bloomberg's Mark Halperin: Trump Uses Phone Interviews To “Dominate” The Media Narrative Without “Leaving Trump Tower”

From the March 17 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

Video file

JOE SCARBOROUGH (CO-HOST): We were thinking that he might rest when he got off the campaign trail. He had a very busy day yesterday cancelling debates, attacking Hillary Clinton, you name it. Talking about riots if he's not nominated. Once again driving the entire news day while, as Mark said, he was lounging at home in his barcalounger. 

[...]

WILLIE GEIST (CO-HOST): But to answer Bill O'Reilly's question, is Donald Trump going to go personal on Hillary Clinton? Yes. Yes he is and he introduced it a month or so ago, he spent a week or so doing it. It tied the Clinton campaign in knots, they didn't know how to answer. Bill Clinton had to just deflect questions on rope lines. It'll be interesting to see how they handle that stuff. 

SCARBOROUGH: Lying Ted. Little Marco. Low energy Jeb. And he's also, Mark Halperin, started -- and we can expect more of this -- the low energy attack on Hillary Clinton as well. But you were commenting yesterday on Don Rickles, what about Don Rickles. We always wanted to know what a day off the campaign trail would look like for Donald Trump. It seemed he consumed media by doing four very provocative things that if any other candidate had done one of those provocative things it would have made headlines and filled up their basically news quota for the week. 

MARK HALPERIN: I mean, he got dressed to do the Bill O'Reilly interview but everything else he did, the web video and the morning shows by phone, including this one, and on Twitter, just another show of how he can dominate a day without leaving Manhattan or leaving Trump Tower. Monday is going to be a very big day when he does that AIPAC speech that he's doing instead of the debate because Hillary Clinton is speaking to the same group and while both of them are still in nomination fights, its going to be a side by side comparison for the first time in a forum that you wouldn't think would necessarily play to his strength and I'm pretty confident she's going try to give a speech to frame the general election not just on issues related to Israel but on the question of who's ready to be commander-in-chief. It's going to be fascinating to see what kind of speech he gives head to head. 

Previously:

Media Critics: Networks Should Hang Up On Trump Phone Interviews

Phoning It In And The Media's Trump Surrender

NY Times: Trump's “Mammoth Advantage In Free Media” Helps Him Win Primary After Primary