Trump storms off 'Meet the Press' over baseless California election fraud claim 56%
By Alene Tchekmedyian82%
6/7/2026, 6:48:01 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Confirmation Bias, Negativity Bias, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Hasty Generalization as the most egregious example at 28.3% saturation with 117 hits. Analysis detected 838 faulty-reasoning hits from 414 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 53.4% and a BS Rank of 56% (9,424 of 21,176 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 55.50% of the article peer group.
President Trump shut down an interview with NBC News after host Kristen Welker pushed back on his unproven assertions that elections in California on Tuesday were rigged.
During a lengthy interview in Wisconsin that aired on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Trump echoed claims he made in recent days — without providing evidence — that officials in California were “cheating,” because after four days, they “aren’t even close” to finishing the ballot counting.
With more than 70% of the vote in on Sunday, veteran Democratic politician Xavier Becerra was about a percentage point ahead of Republican Steve Hilton in the governor’s race.
In the Los Angeles mayoral race, City Councilmember Nithya Raman moved ahead of former reality TV personality Spencer Pratt by less than a percentage point as of Sunday afternoon.
“Do you have evidence to support that?”
Welker asked Trump about his cheating claims.
“All I have to do is look,” he said.
“But sir, that’s not evidence.
That’s how they count the votes in California,” Welker said.
She added that state and local officials acknowledge they are slow.
“No, they’re crooked … just like you’re crooked.
Your press is crooked and ‘Meet the Press’ is crooked,” Trump said.
“You’re either crooked or you’re stupid,” he went on.
“You know that these elections are rigged.
Your network knows that they’re rigged.”
The back-and-forth continued until Trump decided to “call it quits.”
“I’ve had enough,” he said, removing the microphone from his lapel and tossing it to the floor.
“Thank you, darling, have a good time.”
As Welker tried to convince him to finish the interview, he added: “A country can never be great with a dishonest press.”
And eventually he walked off.
A misreading of voting data in the Los Angeles mayoral race late on election night has fueled the false narrative that Trump and other Republicans have pushed in recent days that California Democrats were cheating.
The claim was that in one vote count update, one candidate received zero votes.
First Assistant U.S.
Atty.
Bill Essayli said on X that the claim was false, and “each candidate received votes in every update.”
Essayli has confirmed on X that his office “has multiple election fraud investigations underway,” in coordination with the FBI in Los Angeles.
In another post, he asked witnesses to come forward: “We want to hear from you,” Essayli posted.
“Please do not send rumors, theories, or second-hand information.”
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