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MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle revealed President-elect Donald Trump had answered her phone call when she once reached out for an interview while arguing that he was more accessible than President Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The day after Donald Trump had that crazy rally at Madison Square Garden. I rolled the dice and I called him on the phone and he answered. I wasn’t calling to chit-chat,” Ruhle said in a newly posted interview. “It was not an on-the-record conversation … I said you just said a whole bunch of public things, I’d like to sit down for an interview with you, we’ve got five days before the election, so we didn’t get into anything, there’s nothing for me to report, I called him and said, I want an interview with you. Obviously, he said no, but my point is, I was able to get to him by dialing his phone.”
Speaking to Lukas Thimm on his show, “So Many Issues with Lukas” on Dec. 8, Ruhle, who had defended Harris against criticisms that she was avoiding tough questions ahead of the election, also said it was much harder to get in contact with Harris or Biden.
“But the reverse of that, if I were to want to connect with VP Harris or President Biden, there’s 50 people between me and that I could write a note that maybe could get to somebody to get somebody then through Pony Express and a pigeon, something might end up in a mailbox near them,” she said.
Stephanie Ruhle tells Lukas Thimm that Trump is more accessible than Biden or Harris. (Screenshot/HBO)
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“I called DJT to say, ‘Yo, can I have an interview. And he told me to go f— myself,” Ruhle joked. “But I still was able to connect with him.”
Ruhle also talked about her experience with the Biden White House and Harris when she interviewed her as the Democratic candidate.
The MSNBC host noted Harris was going to give her 15 minutes for the interview and that she ended up speaking to her for 25 minutes.
“However, in those completely structured environments, you never have a human moment. And this is the thing about Donald Trump, love him or hate him, and when I say he keeps it real, he keeps it real but he’s lying, people know what they’re getting,” Ruhle said.
She said people were tired of “polished” politicians giving them “soundbites.”
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Ruhle argued Harris needed more human moments throughout her campaign.
The MSNBC host spoke to Harris in September and said during a discussion that month about the interview that Harris wasn’t answering questions in great detail because she’s a politician.
“And do I think that she answers every single question and gives people exactly what they want? She doesn’t. You know why? Because she’s a politician, and none of them do. They all speak in platitudes,” she said at the time.
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“I think it’s hugely important, and it’s a vulnerability for both candidates, but it’s really tricky, Joe, because, you know, you obviously want to cover all of these topics, but to just do it with one candidate, it’s hard, because many people feel like she’s speaking in platitudes,” Ruhle said. “She’s speaking about an economic vision, and she’s not giving details. She’s got an 80-page detailed policy proposal.”
Fox News Digital reached out to MSNBC for comment.