Piers Morgan has explained he didn’t press Donald Trump on issues such as climate change and gun crime simply because he wants to interview the President again.
Responding to a Twitter user who claimed the content of last week’s controversial encounter in Davos was “worthless”, the Good Morning Britain host dismissed asking probing questions as a “stunt”.
Morgan has faced accusations that the first international interview with the President was little more than a fluff piece.
Pressed by another Twitter user on why he didn’t push him on gun control, Morgan insisted that he did.
During the interview, Morgan said: “People will be saying, you’re very tough on security, you want to keep Americans safe – but you don’t do anything about gun violence at all.
“That seems an irrational position for somebody who wants to keep American’s safe.”
Trump responded by talking about the Bataclan massacre, saying if “bad guys” weren’t the only ones who were armed, then “hundreds of people” wouldn’t have died.
When Morgan shot back by saying stricter UK gun laws are reflected in a dramatically lower level of gun violence that the US, Trump turned the conversation to terrorist attacks once again.
Trump concluded the segment by saying: “You know, we can go around this argument. I’m a Second Amendment person. I think you need it for security.”
Morgan claimed he was forced to stop pressing the matter at this point but did get him to speak about climate change.
In the section on climate change, Trump claimed evidence it doesn’t exist can be seen because “the ice caps were going to melt, they were going to be gone by now but no they’re setting records”.
The ice caps are setting records but for melting, the exact opposite of what the President asserted.
Morgan did not question this claim, nor did he get Trump to apologise for retweeting a far-right British group despite claiming he did.
Morgan has also spent the weekend continuing his tirade against a cartoon shown on a BBC comedy show that depicts him kissing the President’s bum.
The drawing appeared on ‘The Mash Report’, which plays with a parental guidance lock on the BBC iPlayer and airs on Thursday nights after the 9pm watershed, is labelled a “satirical and surreal news show” and is presented by Nish Kumar.
One person who clearly found the whole episode hilarious was Morgan’s frequent verbal sparring partner, Lord Sugar.