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Lemon told Axios he was called back to address an issue just moments before Trump took to the stage. The former president did not want to be fact-checked live and was refusing to begin the interview, he said.
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“[Trump’s team] said, ‘Well, can you not fact-check? He’s not going to take the stage if you fact-check,’” Lemon said. …
Trump said the delay was due to audio issues. Lemon told Axios there were audio technical difficulties, but “they were resolved very quickly.”
“The bigger problem was his threat not to take the stage when he had agreed to go on,” Lemon said. “He did not want to be fact-checked, but we could not let him on the stage without fact-checking.”
Lemon said the dispute took so long that he was ready to craft a statement telling people why Trump was delayed.
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In a statement to The Hill, Danielle Alvarez, a senior advisor for Trump, said the NABJ should have told the truth about the audio issues, “which caused a delay in the program.”
“When President Trump took the stage, he was met with hostility and a lack of professionalism by an unhinged member of the media,” Alvarez said.
“President Trump will continue to bypass the bias media and take his winning record and message of prosperity directly to Black communities like he will this weekend in Atlanta.” …”