MSNBC panel explodes with fury after Donald Trump is asked question about golf by journalists during Scotland trip
Ali Velshi was joined by columnist Jen Rubin and Bloomberg opinion editor Tim O'Brien to discuss president Trump's press conference in Scotland alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
An exasperated Velshi called the presser at Trump's Turnberry golf resort 'bat poop crazy.'
'I'm not going to say any more words until my executive producer puts on the banner next to me, "that was bat poop crazy."' Just not gonna. That was crazy,' Velshi began.
'Somebody asked him about his mood, somebody asked him about golfing, it's like, why?' the MSNBC host went on.
'I'm sorry for journalism. I apologize for journalism, for some of the questions that were going on,' Velshi added.
Rubin then weighed in, calling the presser 'appalling,' adding it was 'extremely unfortunate that no one in that room asked [Trump] about the hugely corrupt, grotesque cover-up of a convicted sex offender and her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and Jeffrey Epstein's files that he refuses to release.'
'It's unfortunate that in those kind of scrums he's not challenged in the room,' Rubin continued. 'So what those reporters are doing in that rooms, I do not know... It was a very bad showing from the [press].'
'He was not challenged by anybody,' Velshi conceded.
Despite the MSNBC panel's anger at the press, Trump was actually asked about Epstein later on Sunday - the president flashed his anger when a reporter asked if turmoil over the Epstein story had contributed to the rush to get the deal done.
'Oh, you've got to be kidding. No – had nothing to do with it. Only you would make that. That had nothing to do with it,' Trump responded.
During his campaign file, Trump vowed to release all records from federal investigations into the late pedophile financier - his former friend.
The president now stands accused of slow-walking or even blocking attempts to do so and was accused by The Wall Street Journal of sending Epstein a 'bawdy' drawing of a naked woman to mark Epstein's 50th birthday.
Trump denies that claim and is suing the Journal for $10 billion.
Trump and von der Leyen spoke to the press from the president's golf resort at Turnberry, where he later announced he had reached a 'very powerful' trade deal with the European Union that would lower barriers to US exports and bring new European investments.
The president said European Union countries would purchase $750 billion of energy from the U.S., and provide an additional $600 billion in US investments.
It came after Trump inveighed against 'one-sided' trade with Europe as he sat down with the EU Commission president, while raging against windmills and saying there were prospects for reaching a deal imminently.
Velshi said Trump was rambling, telling the panel: 'This was rambly to the degree that if anybody — including Joe Biden — anybody held a press conference like this anywhere in the world, they'd be under pressure to resign within an hour because there's a cognitive issue going on.'
The private sit-down between Trump and the EU boss culminated months of bargaining, with the White House deadline Friday nearing for imposing punishing tariffs on the EU's 27 member countries.
'It was a very interesting negotiation. I think it's going to be great for both parties,' Trump said. The agreement, he said, was 'a good deal for everybody' and 'a giant deal with lots of countries.'
Von der Leyen said the deal 'will bring stability, it will bring predictability, that's very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.'
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