TRANSCRIPT:
BERMAN: “We’re getting brand new economic figures in which we’ll get to in a moment. First, let’s go to the room. Our Jim Acosta was inside that hall during the speech. Jim we saw it from our end and heard it from our end, but what was it like to be inside?”
ASCOSTA: “It was fascinating to be inside. I think perhaps the most fascinating moment came at the very end there where the President went off script for a few moments and took a shot at the press and said how fake the press can be in the U.S. That’s obviously some kind of reaction to this story in ‘The New York Times’ that he referred to as fake news earlier this morning, this story that he tried to fire Robert Mueller in June of last year and his White House Counsel Don McGahn almost resigned as a result of that. Obviously the President feels like he’s had a pretty good reception in Davos. For somebody who railed against globalism as a candidate for president, he has been mixing and mingling with these fat cats and bigwigs nonstop ever since he’s been on the ground here in Davos and he’s had a pretty friendly reception. I will say it was rather remarkable to hear the founder of this World Economic Forum also take jabs at the press and say that the President is the victim of biased interpretations and misconceptions. All in all, that was a fairly pitiful display I think to have so many business and global leaders here have those kinds of statements made with the President by his side and then nobody really take exception to that. That is sort of what we’re living in. That’s the environment we live in with President Trump. But getting back to the substance of this speech, and I think Christiane was touching on this a few moments ago, he was taking credit for this booming U.S. economy over the last year. Obviously the President can take credit for that. He’s the President of the United States. But as Christiane was saying, some of this is building on what was happening during the Obama years. And as the President was acknowledging during his remarks, we still have to find out what happens in the coming months as to whether or not these massive tax cuts that predominantly went to corporations and wealthy individuals will have an effect and will actually trickle down to everybody across society in the United States. That is obviously one of the big questions. That may be a driving factor as we head toward the midterm elections. If people give him such high marks on his handling of the economy and how well the economy is doing, but that hasn’t translated to helping his poll numbers a great deal, I think that will be one of the determining factors heading into the midterms this year. All in all, it was fascinating to watch the President get this reception here at Davos. It’s not what I expected having covered this president and hear him rail against free trade, globalism and so on. He’s certainly tailored his message to this crowd here and they seem to enjoy it.”
(via NTK Network)