Piers Morgan has said former US president Donald Trump sustains a “pathological belief” that the 2020 election was stolen from him, ahead of a new interview scheduled to air on Monday night on Rupert Murdoch’s Talk TV.
Morgan said Mr Trump was very angry and quite profane in parts of their interaction, which has already sparked controversy after the politician claimed promotional material was “doctored” to make it look like he stormed out.
Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Morgan said Mr Trump confronted him with examples of past criticism. “And he was reading out these things, one by one, and saying, ‘How can you say these things about me? This is so disloyal after all I’ve done for you.’ I said, ‘Look, I didn’t agree with what you were doing.’”
He added: “When we got around to the election results and to January 6, I just looked him straight in the eye and said I want to be clear with you, I do not agree that you had this election stolen or that it was rigged. And at that point, the fuse kind of went with him and he started insulting me.”
The British host claimed that Mr Trump called him a fool seven times.
Morgan added that he told the former president there was no “hard evidence” that the 2020 election was rigged.
“He couldn’t accept that. He has a kind of blind, pathological belief that it was taken from him,” he told Fox News.
Talk TV recently released a promo for Piers Morgan Uncensored, in which the English broadcaster sits down with the former president. The trailer shows the president storming off the set when asked about the 2020 elections.
Mr Trump has claimed that the host doctored the promo.
Last week, the former president attacked Morgan for being a part of the “fake news media” and said that he had “unlawfully and deceptively edited his long and tedious interview with me”. He again reiterated that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.
The spat escalated, when Morgan replied: “Sorry you got so annoyed that I don’t believe the 2020 election was rigged or stolen from you, but as I said, where’s your proof? If you have it, show us — or accept the result and move on.”
Last week Mr Trump’s spokesperson released an audio recording to refute that he had stormed off during the show as was suggested in the promotional video clips. The audio recording, NBC News reported, shows that the two men thanked each other and laughed at the conclusion of the interview.
Meanwhile, the former president is also reported to have said that the marriage of former royals Harry and Meghan Markle is a “ticking time bomb” that will blow up when “Harry decides he’s had enough of being bossed around”.
“I won’t use the full expression but Harry is whipped like no person I think I’ve ever seen,” the former president says. He added that the Duchess might leave Harry “when she decides that she likes some other guy better”.
“I’m not a fan of Meghan, and I wasn’t from the beginning. Poor Harry is being led around by his nose. And I think he’s an embarrassment,” Mr Trump was quoted as saying by The Sun.
Talk TV’s Piers Morgan Uncensored is the first foray by Morgan into a chat show after he resigned from presenting ITV’s Good Morning Britain following a complaint to the broadcaster from Meghan Markle.