Barron thought Trump was 'too tough' on Biden at first 2020 debate

EXCLUSIVE: Barron Trump thought his dad was ‘too tough’ on Biden at the first presidential debate and he ‘didn’t have to keep interrupting him’: President fumed that Chris Wallace wouldn’t talk about Hunter and the Moscow Mayor’s wife, book claims

• Barron is Donald Trump’s youngest son and the only child of Melania Trump
• The now 15-year-old’s every public move was heavily scrutinized when his father was in office, with Trump critics questioning the closeness of their relationship 
• Trump accused Fox anchor Chris Wallace of ‘protecting’ Biden during the first 2020 debate in a new book excerpt exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com
• He told author and Fox commentator Mollie Hemingway that Wallace let Biden tell ‘lie after lie’ while he blocked him from commenting on Hunter Biden
• When Trump brought up the $3.5 million allegedly wired to Hunter by the billionaire widow of Moscow’s former mayor, Biden called him a ‘clown’ 

Donald Trump revealed that his youngest child Barron was critical of his first 2020 presidential debate performance against Joe Biden, claiming the 14-year-old told him he was being ‘too tough,’ according to a new book excerpt released Tuesday. 

In a section exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, the former president said he was still fuming at Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace’s moderation of the September debate.

‘The problem was Biden would speak and it was lie after lie, after lie. Everything he said was a lie, this guy, and then Chris Wallace wouldn’t let you respond. Chris Wallace was terrible,’ Trump said. 

During the infamously chaotic debate, Biden and Trump took turns dismissing and speaking over each other. Their unruly and at times aggressive conduct forced debate organizers to release a statement vowing to make the next engagement ‘more orderly.’ 

Trump admitted to catching wind of some of the negative feedback – including from his 15-year-old son, then just 14 years old. 

‘People thought I was too belligerent,’ he said.

‘I will say my own son Barron said, “Dad, you were too tough. You didn’t have to keep interrupting him”.’ 

Trump admitted to catching wind of some of the negative feedback from the debate – including from his then-14-year-old son, Barron (pictured in August 2020, roughly a month before the infamous event)

Trump said his son Barron, now 15, told him he was being ‘too tough’ on Biden and Wallace (pictured with his mother Melania Trump in New York City in July)

Trump also accused Wallace of covering for Biden when the moderator cut Trump’s attempt to confront Biden on his son Hunter, specifically a 2014 incident when the recovering drug addict was wired $3.5 million by the billionaire widow of a Moscow mayor ousted for corruption.

He said the Fox host ‘protected’ Biden, an accusation that would put Wallace in ethically murky waters as a moderator. 

‘He wouldn’t let us talk about the mayor of Moscow’s wife giving three and a half million dollars to [Hunter] Biden. He protected him from the Ukraine questions, Chris Wallace protected [Biden],’ Trump said.

Chris Wallace later admitted he was ‘sad’ about how the debate went

‘He was unable to protect himself. I had Biden and Chris Wallace would not let those questions be asked.’

Trump made the comments to Fox commentator and The Federalist senior editor Mollie Hemingway in her forthcoming book, ‘Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections.’

Republican senators detailed the allegation against Hunter Biden in a late 2020 report focused on Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine. 

During a particularly contentious moment at the September debate, the current president denied that his son was paid the money and called Trump a ‘clown.’

‘Joe got $3.5 million from Russia. And it came through Putin, because he was very friendly with the former mayor of Moscow and it was the mayor of Moscow’s wife. He got $3.5 million. Your family got $3.5 million and you know, someday you’re gonna have to explain — why did you get three and a half [million]?’ Trump said at the event. 

Wallace intervened, telling both men the American people ‘would rather hear about more substantial topics.’

‘I’d like to talk about climate change,’ he added, and Biden replied ‘So would I.’ 

In March 2021 White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about the $3.5 million payment.

Psaki said she was ‘not familiar’ with it. 

‘I’m not familiar with that claim. It doesn’t sound like it’s backed up by a lot of evidence. If you have evidence or specifics, I’m happy to discuss it further,’ the Biden official said. 

‘I’m not familiar with the report at all,’ she added when asked about the report from the Finance and Homeland Security committee Republicans that made the claim. 

During the debate Biden’s pithy retorts of ‘Will you shut up man?’ and ‘Come on, man,’ went viral and were subsequently used to sell his campaign merchandise.  

At several points Wallace attempted to reign the candidates in, prompting Trump to reply, ‘I guess I’m debating you, not him.’ 

In the Tuesday excerpt Trump told Hemingway that Wallace left him ‘frustrated’ after the debate.

The previously-unknown discourse between Trump and Barron is part of Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway’s new book

‘Trump says he agreed to Wallace as a debate moderator in the hopes that Wallace would be mindful of the fact Trump had appeared on his Fox show, while Biden had snubbed him and previously forgotten his name,’ Hemingway writes.

At another point the Fox contributor points out that Wallace asking Trump why he was against ‘racial sensitivity training’ was ‘no doubt helpful to the Biden campaign’ – a not-so-veiled jab at her network colleague. 

Wallace later confessed the debate was a ‘terrible missed opportunity’ in an interview with the New York Times.

In his first public comments since the event, Wallace said the day after that he was ‘sad with the way last night turned out.’

‘I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did,’ the veteran journalist told the outlet. 

He then blamed Trump for the chaos, adding ‘I guess I didn’t realize — and there was no way you could, hindsight being 20/20 — that this was going to be the president’s strategy, not just for the beginning of the debate but the entire debate.

‘I’m a pro. I’ve never been through anything like this.’

Wallace revealed he never thought he had full control and said it left him feeling ‘desperate’ at points.

Biden called the debate a ‘national embarrassment.’   

Viewers and political analysts likened Wallace’s performance to that of a kindergarten teacher as he repeatedly asked the candidates to stop interrupting each other and his pleas fell on deaf ears.

By the end of the night Wallace had spent more time scolding – mainly in Trump’s direction – than he did asking the questions he had to fight to get out.   

The following October presidential debate moderated by NBC’s Kristen Welker was noticeably more civil, mostly free of interruptions and candidates more or less keeping to their allotted time. 

Hunter Biden again took center stage, though he wasn’t physically present. 

During the September debate Trump brought up a GOP report that claimed Hunter Biden was wired $3.5 million by the widow (right) of a late former mayor of Moscow (left) who was ousted over corruption

Less than two weeks before the debate a bombshell story in the New York Post detailed allegations that Hunter Biden used his father’s position as vice president to bolster his own foreign business dealings.

The report cited emails allegedly found on a hard drive from a water-damaged MacBook Pro, which was brought to a Delaware repair shop in April 2019. The shop owner said the person who left it never paid or came back to get it.

A sticker on the laptop promoted the Beau Biden Foundation, named after the president’s oldest son who died of brain cancer. But the shop owner couldn’t say whether it was Hunter Biden who dropped it off.

Records obtained by the Post show the FBI seized the laptop and hard drive in December. A copy was also given to Rudy Giuliani’s lawyer.

During the October debate Trump called it ‘the laptop from hell.’

Welker, like Wallace, tried to intercede.

‘President Trump, we’re talking about race right now and I do want to stay on the issue of race. President Trump—,’ she began before Biden asked to respond.

The ‘laptop from hell,’ as Trump called it, took center stage at the second and final debate. A laptop hard drive reportedly left at a Delaware repair shop under mysterious circumstances contained a damaging trove of emails detailing the president’s son’s business dealings as well as images of him appearing to perform sex acts and smoking crack

Then-candidate Biden went on to cite ’50 former national intelligence folks’ who he claimed said allegations amounted to ‘a bunch of garbage.’ 

 ‘Nobody believes it except him and his good friend Rudy Giuliani,’ Biden said.

Trump mocked him referencing the 2016 Russian interference investigation, ‘Is this where you’re going? This is where he’s going. The laptop is Russia, Russia, Russia?’ 

‘You have to be kidding. Here we go again with Russia. Boy oh boy.’ 

The hard drive purported to offer a revealing look into the president’s youngest son’s personal and business life. Among the raunchier contents was a 12-minute video in which Hunter Biden appeared to be engaging in a sex act with a woman while smoking crack. 

It contained other nude images as well as pictures of Hunter seemingly passed out with and using a crack pipe.

But for the 2020 Biden campaign, the most damning allegations came from email correspondence with foreign business leaders, particularly in Ukraine. 

Hunter previously sat on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma, where some reports say he earned up to $50,000 per month.

In April 2015 a Burisma adviser thanked Hunter for ‘giving an opportunity to meet your father’ in an email reportedly from the laptop. 

Biden has denied ever becoming involved in his family’s foreign business dealings. But if the implication from the email is correct, it would mean the president was incorrect.

During the debate Trump labeled Biden a ‘corrupt politician’ if the allegations were true.

‘So don’t give me the stuff about how you’re this innocent baby. Joe, they’re calling you a corrupt politician,’ the former president said.

Source: Read Full Article