Comic Tom Arnold gamed MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace and CNN’s Poppy Harlow today to plug his upcoming Viceland series The Hunt for the Trump Tapes.
Arnold sat down with Wallace first, to say he’s teaming with President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen to boot POTUS from office. Watch the full interview above.
Previous day, Arnold tweeted a photo of himself with Cohen, writing, “I love New York”:
“This dude has all the tapes — this dude has everything,” Arnold said in the MSNBC interview. “I say to Michael, ‘Guess what? We’re taking Trump down together,’ and he’s so tired he’s like, ‘OK,’ and his wife is like, ‘OK, f-ck Trump.’”
Which, Arnold had to walk back:
Michael Cohen didn’t say Me & him were teaming up to take down Donald Trump! Michael has enough Trump on his plate. I’m the crazy person who said Me & Michael Cohen were teaming up to take down Trump of course. I meant it. Michael doesn’t get paid by Vice #thehuntforthetrumptapes pic.twitter.com/af48aDZRvg
— Tom Arnold (@TomArnold) June 22, 2018
During his sit-down with Wallace, Arnold also told her that if voters had seen a day on the set of The Apprentice to see how incompetent Trump was, they never would have voted for him. Which seems unlikely, given that they voted for him despite the number of reports about his bankruptcies and other business busts and, of course, that infamous Access Hollywood “‘grab ’em by the p*ssy” tape.
Asked about the photo of himself with Cohen, Arnold said, He’s gonna take care of his family, his country, the rest of us Jews. Donald Trump is not … Donald Trump does not care about him.”
Alhough Arnold’s claim about Cohen having “all the tapes” seems dubious, given that the FBI raided his office, his home and the room of the hotel in which he is staying, CNN’s Harlow later in the day kept pressing him on whether Cohen played “any of the tapes he has for you?”
Arnold did not want to answer.
“If you had a TV show that had not come out yet, and you had eight episodes, would you come on CNN and reveal everything?” he answered.
“Did he play any tapes for you,” Harlow repeated.
Arnold finally acknowledged that Cohen had not.
Harlow did a good job of resisting the urge to clunk him on the head with a blunt object. The interview was almost entirely free of facts, or even any answers, though it made for riveting TV.
“Did he tell you he has something incriminating on Donald Trump?” Harlow asked of his Cohen meeting.
Arnold responded that Cohen told him the FBI had been “kind and appropriate” when they raided his office, his home and his hotel room.
“Did he tell you he has something incriminating?” Harlow persisted.
“How could he not?” Arnold guessed.
When she asked a third time, Arnold shot back, “Hold on, I’m not on trial here!”
Cohen clarified that Arnold was full of horseradish:
Appreciate @TomArnold kind words about me as a great father, husband and friend. This was a chance, public encounter in the hotel lobby where he asked for a selfie. Not spending the weekend together, did not discuss being on his show nor did we discuss @POTUS. #done #ridiculous
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) June 23, 2018
Harlow noted that Arnold had said he had multiple meetings with Cohen. She wanted details.
“One was with Don Jr. at Trump Tower and Paul Manafort – no, I’m just making crap up,” Arnold joked. “I don’t know… Michael reminded me of it.”
Previous night’s meeting was to “to see what side he was on,” Arnold explained.
Asked if he had any unaired footage of Trump on The Apprentice, Arnold answered coyly, “We have a lot of things.”
Harlow tried a different approach, asking if Cohen told him he would cooperate with authorities, should he be charged with anything.
This triggered the longest silent staring at an interviewer by a TV news program guest in history.
“You do not want to answer the question,” Harlow finally asked, blinking first.
“No,” Arnold responded.
Arnold having said he would spend time with Cohen over the weekend, Harlow asked, “Will you let us know what you learn over the weekend?”
“No,” Arnold said.
Harlow threw in the towel and the interview was declared over.