Fox 2 Detroit anchor Roop Raj recently stunned former President Donald Trump by asking him to explain where he got a crime stat that Trump volunteered at the end of their interview via Mediaite.
At his rallies, Trump has been slamming immigration policies by making the shocking claim that “Crime is down in Venezuela by 67% because they’re taking their gangs and their criminals and depositing them very nicely into the United States.”
However, when he attempted it with Raj during their exclusive interview, it didn’t go so well. Raj previewed the interview on Wednesday’s edition of The Nine and shared the moment the anchor tripped Trump up by asking the natural follow-up question where did you get those numbers?
In rapid succession, Trump answered “I guess” he got them from “the papers,” then “a federal statement,” then “actually from Venezuela”:
DONALD TRUMP: One stat before we go. Venezuela was very crime-ridden. They announced the other day 72% reduction in crime in the last year. You know why? They moved all their criminals from Venezuela right into the good old USA. And Biden let them do it. It’s a disgrace.
ROOP RAJ: But, sir, where are those numbers coming from?
DONALD TRUMP: I guess I get them from the papers in this case? I think it’s a federal statement or — well, they’re coming actually from Venezuela. They’re coming from Venezuela.
ROOP RAJ: We’ll have to check on that. But, Mr. President, I want to say thank you so much for joining us here today. And we hope you’ll come back and we’ll do a debate with President Biden here in Michigan sometime soon.
DONALD TRUMP: I’ll be there. I’ll be there. Thank you very much.
Raj talked about the moment with the show’s cohosts:
DEENA CENTOFANTI: Oh good follow up because that’s a that’s a tough that’s a tough position to be in. We all say as tough questions as follow up. But it’s difficult to do sometimes.
ROOP RAJ: Well, in this president, I’ve noticed that interviewing Biden and interviewing Trump, they both have their strategies when it comes to how to get around, perhaps a topic they want to talk about more than another, one thing this president, has made clear when you challenge him too much is he’ll tell you that you’re being disrespectful or it’s fake. And those are things that I’ve witnessed and seen myself.
But when you come up with a number and as you’ll see, the Venezuelan crime rate number is still, if you look it up on, on several sites, is under debate. Right. Because the Venezuelan government doesn’t keep track of crime stats same way we do on a quarterly basis. So it’s where did the numbers come from? When was that? Bloomberg has reported on and other people have reported on it.
Trump’s claim has been rated false by Politifact, Roop noted online.
