MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace remarked on Monday that her colleague Jake Traylor had "touched a nerve" after former President Donald Trump responded with anger to a question during an Oval Office appearance.
Trump called Traylor "fake news" and stated, "Don't ever talk to me again! You're fake. You're one of the worst in the business." This outburst occurred after Traylor asked Trump if he was reconsidering the role of interim U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. Pirro's office had previously filed vandalism charges against former Olympian David Hearn related to alleged damage to the National Mall's Reflecting Pool.
Earlier, Trump had criticized Traylor and MSNBC, suggesting the network had "the worst people" and that its name change from MSNBC was due to low viewership.
Wallace, after airing footage of the exchange, commented, "I think we touched a nerve there." She explained that Traylor had been "pressing about the simple fact pattern" concerning Pirro dropping the charges against Hearn less than a month after they were filed. According to Wallace, Pirro's office determined that shoddy contractors, not vandalism, were responsible for the lining of the Reflecting Pool coming apart, despite Trump's earlier claims about being a "really good builder."