Harris Campaign, Podcast Host Spar Over Claim Trump ‘Abruptly’ Ended Interview Early

Dan Bongino speaks onstage during Politicon 2018 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles on Oct. 21, 2018. Phillip Faraone /Getty Images for Politicon

Conservative media figure Dan Bongino and the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris sparred over the claim that former President Donald Trump ended an interview early.

In a post on X on Friday, a prominent Harris campaign account alleged that Trump “abruptly” ended a “live interview after it [was] reported that he is canceling interviews because he is ‘exhausted.’” It included a video of Trump telling host Dan Bongino in his Friday interview, “Off the record, I gotta get going.”

But Bongino, in multiple posts on X, sought to refute the Kamala HQ account’s claim of Trump leaving early, accusing it of “lying” when it claimed he ended the interview earlier than expected.

“He stayed LONGER than planned and signed a baseball and other items for charitable hurricane relief for another 10 mins afterwards,” said Bongino, a conservative media figure who operates a podcast and several media websites. His account also posted pictures of Trump appearing to sign the items mentioned.

Evita Duffy-Alfonso, who works for the Bongino Report, wrote on Friday that Trump “stayed 30 minutes later than he was supposed to” and “had to leave.”

Earlier, the Kamala HQ account posted a screenshot of a Politico article with a headline claiming that Trump is “exhausted” and did not do another interview that was allegedly planned. “You good?” the account asked Trump.

“President Trump has been running laps around Kamala Harris on the campaign trail, engaging in far more interviews, hosting more events, and rallies with crowd sizes she could only dream about,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told several news outlets in response to the Politico report. “President Trump has more energy, and a harder work ethic, than anyone in politics.”

Leavitt’s statement pointed to a Wall Street Journal analysis published on Thursday that showed Trump has conducted more media interviews than Harris in the past several months since she declared her candidacy, with just under three weeks to go before the Nov. 5 election.

Seemingly noting his campaign schedule, Trump told a rally in Georgia on Tuesday that he has “been doing this for 42 days straight without a rest,” adding, “You believe it?”

The Epoch Times contacted the Trump and Harris campaigns for comment on Friday but received no replies by publication time.

During the final stretch of the 2024 race, the two candidates have made appearances on podcasts, at town hall events, in one-on-one interviews, and elsewhere.

Harris on Wednesday sat down for a contentious interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, while Trump had a similarly contentious conversation with Bloomberg News earlier in the week.

After Harris’s interview, the Harris campaign suggested that Baier used an overly confrontational interview style and suggested that he used an out-of-context clip of Trump.

Baier told several Fox News hosts this week that he was forced to talk over Harris to ask the candidate questions and to redirect her. On Thursday evening, the Fox News anchor admitted that he made “a mistake“ by airing the wrong clip of Trump during the interview.

On Thursday night, the former president attended the annual Al Smith charity dinner in New York, appearing alongside a number of prominent New York officials, comedians, media figures, and his wife, Melania Trump. Harris did not attend the event, instead releasing a prerecorded video alongside former “Saturday Night Live” star Molly Shannon.

The Harris campaign previously said it wanted her to spend as much time in swing states instead of going to New York, which is considered heavily Democratic.

This week, both the Trump and Harris campaigns have publicly indicated they would be willing to appear on podcaster Joe Rogan’s No. 1 show, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” before the election.