Sunrise presenter Natalie Barr became increasingly irritated on Monday morning, eventually losing her temper with a well-known Donald Trump advocate's assertions.
On Monday morning, Barr interviewed conservative commentator Wayne Allyn Root, ahead of the former president being charged on Tuesday with 34 felonies related to purportedly paying off adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet.
Root described the charges against Trump as 'vicious' and demanded that several Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, be prosecuted instead. However, he pushed Barr's patience to the limit by referring to the Jan. 6, 2021, Washington DC riots as "a peaceful protest" where "two Trump supporters" died, according to the UK's Daily Mail.
The Sunrise interview commenced with co-host Matt Shirvington providing context by stating that Trump is continuing his election campaign without hesitation despite being indicted and being just a few days away from facing a judge on charges of financial crimes. Shirvington also mentioned that Trump has supposedly received over $7 million in donations from his supporters in the past few days.
However, the interview took a negative turn as soon as Root was introduced and asked about the impact of the indictment on Trump's campaign.
"I think this is the silliest thing. It is vicious, but it's also (the most) silly and laughable (thing) that has ever been done in the history of America, and the American people see it that way," Root said. "His ratings have gone through the roof. As a matter of fact, I think Trump likes it and he's going to use the mugshot for his campaign. Every TV ad will have the mugshot of Trump at the prison.
"This is so ridiculous and so beyond the pale, and it turns America, sadly, into a banana republic," he added.
Root asserted that if Democrats can indict Trump, then Republicans can also indict Democrats. He referred to an article that the former president had endorsed and promoted, which he wrote, calling for criminal charges to be brought against several Democrat politicians and supporters.
"You wanna play that game, let's indict Hillary (Clinton). Let's indict (Barack) Obama. Let's indict (billionaire financier) George Soros. Let's indict Dr (Anthony) Fauci. All of them deserve to be indicted, Trump doesn't," he said.
The hosts then asked Root what he thought might happen over the next few days following Trump's indictment.
"Obviously, it's going to create some sort of protest and anarchy here and there. There might be some violence here and there, little bits here and there, but generally, our side doesn't believe in violence," he said, adding that most Australians likely "believe the total nonsense that January 6 was an insurrection."
"It was a peaceful protest by a million people and there might have been 50 people who got carried away in a very rough situation where police were clubbing people and tear gassing them and pushing them around," Root said. "I wasn't there, I can't speak to it, but I can tell you it was not anything but a peaceful demonstration."
He went on to say that he never saw violence at any GOP events he spoke at.
"We don't cause riots, BLM causes riots. Black Lives Matter. Antifa (a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement) causes riots," he said, leading Barr to jump in.
"That is a very kind summary of what was a riot, which the world has seen the pictures of," she said.
"Well, did you see BLM, Nat? Did you see BLM try to burn the country down?" Root countered.
"I saw the pictures of police officers on January 6 being beaten by protesters, like the world did," she responded.
Root said that only Trump supporters died that day, one of whom was an unarmed woman who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer. The four others who died perished after the incident, not from it.
"I don't think many people would argue police (were) being beaten viciously in the footage that most of us have seen," Barr said.
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