Top 20 Most Embarrassing Political Interview FAILS
These interviews are hard to watch. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for times when politicians put their foot in their mouth when talking to a journalist.
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00:00Should it be legal or not? Well, you know, uh...
00:02Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for times when politicians put
00:07their foot in their mouth when talking to a journalist.
00:10Our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of.
00:17Number 20. David Cameron with The Gay Times.
00:20During an interview with The Gay Times,
00:22conservative leader David Cameron hoped to tout his party as being progressive on gay rights.
00:27And I think that all center-right parties,
00:29all conservative parties have to go on this journey. I think we've probably
00:32gone a bit further and faster than some conservative parties in other countries.
00:36Unfortunately, his colleagues were not as progressive on the issue as he was,
00:39which made his pitch much harder.
00:41The MEPs have their own leader, they have their own group,
00:45and it's not something I just don't routinely look at the voting behavior and say,
00:50will you do this rather than that?
00:51Cameron struggled to answer for his party's voting record on gay rights,
00:54particularly his European Parliament members' vote on a resolution condemning
00:58an anti-gay law in Lithuania. The Tory leader distanced himself before doing a reversal
01:03and saying he allows his colleagues to vote how they want on gay rights without whipping votes.
01:08Cameron was uncomfortable, and during the interview, he asked to stop the cameras.
01:14Number 19. Natalie Bennett, LBC radio interview.
01:18In February 2015, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett participated in an interview with Nick
01:23Ferrari on LBC that was widely considered a car wreck.
01:27In terms of council housing, we want to build 500,000 new social rent homes. That means council.
01:33Where will you get the money from for that?
01:35This was largely due to her thoughts on a proposed housing plan. When pressed on how
01:39much money she thought it would take to give housing to 500,000 people,
01:43she responded it would cost 2.7 billion pounds.
01:46We're looking at a total spend of 2.7 billion.
01:50500,000 homes, 2.7. What are they made of? Plywood.
01:55That would average out to 5,400 pounds per house, so that's just bad math.
02:01The interview was a massive embarrassment for the Green Party.
02:04That's not much more than a large conservatory,
02:0660,000 pounds. So where's the land? How are you going to pay for the land?
02:12Right. Well, what we're looking at doing is, is, is basically.
02:16When addressing the interviews, Bennett said she had experienced quote,
02:20mental brain fade. Number 18, Ted Kennedy's delayed response.
02:25It's understandable when a political candidate flounders after being asked a complex question,
02:30but Ted Kennedy failed to properly answer the easiest softball question ever asked.
02:35Why do you want to be president?
02:39Well, I'm, um.
02:43Um.
02:45During an interview with Roger Mudd on his 1980 presidential bid,
02:48the late senator was asked why he wanted to be president. This question was followed by an
02:53awkward pause that took too long, followed by a response that in no way justified the
02:58length of his pause. It just seems to me that this nation
03:02can cope and deal with its problems in a way that it has in the past.
03:07The interview, particularly his failure to address this simple question,
03:11was seen as a disaster that was partly responsible for dooming his presidential campaign.
03:17You know, you have to come to grips with the different issues.
03:21Number 17, Boris Johnson gives reporter the cold shoulder.
03:25On the eve of the 2019 parliamentary election,
03:28Prime Minister Boris Johnson was helping out at a dairy in Leeds as part of a campaign event.
03:32Hey, come on Good Morning Britain, Prime Minister, if you get the chance.
03:35However, Jonathan Swain, a reporter for Good Morning Britain,
03:38showed up hoping to get an interview right before the big election.
03:41Johnson humored him, but he was able to give Swain the slip with the only exit available,
03:46the dairy freezer.
03:48Prime Minister, will you deliver on your promise to come on Good Morning Britain?
03:51Of course I will.
03:52While the Good Morning Britain team may have been disappointed with the rejection,
03:55they were given an iconic awkward moment that is uniquely Johnson.
04:00Number 16, Steve Scalise and George Stephanopoulos.
04:03It looked like a regular appearance on ABC's This Week for House Majority Leader
04:07Steve Scalise in November 2023, until George Stephanopoulos brought up the 2020 election.
04:13He said that you're one of those leaders who hasn't been unequivocal in saying it
04:16was a clean election, that Joe Biden did not steal the election. Your response?
04:22Well Ken, I've worked with on a number of issues.
04:24When Scalise was asked whether he thought the 2020 election was stolen or not,
04:28the congressman avoided giving an affirmative yes or no.
04:31Instead, he dodged the question,
04:33claiming that states didn't properly follow their election rules.
04:36Can you say unequivocally that the 2020 election was not stolen?
04:41What I've told you is there are states that didn't follow their laws.
04:43Stephanopoulos stayed persistent, asking the question six times,
04:47but Scalise wouldn't commit to a definite answer.
04:50Yes or no, was the 2020 election stolen?
04:54What I've told you is Joe Biden's the president of the United States,
04:57and right now he's failing the country on so many fronts that matter to families.
05:01The dance that Scalise did in avoiding the question made him look small.
05:08Poor economic secretary to the treasury, Chloe Smith,
05:11had to answer for budget decisions when she went on Newsnight in June 2012.
05:15When was the decision taken?
05:17As I say, it's been under consideration for some time, the chancellor and the prime minister.
05:21Post, Jeremy Paxman was like a dog with a bone,
05:24repeatedly asking Smith about a fuel-duty U-turn.
05:27Smith tried to spin undoing the tax hike as a gift to the taxpayer,
05:30but failed to explain how this money would be paid for.
05:33The figure will be drawn from underspends in departmental budgets.
05:37Yes, where?
05:39It was believed that Smith's boss, George Osborne,
05:41had set her up to fail by making this decision right before she was set to go on the show.
05:49After Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey,
05:52the former president sat down with NBC nightly news anchor Lester Holt to defend his decision.
05:57Regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey.
06:00At first, Trump tried to justify the decision by claiming that Comey was unfit for the position,
06:05but he eventually admitted that the Russian investigation was a motivating factor in firing Comey.
06:11Are you angry with Mr. Comey because of his Russia investigation?
06:15I just want somebody that's competent.
06:17The interview caused a political firestorm,
06:20making it look like Trump had something to hide regarding alleged collusion between him and Russia.
06:25It was even parodied on Saturday Night Live,
06:27where Michael Che as Lester Holt seemed surprised by the brazen admission.
06:43Most politicians would tread carefully when faced with a scandal related to alleged drug use,
06:48but not Rob Ford.
06:49Do you smoke crack cocaine?
06:50Exactly. Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine.
06:54When the late Toronto mayor faced questions from reporters in 2013 over a rumored video
06:59of him smoking an illegal substance, he was frank about his experience.
07:02Though Ford openly admitted to smoking crack, he denied having substance use disorder.
07:07However, admitting to trying a powerful narcotic under a, quote,
07:11drunken stupor doesn't help give the impression that he's in control.
07:15Yes, I've made mistakes. All I can do now is apologize and move on.
07:19While we want our elected leaders to be transparent, Rob Ford may have been too real.
07:27Oklahoma State Senator Nathan Dahm attracted a lot of attention for an awkward interview
07:32he did on the Apple TV Plus show The Problem with Jon Stewart.
07:35You're saying more guns makes us more safe.
07:38Yes.
07:39So when we got 400 million guns in the country, we had an increase and gun deaths went up.
07:47So when exactly does this curve hit?
07:50During the interview, Stewart pressed Senator Dahm on his position regarding gun control,
07:55accusing the lawmaker of being negligent and hypocritical.
07:58If you don't have background checks and you don't have registration and permitting,
08:03how do you know who has a problem in terms of the people who you're giving a gun to?
08:07Stewart skewered the politician, who was barely able to respond to the well-positioned questions.
08:12You want to say I'm a Second Amendment purist and I'm making it safer. You're not.
08:18You're making it more chaotic. And that's not a matter of opinion. That's the truth.
08:22That is a matter of opinion, Jon.
08:24At first, Senator Dahm didn't see a problem with the appearance,
08:27but he later claimed that Stewart had selectively edited the interview to make him look bad.
08:32Number 11. Gary Johnson is asked about Aleppo.
08:35In 2016, some voters were looking for an alternative to the two major party presidential candidates,
08:41and libertarian candidate Gary Johnson was getting a lot of attention.
08:44And what is Aleppo? You're kidding. No.
08:48During an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe,
08:51the former New Mexico governor was asked what he would do about Aleppo as president.
08:55The question stumped Johnson, who was apparently unaware that Aleppo was
09:00at the center of a humanitarian crisis during the Syrian war.
09:03It's just, it's just a mess.
09:05The interview was seen as an embarrassing disaster, highlighting Johnson's weakness
09:09in foreign policy. The incident is so infamous that when Johnson was stumped
09:13during an interview later that year, he called it another, quote, Aleppo moment.
09:17Name a foreign leader that you respect.
09:19I guess I'm having an Aleppo moment.
09:21Number 10. James Diaz forgets the six-point plan.
09:25We're used to politicians dodging questions about actual policy plans as long as they can.
09:30But Australian Liberal Parliament candidate James Diaz takes it to another level.
09:34And we have a plan. We have a six-point plan to make sure that we do stop the boats.
09:38Six points. Could you run through them for us?
09:40Diaz was asked in an interview with Network 10 to detail his party's six-point plan to
09:45curb the influx of asylum seekers to the country. Only he couldn't remember any of them.
09:50Under Kevin Rudd, the boats...
09:51There's six points. Turn back, turn back the boats.
09:55Look, here's the thing.
09:56Diaz proceeded to provide broad answers instead of his specific points and was asked to outline
10:02his party's plan several more times before the interview reached its merciful end.
10:05Well, I've answered your question.
10:07You've said turn back the boats. You told me it was a six-point plan.
10:10What about the other five points?
10:11The blunder eventually went viral, and Diaz conceded defeat in the parliamentary election.
10:17Number nine. Michael Grimm threatens New York One reporter.
10:20New Yorkers are famous for their no-nonsense, hard-boiled attitudes,
10:24which can come out at some pretty inopportune moments.
10:27After President Obama's 2014 State of the Union address, New York Congressman Michael Grimm was
10:32talking to New York One political reporter Michael Scotto about the speech. When asked
10:36about fraud allegations he was facing, Grimm said he wouldn't be addressing it and walked off camera.
10:41This is only about the president.
10:42Well, what about...
10:43Thank you.
10:44But after it looked like Scotto had wrapped up his piece,
10:47Grimm threatened him with violence, only to find the camera was still on.
10:51Let me be clear to you. He has a deal to make and it's with New Yorkers.
10:56Grimm apologized to Scotto the next day, and in the ultimate bit of poetic irony,
11:00was later arrested on those campaign fraud accusations that he fought so hard to dodge.
11:06Number eight. Michael Howard grilled by Jeremy Paxman.
11:09British ex-Home Secretary Michael Howard got a masterclass in the power of repetition after
11:13this embarrassment.
11:14Mr. Howard, have you ever lied in any public statement?
11:18Certainly not.
11:19In this iconic 1997 interview on BBC's Newsnight,
11:22anchor Jeremy Paxman grills Howard over and over about whether he forced the hand of Derek Lewis,
11:28Director General of Her Majesty's Prison Service, to fire a prison governor.
11:32There, Paxman asks Howard a simple question.
11:35Did you threaten to overrule him?
11:36I was not...
11:36And when he doesn't answer it, he asks him again.
11:39Did you threaten to overrule him?
11:40The truth...
11:41In total, Paxman asks Howard if he threatened to overrule Lewis 12 times.
11:46Howard's reputation was damaged as a result of the controversy,
11:49while Paxman's questioning lives on in the hallowed halls of British journalism.
11:54Number seven. Adam Bolton versus Alastair Campbell.
11:57Following the 2010 United Kingdom general election,
12:00the newly elected Conservative Party was trying to craft a deal with the
12:03Liberal Democrat Party to form a coalition government.
12:06Adam, I know that you've been sort of spending the last few years saying
12:08Gordon Brown's dead meat and he should be going anyway.
12:11I've not been saying that.
12:12It was creating some tensions,
12:14as seen in this interview featuring Sky News editor Adam Bolton and journalist Alastair Campbell.
12:19The piece starts off civil, but then devolves into a shouting match between the two men,
12:23with Campbell accusing Bolton of a Conservative bias,
12:26and Bolton telling Campbell to not tell him what he thinks.
12:29I'm fed up with you telling me what I think.
12:30I don't care what you're fed up with.
12:32The whole thing was like watching a really classy train wreck.
12:35Number six. David Frost interviewing Richard Nixon.
12:39After being the first US president to ever resign from office,
12:42Richard Nixon wisely spent a couple of years out of the public eye.
12:45But in 1977, the disgraced ex-president returned to open up to the American people
12:50in a series of interviews with British reporter David Frost.
12:54What did Haldeman tell you during the 18 and a half minute gap?
13:00Haldeman's notes are the only recollection I have of what he told me.
13:05The interviews featured Frost grilling Nixon on his life, presidency, and of course, his scandals.
13:11While Frost was commended for his work, Nixon didn't come off as well.
13:15You are reading there out of context, out of order,
13:20because I have read this and I know it really better than you do.
13:23Just listen to the legendary line where he defended his questionable actions.
13:27Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.
13:31Nixon may have denied the allegations against him until his death,
13:34but these interviews are as much a part of his infamy as the Watergate scandal.
13:39Number five, Diane Abbott walks off for a phone call.
13:42Well, this one's pretty rude.
13:44Labor Party MP Diane Abbott found herself in hot water in 2012
13:48when she sent out a tweet that said, quote,
13:50white people love playing divide and rule.
13:52I was actually referring to the nature of 19th century European colonialism,
13:56but that's a bit much again to 140 pounds.
13:59Sky News was able to catch up with the member of parliament
14:02to ask her what she meant by her potentially divisive tweet.
14:04She gave an explanation and then said she believed
14:07the tweet was being taken out of context
14:09before getting a phone call and walking off camera mid interview.
14:13Explain to us what you actually meant by the comment.
14:16Sky News later found out that Labor Party head Ed Miliband
14:19was very likely on the other end of the call,
14:21giving her a very stern talking to.
14:24Number four, Mel Meninga's 28 second career.
14:28People from all walks of life and careers have tried their hand at public office.
14:31Former Australian Rugby League star Mel Meninga tried a career in Canberra.
14:37For a moment anyway.
14:38Whether they be business people, doctors or even actors.
14:41But we've rarely seen athletes dabble in politics
14:44and Australian Mel Meninga gave us a glimpse as to why.
14:47I was just a person out there making sure that I was...
14:52Meninga was a legendary rugby player turned coach
14:55when he decided to take his work in a different direction in 2001.
14:58That year, he campaigned as an independent
15:01for the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly,
15:04announcing his candidacy in an interview on ABC,
15:07only to get cold feet 28 seconds in and walk out of the studio.
15:11I'm buggered. I'm sorry.
15:13Number three, Todd Akin's legitimate sexual assault comments.
15:17Are there any circumstances in your mind in which an abortion should be legal?
15:25Well, I think sometimes people talk about life of the mother as a situation, Charles.
15:30Missouri Congressman Todd Akin proved he fell asleep in biology
15:33when he gave this interview during his campaign for U.S. Senate in 2012.
15:37When asked about his views on abortion, he gave an answer that defied all medical logic,
15:42saying the bodies of female sexual assault victims
15:45had the power to shut out an unwanted pregnancy.
15:48The female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.
15:51He also made more than a few people angry by trying to classify
15:54some sexual assault as legitimate.
15:56Understandably, Akin was blasted by the public
15:59and both American political parties for his comments.
16:02And it's believed that they were the reason he lost the election.
16:05Akin eventually apologized for the remark,
16:08but it still had a lasting effect on his career.
16:11Number two, Sarah Palin with Katie Couric.
16:13In 2008, Republican nominee for U.S. President John McCain
16:17shocked everyone by choosing unknown Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.
16:22I'll let Governor Palin speak for herself.
16:24The American people were eager to learn more about her,
16:27and they got their wish in a series of interviews with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric.
16:32But instead of showing everyone why she should be
16:34the second most powerful person in America,
16:36Palin utterly embarrassed herself in the interviews
16:38by coming off as unprepared and unknowledgeable.
16:41Oh, well, some decisions that have been made poorly
16:46should not be rewarded, of course.
16:48Some of the highlights of the infamous interviews included
16:51Palin talking about her home state's relationship to Russia,
16:54and of course, her taste in newspapers.
16:57All of them, any of them that have been in front of me
17:01over all these years.
17:02While Couric was showered with praise for her journalism efforts,
17:05the McCain-Palin campaign never recovered.
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17:24Number one, Christopher Young's singing talents.
17:27Local news is great for shining a spotlight on politicians
17:30that wouldn't get exposure anywhere else.
17:32Why did you get into politics in the first place?
17:35Well, I get into politics to bring attention to the issues
17:38that matter to the people of the state of Rhode Island.
17:40In the build-up to the 2010 Providence mayoral election,
17:43Rhode Island station WPRI interviewed candidates
17:46to give viewers a better idea of who was running for office.
17:49One of these candidates happened to be Democrat Christopher Young.
17:53While the interview begins with some substantive discussion,
17:56Young quickly transitions to something not related to politics,
17:59namely his talent for writing songs.
18:02To the rich man who stands in his house high upon the hill.
18:08Young then pulls out a tiny speaker and sings one of his compositions,
18:12making a minute and a half feel like eternity.
18:15Yeah, maybe don't take up a music career.
18:17And are you lost?
18:23Thank you so much.
18:24I really appreciate you coming in and serenading me this morning.
18:29Which of these political interview fails do you think was the most embarrassing?
18:32Let us know in the comments.
18:34If you were writing it today, would you include the dog story?
18:37I'm proud of this book.
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18:54Transcribed by https://otter.ai