Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told MSNBC that Rupert Murdoch came to his house and told him how “unfit” Donald Trump is for the presidency. Turnbull also said he’s “never seen a politician suck up to Rupert the way Trump did.”
Appearing on Friday’s edition of The ReidOut, Turnbull spoke about the Fox Corp. media mogul and fellow Aussie.
Host Joy Reid asked Turnbull about the role Murdoch played in his ouster as prime minister in 2018.
“Rupert himself was very actively involved,” he stated. “In fact, he approached another media proprietor – Kerry Stokes – and said, ‘We’ve got to get rid of Malcolm.’”
According to Turnbull, Stokes – the chair of one of the largest media companies in Australia – told Murdoch removing Turnbull would give the government over to the Labor Party. Murdoch allegedly wanted to move forward anyway.
“He was determined to get rid of me,” he said. “And I think largely because I wasn’t deferential enough to him. See, Rupert is a narcissist. He’s vain. This is why he can’t bring himself to say that he believed Trump’s lies.”
Turnbull said Murdoch did not subscribe to Trump’s lies about the 2020 election being rigged because, “He doesn’t want to seem stupid.”
The former prime minister elaborated on Murdoch’s feelings toward Trump:
He sat with me and my wife Lucy, with [Murdoch’s now-ex-wife] Jerry Hall, actually, in our flat and told us what an utterly unfit person Trump was to be president. He sat down–this was before Trump was elected, obviously – because he knew Trump fairly well.
But once he saw Trump could win, he thought, I can have a guy in the White House that will take my calls, that will suck up to me, and flatter me. And I’ve been with Donald and Rupert Murdoch, and I have never seen a politician suck up to Rupert the way Trump did. And I’ve seen dozens and dozens of politicians with Murdoch in the nearly 50 years I’ve known him.
Turnbull added that Murdoch has “become more right-wing” since moving to the United States.
Watch above via MSNBC.
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