To his credit, after The Daily Caller reached out to Montel Williams‘ political director about a major flub he made on CNN concerning Donald Trump Thursday afternoon, he admitted through his spokesman that there was a problem.
And the problem was a fairly big one.
During Montel’s appearance on Brooke Baldwin‘s program to declare that he was voting for Hillary Clinton, he went on about how he helped push Trump’s The Art of the Deal to number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list by allowing Trump to appear on his show. Go figure. He said he allowed him on his program because it was good for ratings.
But here’s the hard part: Trump’s book was published in 1987. Montel’s daytime talk show began in 1991.
So really: What the fuck?
“Not sure how long it will take to sort out,” Montel spokesman Jonathan Franks told me by email. “You would think there would be a readily available database of shows, their guests and topics – there is not, it’s all on VHS tapes that are in storage somewhere in Connecticut. You are welcome to write that we acknowledge that the confusion is obvious and we’re working on sorting it out.”
Baldwin asked if Trump wrote Montel a thank you note for the publicity.
He replied, “Heck no.”
To be sure, Montel insulted him, calling him “an 8-year-old schoolchild who throws tantrums, won’t study, won’t listen, thinks he knows everything and won’t listen to anybody. Same guy he is today.”
He said he questioned having him on his show. “I question the fact that I interviewed him then,” he said. “I really kind of a little bit — I had some angst over airing it…I had complete control over the show but my reps at ABC were like, really? Nobody else would take him.”
Again, to their credit, they didn’t run from the error or call me any vicious or insulting names. (Not yet, anyway.)
“Not sure,” Franks replied when I first wrote him. “Something clearly got mixed up and i’m attempting to get a list of the appearances trump made. It was a book, just not sure which book.”
Keep up those great media appearances Montel!
UPDATE:
Montel Williams’ Spokesman Jonathan Franks to write:
“Confused about the book, but in his defense, it was ONLY word off… On 12/10/97, Montel gave Trump the entire hour on The Art of the Comeback. That was show 97-068. See the NYT bestseller list from 12/21/97, in which Art of the Comeback is listed as a bestseller. The book apparently made the list twice, once the week of the show in the midst of a week’s worth of heavy promos, and then on the list for the 21st, which appears to report for the week previous, which immediately follows air. No question, the title of the book was INCORRECT ON AIR. The story that went along with it is TRUE, with, of course, the correct book, so we will clarify that. That was a great catch. You are wasting your talent at the Mirror, which is what I find so frustrating about you, you’ve got the chops to do much bigger journalism than gossip.”
Editor’s note: There is no proof that Trump’s appearance on Montel’s show landed his book on the NYT bestseller list. A special note to Franks: It’s been awhile since you’ve written my boss to try to get me fired. I even fixed some of your capitalizations in your note. Love you, Jonathan Franks!
