It is becoming increasingly clear that a Atlanta radio host lied about getting an interview with Republican front-runner Donald Trump, airing an interview with Trump on Wednesday that was actually conducted long before he was a candidate for president.
Steve McCoy said the reason his interview lacked substance or anything about Trump's current campaign for president was because of ground rules set by Trump, stating on-air that Trump's people told him that he was not allowed to ask questions about policy.
McCoy told BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski that "they said they wouldn’t take questions about his policy because his policies, they weren’t set in stone."
Following Kaczynski's report, the Trump campaign told him that McCoy was lying and that the "interview did not take place."
A lawyer for the Trump campaign disputes radio host Steve McCoy’s account, telling BuzzFeed News that Trump did not do an interview with the Georgia radio host this week. The lawyer, Donald McGahn, says McCoy admitted to him the interview took place a year ago.
Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign slammed McCoy at length in a statement to BuzzFeed News.
"This interview did not take place," Hicks said. "It is a fraud and/or a spoof. The Trump campaign has never communicated with this man. He said Mr. Trump spoke to him yesterday prior to the debate, Mr. Trump never spoke to him yesterday or any day before that. The radio host admitted it was a fraud to our attorney, apologized and he is now hiding and not returning anyone’s call. This is representative of the dishonesty Mr. Trump faces from the media."
McCoy was not on-air for his show Thursday morning, and later confirmed to BuzzFeed that he did indeed lie and has been suspended.
""I had interview scheduled but it didn’t come through so I used an old interview. I got suspended and I’m taking my punishment," McCoy said.
The attempt to lie about the interview brought some of Trump's biggest critics to his defense.
"There are many things over which to criticize Donald Trump, but when you have to make up an interview or photoshop a tweet, you’re doing it wrong," wrote Erick Ericson. "Regardless of my position on Donald Trump, no candidate deserves this sort of B.S."
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UPDATE 4:15 p.m.: This post has been updated to reflect fact that McCoy has admitted to BuzzFeed that he lied.