MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace has long been openly critical of the Trump administration and its leader's political views, public commentary, and overall effect on the Republican party. While reading a series of Donald Trump's tweets that accused Democrats of spying on the 2016 election, Wallace stopped mid-sentence and said, "I'm not reading any more of this."

"These are bald-faced lies, and as his audacity and his sort of fantasies expand, I wonder what role you think the truth plays in this for any of them," the host continued in the 2018 broadcast, per The Hill. One year later, she doubled down on her denouncement of Trump's remarks, opting to cut away from footage of Trump's first news conference following the House Democrats formal impeachment inquiry. "We had to do this, really," the MSNBC anchor said on-air. "But the president isn't telling the truth" (via The New York Times).

The public quarrel seemed to reach new heights in 2020, one year after a former staff assistant, Tara Reade, accused President Joe Biden of sexual assault in 1993 while on "The Katie Halper Show," per The New York Times. Wallace accused the political right of mishandling the investigation, calling it a "smear campaign meant to detract from similar accusations against Trump (via X, formerly known as Twitter). Unsurprisingly, Trump was quick to retort.