Former Turing
Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli is interviewed by host Maria
Bartiromo during her "Mornings with Maria Bartiromo" program on the Fox
Business Network, in New York, on Feb. 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
You may have been reading that the next big name
to stand behind Republican Nominee Donald Trump is former CEO of Turing
Pharmaceuticals, Martin Shkreli—well, guess again; it was staged.
32-year-old Shkreli admitted during a near 6-hour video live stream
talk show that he knowingly retweeted and acknowledged the parody Trump
Twitter account, knowing it would spark internet turmoil.
At 1 hour and 50 minutes in, Shkreli explains there was a “fake Donald Trump” that “accepted his endorsement.”
Laughingly, he says “So, I retweeted it and I was like, ‘Thank you Donald, I hope we can make America great again together!”
He then asks, “Jesus Christ, how gullible are people?”
Then added: “I don’t like Trump, I’m just [expletive] kidding. He’s an idiot. Just trying to get a ruse out of people …”
In the next sentence, Shkreli mocked the media coverage of the
incident, prompting one of the three girls in the video chat to ask:
“How many times did you troll the media?”
And he replied with, “It’s my life goal,” and mentioned that he’s planning an elaborate plan to dupe the media.
Several media outlets and publications have taken the exchange on
Twitter as fact, and believed it was Shkreli’s way of getting behind
Trump—but his live stream indicates otherwise.
He didn’t say he had been against the Trump campaign, however. During
the stream, a number of times he says he has the same dislikes as
Trump—Hillary Clinton in particular.
“In some ways, I like him because he’s a winner and he’s killing it,
you know,” Shkreli said during the chat. “I don’t love the guy, but at
the end of the day he also hates a lot of the stuff I hate.”
“Whatever it takes to beat Hillary Clinton because honestly the
feeling inside her cold black heart when she loses a second time … would
be the worst feeling ever. So worth it,” Shkreli said.
After the stream, he even tweeted that he would “support him vs. Hillary.”
Shkreli is currently facing securities fraud and conspiracy charges in relation to another pharmaceutical company he once led, Retrophin Inc.
He made headlines back in September after spending $55 million for
the U.S. rights to sell a medicine called Daraprim; he promptly raised
the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill.
The 62-year-old drug is the only approved treatment for
toxoplasmosis, a rare parasitic disease that mainly strikes pregnant
women, cancer patients, and AIDS patients.
Hillary Clinton called it price-gouging and said the company’s
behavior was “outrageous.” Donald Trump called Shkreli “a spoiled brat.”
Bernie Sanders returned a donation from Shkreli.
Shkreli is due back in federal court on June 6.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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