Teenage journalist shocks Today show with cheeky swipe at PM

A teen journalist stunned the Today show team after taking a cheeky jab at Scott Morrison while going over the details of his tense interview with the PM.

A teenage journalist has taken a subtle swipe at Scott Morrison, after the pair clashed during a recent interview.

Leonardo Puglisi, who founded 6 News when he was in primary school, grilled the Prime Minister about his “lies and falsehoods” during an interview on Wednesday night.

Speaking to Nine’s Today show on Friday morning, the 14-year-old proceeded to take a cheeky jab at Mr Morrison over his responses to the “tough” questions posed in the interview.

“I wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction from the Prime Minister himself. I think we‘ve gotten push-back in interviews before from guests who don’t like the questions, but when it comes from the Prime Minister of Australia it is certainly a unique experience," he said.

“And if he doesn’t like tough questions, or if any guest we have doesn’t like the tough questions we pose then I think that’s on them, that’s their problem.”

Leonardo Puglisi’s cheeky swipe at Scott Morrison prompted shocked laughter from the Today show hosts. Picture: Today/Channel 9

This prompted shocked laughter from Today hosts Allison Langdon and Charles Croucher.

“Oh man,” Langdon said through laughter.

Puglisi then revealed exactly how he managed to snag an interview with the Prime Minister.

6 News political reporter Roman Mackinnon emailed both Mr Morrison and Anthony Albanese’s team around late January or early February.

The teens never received a response from Mr Albanese’s team, but the PM’s team said they could organise an interview after the Budget.

Puglisi revealed he had to take the day off school to conduct the interview.

He said it was an “incredible experience” and he was glad he was able to ask all the questions that he and his team had planned.

Leonardo Puglisi interview Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday. Picture: Today/Channel 9

However, he hadn’t planned for the question about “lying and falsehoods” to go on for as long as it did.

“When it came to the lying and falsehoods, that was meant to be one, maybe two questions, including a follow up,” he said.

“It ended up going for about five or six because the Prime Minister’s answers kept requiring a bit of push-back.”

Puglisi spent much of the interview on Wednesday night questioning Mr Morrison on allegations of lying, even quoting a Crikey article titled ‘A Dossier of Lies’ – detailing 50 times Mr Morrison “lied” while in public office.

This prompted Mr Morrison to accuse “the media” of twisting what he said in relation to visiting the Hillsong Church and repeatedly referring to former Labor politician Sam Dastyari as “Shanghai Sam”.

The PM also called into question Crikey’s credibility and laughed off reference to the ABC’s fact checking of him, saying things he’d said had been taken out of context.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has clashed with the teen reporter during the interview. Picture: 6 News

Puglisi doubled down, asking: “You don’t think Australians are interested if their leader tells the truth or not?”

“They’re quoted out of context. They pursue a line they’ve been pursuing for some time,” Mr Morrison responded.

“I’m upfront with the Australian people.”

Mr Morrison said Labor had “peddled” a lot of the claims.

“Australians know that I’m upfront with them and as politicians occasionally you might get the odd fact wrong or the odd figure wrong … that’s all just silly word games,” he said.

“What Australians care about is their job, their national security, they’re not interested in these type of juvenile debates.”

The Prime Minister also fielded questions about the federal budget and its impact on the election, which he directed back to national security and defence spending.

Puglisi also asked Mr Morrison if he thought he had won the trust of young people.

The PM said his government had helped create more jobs for young people and boosted youth mental health spending.

“If you don’t get a job by the time you’re in your sort of early to mid twenties, then the chances of you spending a life dependent on welfare go up like a rocket,” Mr Morrison said.

Puglisi asked if the Prime Minister felt responsible for voters in most states and territories siding with Labor at recent elections, to which he replied, “no”.

Originally published as Teenage journalist shocks Today show with cheeky swipe at PM