[TV static drones] [bright tone] [soft dramatic music] ♪ ♪ [indistinct chatter] ♪ ♪ - How are you? - Thank you so much
for having us. You're over here,
Mr. President. Thank you. Kelly. - Okay. - Mr. President, thank you
for joining us. - Thank you very much.
- We appreciate you taking the time...
- Yep, good. - And we appreciate
your commitment to answer our questions. - Sure.
- Really appreciate that. Over the years,
I've heard you talk about your adherence to a philosophy
called positive thinking. This is the mantra
that if you believe something, if you visualize it, then it will happen. - To an extent; I also think
in terms of the downside. - Right.
- I do. I've been given a lot of credit
for positive thinking, but I also think
about downside, because only a fool doesn't. - To what extent do you think that that
positive thinking mindset is suitable to handling
the worst pandemic that we've seen in a century? - I think you have to have
a positive outlook. Otherwise,
you would have nothing without a positive outlook. I think we've done
an incredible job, between the ventilators and stopping
very infected people from China coming in, meaning putting
the ban on China, which, frankly,
nobody wanted me to do, practically nobody, 'cause it
was very early in January, then putting the ban
on Europe-- not an easy thing to do. When you put a ban on Europe,
that's a big thing. We would've probably lost
hundreds of thousands of lives more
had I not done that, and all of the experts,
every one of them-- not one of them wanted
to do it. They thought it was too severe. Three months later,
they were all saying, "I'm glad you did it." - The criticism of you that is most prominent is about the communication, is the public health experts
saying that it needs to be based in reality, and they're saying
that the wishful thinking and the salesmanship is just not suitable in a time when a pandemic
has killed 145,000 Americans. And it's that--I understand
what you're saying, that people need to hear
positive thinking, but, you know,
for the past five months, it's been, "The virus
is totally under control," and the cases
have been going up, and the deaths
have been going up. - It hasn't--look, look. - But you've been saying
it's under control. - Nobody knew what this thing
was all about. This has never happened before. 1917, but it was
a totally different-- it was a flu in that case,
okay? But other than 1917, there's
never been anything like this. And by the way, if you watch
the fake news on television, they don't even talk about it,
but, you know, there are 188 other countries
right now that are suffering, some proportionately
far greater than we are. Okay?
As bad as we are-- - Very few.
- Some proportionately greater than we are. Right now, right now, Spain is having a big spike, and there are
tremendous problems in the world. You look at Moscow. Look at what's going on
with Moscow. Look at Brazil. Look at these countries,
what's going on. This was sent to us by China, one way or the other, and we're never
gonna forget it. Believe me, we're never
gonna forget it. And we were beating China
at every single point. We were beating them on trade.
We were beating-- we were making progress like nobody's ever made
progress. They had--before the pandemic,
they had the worst year, Jonathan, that they've had
in 67 years. You know that,
with the tariffs and everything else I did. We were taking in
billions of dollars. I was giving some of it
to the farmers. The farmers were doing well
because I was targeting-- they were targeting
the farmers. I was targeting China.
We were doing good. Then all of a sudden,
the game changed, and I had to close it down. I closed down
the greatest economy ever in history. - I--
- Wait, and then I closed it down, and now we're open again, and we saved--by the way,
by closing it down, we saved millions of lives. If we would've gone to herd... and we knew very little
about the disease-- if we would've gone herd, we would've lost
millions of people. Millions of people. One person's too much.
We're at 140,000 people. One person is too much.
We're at 140. We would've lost
millions of people. And those people
that really understand it-- that really understand it--
they said it's incredible, the job that we've done, and again, I bring it up-- - Who says that?
- The ban-- banning China from coming in... - But it was already in here
by the time-- - What's that?
- It was already here. Like, by the time
you banned China, it came in through Europe. - It was there,
but nobody knew the extent. Nobody knew
how contagious it was. Maybe China knew. - But the question is,
Mr. President, by June, we knew
things were bad, and, you know,
the last time I was with you was the day
before your Tulsa rally, in the Oval, and, you know, you were saying
big, huge crowd. It was indoors.
- By the way-- - These people,
they listen to you. - Excuse me, Jonathan.
- Yeah. - We had a 19,000-seat stadium. First of all,
we had 12,000 people, not 6,000, which you reported
and other people reported. But you couldn't even get in.
It was like an armed camp... - Why would you
have wanted that? - Because they had 120 Black Lives Matter people
there. - I understand, but why
would you have wanted a huge crowd?
- And Tulsa--excuse me. Wait. And Tulsa-- Well, because that area was
a very good area at the time. It was an area
that was pretty much over... - Cases were-- - After, after. A month later, it started going up.
- Little bit before. - That's a month later. But Tulsa was a very good-- Oklahoma was doing
very well as a state. It was almost free. It spiked a month later, month and a half,
two months later, but it was a good area. We had a tremendous crowd.
We had tremendous response. You couldn't even--
it was like an armed camp. You couldn't even get through. You couldn't get anybody in. - But I'm talking about--
- We had 12,000 people. It was incorrectly reported. The other thing we had that
nobody wants to talk about: so Fox broadcast it. It was the highest rating in the history
of Fox television. Saturday night.
It was the highest rating. - Mr. President--
- My speech--wait a minute. You're saying something.
- Yeah. - That speech was
the highest-rated speech in the history
of Fox television on Saturday night,
and nobody says that. - I think you misunderstand me. I'm not criticizing
your ability to draw a crowd. - Well, I--
- Are you kidding me? I've covered you
for five years. You draw massive crowds.
You get huge ratings. I'm asking
about the public health. - And I canceled
another one. I had to cancel it.
- Right. - We were gonna have
a great crowd in New Hampshire, and I canceled it
for the same reason. - But here's the question. You know, I've covered you
for a long time. I've gone to your rallies.
I've talked to your people. They love you.
They listen to you. They listen to every word
you say. They hang on your every word. They don't listen to me
or the media or Fauci. They think we're fake news. They want to get
their advice from you, and so when they hear you say,
"Everything's under control. Don't worry
about wearing masks," I mean, these are people--
many of them are older people,
Mr. President. - What's your definition
of control? Yeah, under
the circumstances... - It's giving them
a false sense of security. - Right now, I think
it's under control. I'll tell you what.
- How? 1,000 Americans
are dying a day. - They are dying, that's true, and you ha--it is what it is, but that doesn't mean
we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control
as much as you can control it. This is a horrible plague
that beset us. - You really think this is
as much as we can control it? - Well, I'll tell you...
- 1,000 deaths a day? - I'd like to know
if somebody--first of all, we have done a great job. We've gotten the governors
everything they needed. They didn't do their job. Many of them didn't,
and some of them did. Someday, we'll sit down. We'll talk
about the successful ones, the good ones--
look at that smile-- The good ones and the bad. We had good and bad, and we had a lot in the middle, but we had
some incredible governor-- I could tell you right now
who the great ones are and who
the not-so-great ones are. But the governors do it. We gave them
massive amounts of material. - Mr. President, you changed
your message this week in terms of--you canceled
the Jacksonville convention. You said wear a mask. You're saying, you know,
that it's gonna get worse before it gets better. It's not something
you'd like to say, I know, and you said that. The big question--
- By the way, not get worse like the original flow. You understand that. - I hope not, because 1,000--
- But it won't get worse. Now if you look,
Arizona's going down... - If I could just finish
my question-- - Texas is going down,
and Florida's going down. - The question is,
are you going to-- even some of your own aides
wonder whether you would stick to that message
until Election Day, whether in a week or two,
you won't say, "Right, we gotta reopen again. We can't do this stuff
anymore," that you'll get bored
of talking about the virus and go back
to that sort of cheerleading. - No, I never get bored. I never get bored
of talking about this. It's too big a thing. And again, it could've
been stopped by China. - So will you stick
to that message? - It should've been stopped
by China, and it wasn't. - But now it's here. You're the president.
- We have it here. And I think
I'm very consistent. - [unintelligible] - No, this is
a very serious thing. Do you think I--we have
140,000 people at this moment. - More than that, yeah.
- This is a very, very serious situation, and what you have to do
is handle it the best it can be handled, and again, I'm working
with the governors. I got them tremendous amounts
of equipment that they would've never
gotten. Jonathan, they wouldn't
have equipment now if I didn't get it. - When can you commit--
by what date- that every American
will have access to the same-day testing that you get here
in the White House? - Well, we have great testing. What we're doing
and what many other people do-- - By what date? - Let me explain
the testing. We have tested more people
than any other country, than all of Europe
put together times two. We have tested more people
than anybody ever thought of. India has 1.4 billion people. They've done 11 million tests. We've done 55--it'll be close
to 60 million tests, and, you know, there are those
that say you can test too much. You do know that. - Who says that?
- Oh, just read the manuals. Read the books.
- Manuals? - Read the books.
- What manuals? - Read the books.
- What books? - What testing does-- - Who--no, I'm sorry.
Who's saying-- - Wait a minute.
Let me explain. What testing does,
it shows cases. It shows where
there may be cases. Other countries test--
you know when they test? They test
when somebody's sick. That's when they test. And I'm not saying
they're right or wrong. Nobody's done it
like we've done it. We've gotten
absolutely no credit for it, but we've come up
with so many different tests. The only thing that we have now is, some people have to wait
longer than we'd like them to. We want--
- It's a big problem. - We want point-to-point-- we want to have a 5-minute
to a 15-minute... - Right.
- Test. - When do you think...
- And we have-- and like many others--
- Every American-- - From what I understand,
we're close to 50% where it's
point-to-point tests. We are making
thousands of instruments, thousands of tests right now, tens of thousands
that can be distributed to various parts
of the country. But you have to understand--
and we've even sent some of them
to other countries where they had a big problem. Jonathan, almost 50%--
in fact, I think the number might be over-- is immediate testing. The other's tough. You take a test, you have
to send it to a laboratory. Let's say that takes a day.
- Right, it's difficult. - You know, so it's three
or four or five days. There's nothing you can do
about that. - But when do you think
we will have it for everyone? - I think that... - What day?
- You will have that relatively soon.
I mean, again... - What does that mean?
- You already have half. - Yeah.
- I would much rather get back to you, because I don't want
to have you write, in one month...
- That's fine. - I didn't make it,
I missed it by a day, and it's a headline.
- I get it. Mr. President, I want to talk
about the federal intervention. - Excuse me,
one thing I would say about testing: because we test so much, we show cases, so we show many, many cases. We show tremendous number
of guy-- I know you're smiling
when I say that, but I'm telling you--
- No, but come on. I mean, I've heard you
say this, but-- - Other countries don't test
like we do, so they don't show cases. - Just a couple points on that. I wasn't gonna continue
on the testing, but you said it, so...
we're testing so much 'cause it's spread so far
in America, and when you s-- - We're testing so much
because we had the ability to test because we came up
with tests. - Okay, but South Korea--
- Jonathan, we weren't even-- we didn't even have a test. When I took over, we didn't
even have a test. Now, in all fairness... - Why would you have a test?
- There was no test-- - The virus didn't exist.
- Excuse me. - How would you have a test?
- I was gonna say. - Okay.
- There was no test for this new-- We didn't have a test
because there was no test. - Of course.
- And in a very short order, we got one test,
we got another test. - It was broken, the first one.
- Many of those tests are now obsolete
because we've-- You know, it's called science, and all of a sudden,
something's better, but because we tested
so many people-- 55 million, 60 million people,
very soon-- we get cases. You test, some kid has
even just a little runny nose, it's a case, and then you report many cases, so we look like we have
more cases than massive countries
like China, which, by the way,
doesn't report, as you know. - Well, I don't put any stock
in China's figures. - No, no, the point is-- - Yeah.
- The point is, because we are
so much better at testing than any other country
in the world, we show more cases. - I--the figure I look at
is death, and death is going up now.
- Okay. - It's 1,000 a day.
- You know, if you look at death... - Yeah, it's going up again.
- Okay, let's look, let's look. - Daily deaths.
- Take a look at some of these charts, okay?
- I'd love to. - We're gonna look.
- Let's look. - And if you look
at death per... - It's started to go up again. - Here's one. Well, right here, United States is lowest
in numerous categories. We're lower than the world. - Lower than the world? What does that mean?
- We're lower than Europe. - In what? In what?
- Look, look. Take a look. Right here.
Here's case death. - Oh, you're doing death
as a proportion of cases. I'm talking about death
as a proportion of population. That's where the U.S.
is really bad. - Well--
- Much worse than South Korea, Germany, et cetera. - You can't do that.
You have to-- - Why can't I do that?
- You have to go by-- you have to go by where--
look. Here is the United States. You have to go by the cases,
the cases of death. - Why not as a proportion
of population? - When we have somebody--
what it says is, when you have somebody
that has--where there's a case, the people that live
from those cases. - It's surely
a relevant statistic to say if the U.S.
has X population and X percentage of death
of that population versus South Korea.
- No, because you have to go by the cases. - Well, look at South Korea,
for example. 51 million population, 300 deaths. It's like--it's crazy
compared to-- - You don't know that.
- I do. It's on the-- You think they're faking
their statistics? South Korea,
an advanced country? - I won't get into that, 'cause I have a very good
relationship with the country, but you don't know that, and they have spikes. Look, here's one--
- Germany, low, 9,000. - Here's one right here.
United States. You take the number of cases. Now, look, we're last,
meaning we're first. - Last?
- We have the best. - I don't know
what we're first in. As of what?
- Take a look. Again, it's cases. - Okay...
- And we have cases because of the testing.
- I mean, 1,000 Americans
are dying a day, but I understand,
on cases, it's different. - No, but you're not
reporting it correctly, Jonathan. - I think I am, but... - If you take a look
at this other chart, look, this is our testing,
I believe. This is the testing, yeah. - Yeah, we do more tests.
- No, wait a minute. Well, don't we get credit
for that? And because we do more tests, we have more cases. In other words, we test more,
we have--now, take a look. The top one--
that's a good thing, not a bad thing. - But--
- The top, Jonathan. - If hospital rates
were going down and deaths were going down,
I'd say terrific, you deserve to be praised
for testing, but they're all going up!
- You know, they very rarely-- - 60,000 Americans
are in hospital. - If you watch the news
or read the papers... - 1,000 dying a day. - They usually talk
about new cases, new cases, new cases. - I'm talking about death. It's going up.
- Well, you look at death, death is way down
from where it was. - It's 1,000 a day. It was 2,500.
It went down to 500. Now it's going up again.
- Death--excuse me. Where it was is much higher
than where it is right now. - Went down,
then it went up again. - It spiked, but now
it's going down again. - It's going up.
- It's going down in Arizona. It's going down in Florida.
- Nationally, it's going up. - It's going down in Texas. Take a look at this. These are the tests. - It's going down in Florida? - Yeah, it's going--
it leveled out, and it's going down. That's my report
as of yesterday. - Anyway, Mr. President,
if I could change subject-- - It is going down in Arizona.
It is going down in Texas. - Arizona, it is.
Arizona, it is. Texas has big problems.
- And it has spiked, and it's now going down
in Florida. It's evened out
and going down in Florida. - I'll have to see
those figures. - But you have to look at this. This is the number of tests compared to the rest
of the world. - I don't deny your figures. You've done more tests by far
than the rest of the world. I don't deny that.
- Right, and because we've done more tests,
we have more cases. - You have more infections.
- You can take that back, check it out at your office. - Mr. President,
different subject. It's been widely reported
that the U.S. has intelligence indicating
that Russia paid bounties or offered to pay bounties
to Taliban fighters to kill American soldiers. You had a phone call with
Vladimir Putin on July 23rd. Did you bring up this issue? - No, that was a phone call
to discuss other things, and frankly, that's an issue
that many people said was fake news,
that it was a false-- - Who said it was fake news? - I think a lot of people. If you look at some
of the wonderful folks from the Bush administration, some of them--
not any friends of mine-- were saying
that it's a fake issue, but a lot of people
said it's a fake issue. - There was dispute within
the intelligence community. - But we had a call talking
about nuclear proliferation, which is a very big subject, where they would like
to do something, and so would I. We discussed numerous things.
We did not discuss that, no. - And you've never discussed it
with him? - I have never discussed it
with him, no. I would.
I'd have no problem with it. - But you don't believe
the intelli-- it's 'cause you don't believe
the intelligence. That's why. - Everything--
you know, it's interesting. Nobody ever brings up China. They always bring
Russia, Russia, Russia. If we can do something
with Russia in terms
of nuclear proliferation, which is a very big problem, bigger problem
than global warming, a much bigger problem
than global warming in terms of the real world,
that would be a great thing. - But just--
- No, it never reached my desk. You know why? Because they didn't think--
intelligence-- they didn't think it was real. - It was in your written brief,
though, apparently. - They didn't think
it was worthy of-- I wouldn't mind. If it reached my desk, I would have done
something about it. It never reached my desk
because-- - Do you read
your written brief? - I do.
- Do you? - I read a lot.
You know, I read a lot. They like to say I don't read.
I read a lot. - You read
your daily intelligence briefs? - I comprehend
extraordinarily well, probably better than anybody that you've interviewed
in a long time. I read a lot. I spend a lot of time
with--at meetings. Usually, it's once a day or at least two
or three times a week, intelligence meetings... - 'Cause this was apparently
in your-- - Talking about India,
talking about-- with the problems with China, talking about so many
different elements of the world.
- Mm-hmm. - The world is
a very angry place. If you look all over the world, we call up, I get--
I see 22 soldiers were killed in India with China fighting
over the border. It's been raging
for many, many decades, and they've been fighting
and back and forth. I have so many briefings
on so many different countries, but this one
didn't reach my desk. - The reason I say this is,
even if you don't believe this particular piece
of intelligence-- and there is dispute,
no doubt. There is dispute in the intelligence community
about it. Your former--
John Nicholson, former head of forces
in Afghanistan, said--and this is when
he was working for you-- that Russia is supplying
weapons to the Taliban. Isn't that enough
to challenge Putin over the killings
of U.S. soldiers? - Well, we supplied weapons when they were
fighting Russia too. You know, when we were-- when they were fighting
with the Taliban, when--in Afghanistan-- - Yeah, but it's
a different era. - Well, it's a different--
I'm just saying, yes. - But does that--
how does that effect-- - No, I'm just saying
we did that too. - But how does that--
- I don't know. I didn't ask Nicholson
about that. He was there for a long time,
didn't have great success, because, you know,
he was there before me, and then ultimately,
I made a change. - But you surely
heard that, right? I mean, it's well known
in the intelligence community that they're arming
the Taliban--Russia. - I don't know.
When you say "arming," is the Taliban paying...
- Supplying weapons. - Or they--
- Russia is supplying weapons and money to the Taliban. - I have heard that, but it's never--again, it's never reached my desk. - I mean, he said it
on the record when he was in-- - Hey, Russia doesn't want anything to do
with Afghanistan. Let me just tell you
about Russia. Russia used to be a thing
called the Soviet Union. Because of Afghanistan,
they went bankrupt. They became Russia. Just so you do understand,
okay? The last thing that Russia
wants to do is get too much involved
with Afghanistan. They tried that once.
It didn't work out too well. - Last question
on this subject. - And by the way, we're
largely out of Afghanistan, as you probably know. - Well, I wanted
to ask you about that. The U.S. troop level
in Afghanistan right now is roughly the same
as it was when you-- - No, you're wrong.
No. - Mr. President, I'm sorry.
We have to-- - Okay, are you ready?
- No, no, I-- - We'll be down
in a very short-- it's already planned. - Well, that's
a different question. - Let me explain. We'll be down
in a very short period of time to 8,000. Then we're gonna be down
to 4,000. We're negotiating right now. We've been there
for 19 years. - Oh, no, no, I know, but--
- 19 years. - But if you let me
just finish my question-- - We'll be getting out.
- I understand. Look, when you came in,
it was 8,800. You boosted to 14,000, and now you're back down
to 8,500. - We're now-- - My question to you--
- We'll be at 4,000. - When?
- I'll give you the exact-- Very soon, very soon. - What will be the num--
very soon? 4,000?
- Very soon, yeah. - Like, how soon? - I don't want to tell you
that. I don't want to tell you.
- It's big news. - What, is that--
I don't think it's big news. - It's going down to 4,000?
- No, I've always said-- - Well, what about
Election Day? - We will get largely out. - On Election Day,
how many American troops will be in Afghanistan? - Probably anywhere
from 4,000 to 5,000. - That's almost as many
as when you came into office. - No, it's not.
- 8,000 when you came in. - We had much more.
We had a lot of people over there too,
a lot of people. - 8,800 troops. - And we did a good job.
We wiped out ISIS. - Have you thought about going
down to zero? - Let me just tell you
what you don't say. We took out--in Syria,
we took out ISIS. We--100% of the caliphate. When I took over, Obama--
it was totally rampant. ISIS was all over the place. We took them out.
We captured them. We killed them. 100%, not 99%. I wanted to get out at 99. Everyone said, "Oh, please,
would you stay?" I stayed.
99% was good, but 100% of the caliphate. We took out Soleimani. We took out al-Baghdadi. We took out people
that nobody thought possible. Al-Baghdadi was the biggest
terrorist of them all. They couldn't find him. I took him out. Soleimani, even bigger. I took him out. I've done things
that no other president's done. None--I mean,
fortunately not too many. They should've never been
in the Middle East. The decision to go
to the Middle East and get into the Middle East was the single biggest mistake made in the history
of our country. That's my opinion. - You told Fox News recently that you couldn't say
whether you'd accept the results
of the 2020 election. What does that
actually look like as the sitting president? I mean, it's unprecedented. What would that
actually look like? - Well, Hillary Clinton
never accepted them. - She conceded on-- - She still
doesn't accept them, and she got beaten very easily. - That's the important point.
That's the important point. She conceded
on election night. Now, she grumbled about it and said all sorts of--
- Grumbled? She wrote books about it.
- Fine, she wrote books. - Don't use the word
"grumbled." - Fine.
- She wrote books about it. - That's fine, but I--
- And she got beaten easily. - I get it, I get it. - 306 to 223. - I'm not disputing
you beat Hillary Clinton. - That's a lot.
- Listen, what I'm asking is, you'll be the sitting president
in the White House. What does that look like,
not accepting-- - I'll tell you
what it looks like. - Are you litigating?
- Let me tell you what it looks like.
- Okay. - So we have a new phenomena. It's called mail-in voting, where you send--
where a governor-- - New? It's been here
since the Civil War. - Well, it's new in terms of the kind of millions
and millions of ballots. They've never done
anything like this. - It'll be bigger this year
'cause of the pandemic. - Bigger?
Not bigger. Massively bigger. - Yeah, 'cause of the pandemic.
- So they're gonna send tens of millions of ballots
to California, all over the place. Who's gonna get them? I have a friend
lives in Westchester County. - They send applications,
not ballots. - His son passed away. He had a beautiful,
wonderful son. Young man passed away
seven years ago. He called me, he said, "I just got a ballot for my son Robert."
- Probably an application. - "He died seven years ago." Somebody got a ballot
for a dog. Somebody got a ballot
for something else. You got millions
of ballots going. Nobody even knows
where they're going. You look at some
of the corruption having to do
with universal mail-in voting. Absentee voting is okay.
You have to apply. You have to go
through a process. - You have to apply
for mail-in. - Absentee voting is good.
- It's the same thing. - Look, they're sending out-- - Look, okay,
let's do concrete. Let's do concrete. - Jonathan,
they're sending out-- - Applications.
- Governors-- - Download them
off the Internet. - Millions of ballots.
- No, they're not. - There is--
- It's applications. You can get them
off the Internet. - There is no way
you can go through a mail-in vote without massive cheating. - I honestly don't understand
this topic with you. - Go ahead.
- The Republican Party has an extremely well-funded
vote-by-mail program. Your campaign puts out emails telling people to vote by mail.
- Correct. - Your daughter-in-law
Lara Trump, she did robocalls
in California saying it's safe and secure--
mail-in voting. I--
- Let me tell you. - The Republican won!
- We have no choice. - That was an all-mail-in race. - Let me tell you.
Are you ready? - Yeah.
- We have no choice, because right now,
we have many court cases that we're waiting-- We have one filed
in western Pennsylvania. We have many court cases
where we're trying to end it. We went through World War I. You went to the polls,
you voted. We went through World War II, you went to the polls,
you voted. - We've had mail-in voting
since the Civil War. - And now, because
of the China virus, we're supposed to stay home, send millions of ballots
all over the country, millions and millions. You know,
you could have a case where this election
won't be decided on the evening
of November 3rd. - Absolutely.
What's wrong with that? - This election could be
decided two months later. - It won't be two months,
but what's wrong with a proper mail-in count? - It could be decided
many months later. - Have you discussed with--
- You know why? Because lots of things
will happen during that period of time, especially when you have
tight margins. Lots of things can happen. There's never been
anything like this. When you try--now, of course, right now,
we have to live with it, but we're challenging it
in many courts, as you know... - You're gonna litigate.
- All over the country. - Mr. President, the other day,
a reporter asked you about Ghislaine Maxwell. You said, "I just wish her
well, frankly. "I've met her numerous times
over the years, "especially since I lived
in Palm Beach, but I wish her well,
whatever it is." Mr. President,
Ghislaine Maxwell has been arrested
on allegations of child sex trafficking. Why would you wish
such a person well? - Well, first of all,
I don't know that, but I do know this.
- She has. She's been arrested for that. - Her friend or boyfriend... - Epstein.
- Was either killed or committed suicide in jail. She's now in jail.
- Uh-huh. - Yeah, I wish her well.
I'd wish you well. I'd wish a lot of people well. Good luck. Let them prove
somebody was guilty. I mean, do you know
that she is guilty? - Oh, so you're saying you hope
she doesn't die in jail? Is that what you mean
by wish her well? - Her boyfriend died in jail, and people are still trying
to figure out, how did it happen? Was it suicide?
Was he killed? And I do wish her well. I'm not looking
for anything bad for her. I'm not looking bad
for anybody. And they took that,
and they made it... - I mean, she's a child sex--
alleged child sex trafficker. - Such a big deal, but all it is,
is her boyfriend died. He died in jail. Was he killed?
Was it suicide? I do.
I wish her well. - Let's move to Portland. I'm sure you've seen
the disturbing footage of people in fatigues
beating the navy veteran-- - No, no, no, no, no, no.
No, no. - Well, it's there. - Here you go
with the fake news. - It's not fake news.
It's on video. Pepper-spraying him...
- For 59 days, these people were anarchists
and agitators and some protesters,
but these were anarchists. - Okay.
- These people were beating the hell out of the city. They were beating up
our federal buildings and our federal courthouse. We told the police to stop it.
You make sure. And the police wouldn't do it--
not the police-- - Your own Justice Department
and Homeland Security inspector generals--
- Excuse me. - But your inspector generals
are investigating-- - Excuse me,
you're trying now to blame law enforcement instead of anarchists. - I'm not--
- Instead of antifa. It's antifa and anarchists that are causing the problems, not law enforcement. Our law enforcement-- if we didn't have people
at our courthouse-- and they're strong,
tough people, and they don't want-- they try and be
very good, believe me, but if we didn't have
people there, you would have
your federal courthouse, $600 million building-- you would have that thing
burned to the ground. - I'm asking you
about tactics and about the unmarked vans where they're rounding
people up, and I want-- - Okay, let me tell you
about unmarked. - Can I just finish
my question? - Well, let me tell you
about unmarked. - Could I just finish
my question? 'Cause it relates to this,
I promise. This is from Rand Paul. "We cannot give up liberty
for security. "Local law enforcement can
and should be handling "these situations
in our cities, "but there is no place
for federal troops "or unidentified federal agents rounding people up at will." What is your response
to Senator Paul? - First of all, these are
Homeland Security people. They're securing a courthouse. - They're Border Patrol. - They're Homeland Security. - Elite units.
- Border. Hopefully, they have ICE
in there. - Camo, gas masks.
- Hopefully, they have ICE. Now, do you know
why they're unmarked? - Why?
- Because these terrorists, these antifa people, these people that are
anarchists and agitators, when they see the name
on a uniform of a person--a policeman
or law enforcement person, they find out
where that person lives, and then they go
and they scare the hell out of the person's family, and so they do it
for that reason. It's just common sense. There's nothing secret
about this. And you know it. You see what's going on
right now. We have Chad Wolf. They have people.
He's doing a fantastic job. He's the acting head.
He's doing a fantastic job. Chad Wolf has pickets outside--
very dangerous-looking people outside of his house. He's gonna be just fine. He's tough,
and he's got people. But if you have the names
on all of these uniforms, you'll have these maniacs in front of their houses, scaring their family
and their wives and-- or husbands,
whatever it may be. I think it's a very good reason
not to have your name. Why should you have
identification? "My name is Bill Smith, and here's where I live,
and I'm a member of"-- - The really serious concern
is the reports-- - No, no, that's a serious--
- No, no, not about that. - That's a serious concern.
- The serious concern is the reports of people
being rounded up and not being told
why they're being detained. That's what's being
investigated. - Why-- - Mr. President,
the inspectors generals-- - Why they're being detained--
you know why? You know why
they're being detained? - There's an investigation. Do you support
that investigation? - Well, I haven't seen
the result yet. - But do you support
the initiative of it? - No, I think that actually--
- You don't. - I think that antifa
should be investigated, not the law enforcement. They're investigating-- - They shouldn't
be investigating. - Have you been watching
television? - I have.
- Have you been seeing the violence and the--
- Sure. - Now, if you watch NBC News-- like, I watch NBC fake news. I'm watching it. Lester Holt,
real beauty. And I'm watching
this NBC News sham, and you have a mayor
named Wheeler, and he's standing out there,
and he's being accosted by the people.
You know that. B--I mean, it's horrible
what they're doing to him. Portland.
The mayor of Portland. And he thought he'd go
out here, be a m-- What they were doing and saying
and everything else to him... I happened to watch it
on a different station. He had to get out.
He had five security guards. He got out with his life.
Okay. - Mr. President--
- If you watch--wait. - Yeah.
- If you watch NBC News, they make him
like he's standing there bravely fighting
with the people-- in a positive sense-- that everything is wonderful.
No. He went out there. He's lucky he got away
with his life, 'cause they would've
killed him. He had five guards. But NBC News showed it
like he's standing with the people for justice. Look, those people--take a look
at what they've done to the courthouse. Take a look at what they've
done to the streets. Take a look at the violence.
This is-- - It's getting worse
since they've gone in. It's getting worse.
- No, actually, it's getting better.
We had a very good-- We've arrested a lot of people, and we now have
a ten-year rule. You knock down--you try and
knock down our courthouse... - More businesses damaged,
more violence. - You touch our courthouse, you go to jail for ten years. - Turning to the rest
of the country, we haven't seen
protests like this since the '60s. I mean, we're seeing-- - These are
Democrat-run cities... - Well, just--if I could finish
my question. If I could finish
my question. - And they're doing it
for political reasons. - You said you've done so much
for African-Americans. - I have.
- But there are Americans-- - Criminal justice reform,
opportunity. - Let me finish.
There are Americans out in the streets,
asking for change. Mr. President,
have you ever met with a Black Lives Matter
activist to hear them out,
hear their arguments? - Well, Black Lives Matter
started off, to me, very badly, because it was "Pigs"--
- Did you ever meet with one? - "Pigs in a blanket,
burn 'em like bacon." That was my first-- the first time I ever heard
of Black-- - Okay.
- That was three, four years ago. Pigs meaning policemen. "Pigs"--is what
they're referring to-- "in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon." I thought it was a--
so I got off to a bad start. I got off to a very bad start. - Would you meet with
a Black Lives Matter activist? - I would, but I think
right now, when they paint-- - Why haven't you?
- When they paint the sign... Nobody's asked for a meeting.
I've never been-- nobody's ever asked me
for a meeting. Let me tell you,
with African-Americans, I'm doing very well. They had the best employment
numbers they've ever had. They had the best job numbers
they've ever had. They were making more money
than they ever made. We were all set
until we got hit by China with the virus. Jonathan, there was-- actually, we were becoming
a very unified country... - Do you believe, though--
- Because of success. - I understand.
Do you believe, though, Mr. President,
that many police treat black people differently
from white people? - Well, I hope not.
I hope not. Certainly the--
- You've seen the statistics. - The knee on the neck
was a disgrace, okay? - Yeah.
- It was a disgrace. - I'm talking about what does systemic racism
mean to you? - I hope the answer
to that question is not-- do I, does anybody, really answer that question
accurately? - But what about not hope?
What about analysis? What's your coldhearted view
of it? - I have seen where
there is a difference, and I don't want there
to be a difference. I don't like that there
would be a difference. But with that being said... - Why do you think
black men are 2 1/2 times-- - Police have killed
white people-- - I know, but why do you think
black men-- - In a larger number, police
have killed white people. - But why do you think
black men are 2 1/2 times more likely
to be killed by police than white people?
- That, I don't know, but I don't like it.
- Why do you think-- But you must have thought
about it. - Why?
I don't know why, but I don't like it. I do know this.
- Does it speak to something systemic?
- That police have killed many white people also. - But proportionately,
what does it speak to? - It speaks to something-- If that's the number--
you're telling me a number. - It is the number.
- Okay, if that's the number, it speaks to something that,
to me, is unacceptable. - And what do you do
about it, then? - Well, I think we've already
done a lot of things. - But you haven't.
It still exists. - Let me just tell you.
- No, no, look. I understand your achievements.
I know what you're gonna say. I'm not suggesting you haven't
done a lot economically. - I've done a thing called
criminal justice reform... - I get it.
I'm just saying, what change-- - That your friend
President Obama couldn't get done.
- He's not my friend. I'm asking
about that statistic. - He tried, but he couldn't
get it done. I've got
criminal justice reform. - I get it, I get it. - I got opportunity zones. I took care
of the historically black-- You know, if you look at what
I've done for colleges, for black colleges
and universities, I got them funding. Obama never did it. I did more
for the black community than anybody
with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln, whether you like it or not. People say,
"Ooh, that's interesting." - You believe you did more
than Lyndon Johnson, who passed
the Civil Rights Act? - I think I did, yeah.
- How? How possibly did you--
- Because I got criminal justice reform done. I got prison reform.
- Lyndon Johnson-- - I've done things--
well, ask... - He passed
the Civil Rights Act. - How has it worked out? If you take a look
at what Lyndon Johnson did, how has it worked out? - You think the Civil Rights
Act was a mistake? - Because frankly,
it took a long time, but for African-Americans... - But you think
that was a mistake? - Under my administration-- Jonathan,
under my administration, African-Americans
were doing better than they had ever done
in the history of this country, so I did a lot--
job numbers, all of the money. They had money.
They were getting great-- Their percentage was up. Their housing ownership
was up. They did better
than they've ever done until we got hit.
- I just don't know how you-- - And now you know
what we're doing? I'm building it up again. We're gonna have it. Next year will be a great year, unless it's screwed up
by somebody that doesn't know
what he's doing, which could happen,
but I don't think it will. - John Lewis is lying in state
in the U.S. Capitol. How do you think history
will remember John Lewis? - I don't know.
I really don't know. I don't know.
I don't know John Lewis. He chose not to come
to my inauguration. He chose--I never met
John Lewis, actually, I don't believe.
- Do you find him impressive? - I can't say
one way or the other. I find
a lot of people impressive. I find many people
not impressive. But no, but I didn't go-- - Do you find his story
impressive? - He didn't come
to my inauguration. He didn't come to my
State of the Union speeches, and that's okay;
that's his right. And again, nobody
has done more... - Right, but back to--
- For black Americans than I have.
- I understand. - He should've come.
I think he made a big mistake. - But taking your relationship
with him out of it, do you find his story
impressive, what he's done
for this country? - He was a person
that devoted a lot of energy and a lot of heart
to civil rights, but there were
many others also. - There's a petition
to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge
in Selma, Alabama, as the John Lewis Bridge. Would you support that idea? - I would have
no objection to it, if they'd like to do it.
- Yeah, it's a good idea. - Would have no objection
to it whatsoever. - Okay.
Mr. President, you've been so generous with your time,
and we really appreciate it. - Well, thank you very much.
- Thank you. - Great honor. Thank you.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much.
- Thank you, sir. ♪ ♪ [bright tone]
Did Trump just float the theory that EPSTEIN DIDN'T KILL HIMSELF several times on camera?
Man, Barr must be fuming :-D
Edit - timestamp: https://youtu.be/zaaTZkqsaxY?t=1541
Wow I am SO impressed with Swan in this interview. This feels like the first time I'm not seeing an interviewer letting stuff fly and moving on to the next question, but actually making the president explain himself, or atleast making him run from the topic and not have the last word. What books and manuals indeed.
"You had 6000 people at your rally in June, indoors..."
"It was 12,000 the media said it was 6,000".
"Mr. President, why would you want a big crowd during a pandemic?".
It's like he forgets what he's talking about at the end of each sentence.
#WhatBooksWhatManuals
Underrated crazy comment: “We’re lower than... the world” - that is hysterical. Trump is absolutely insane.
Yayyy... A new Veep episode
source
Why on earth did they agree to this interview? Just seems like a bad idea all round?
"Thousands of Americans are dying each day."
"It is what it is."
POTUS, everyone.