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Trump Speech; Christie Endorses Trump. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired February 26, 2016 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:00] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, they're incredible people. So I just want to - we have to - we have to put out the plug everyone once in a while because, you know, one bad incident, whether it's a mistake or somebody was just a bad apple, and it's played for weeks and weeks on the news. And the thousands and tens of thousands of great jobs that they do, they don't get appreciated. So let's hear it for the police.

So I'm in Laredo and they're telling me how sad it is because they can stop it. We need the wall. We want to have the wall. We want to stop the drugs from pouring across. We're going to stop the drugs. And there's going to be a real wall. This is not going to be a toy wall. This is going to be a real wall. And - and I'm the only one that knows how to build it. These guys, they have no clue. Politicians, all talk, no action, never gets done.

And by the way, when I said self-funding before, the beauty of that - the beauty of self-funding is that the insurance companies, the drug companies, the lumber companies, all the companies, they're not going to take advantage of Trump because they never gave me anything, OK? Big difference. Big difference.

And I don't know that I get the credit for that. You know, I said to somebody the other day, Jeb Bush had $150 million. What a waste of money. I would imagine at some point between him and Romney they'll be supporting Rubio, do you think? I would imagine.

Romney - how about this? How about this beauty. Runs one of the worst campaigns in the history of politics. He should have beaten Obama easily. And for two months he disappeared. Nobody knows where he was. And say what you want, Obama was on Jay Leno, David Letterman, he was on every show, and Romney was like a lost soul. I don't know what happened to this guy.

And then he comes out and tells me about my taxes. And actually, if you know the real story, Harry Reid shamed him and made him look like a baby and Harry Reid pushed him and pushed him and really made him look so stupid and weak. And when did Romney file his return, right? What's today's date? Today is what? Come on, tell me. What? OK.

So you know when Romney filed his return? September - September 21st. That's a long time from now. This guy, what a terrible - I endorsed him and about two weeks later I said, he's never going to win. Number one, when you walk onto a stage, you cannot walk like a penguin. He walked like a penguin. I said this is a problem. Somebody tell him, take some steps. Anyway, Romney - Romney turned out to be a disaster. But I know he'll

support Rubio. He probably has no choice. Honestly, if he wanted to support me, I would not accept his support. I really admit it. Because - because we have to be honest, right? We have to be honest.

And I will say this, just to show you great loyalty. I supported John McCain and we lost. I supported Mitt Romney, and we lost. This time I said, I'm going to do it myself, OK? Big difference.

So the border control is incredible. And they're told to stand back. Stand back. Let the people walk in. Let them go wherever they're going to go. We don't have a border. And if you don't have a border, we don't have a country, folks. We don't have a country.

So we're going to have borders. And they're going to be serious borders. And they're going to be very, very powerful borders. And in the case of our southern border, we're going to have a wall. And it's going to stop.

And, by the way, we are going to have people come into our country, but they're coming into our country legally. Legally. We want people to come in. We want people to come in. We want people to come in, but they have to be the right people.

We don't want people that have been here. Look at Kate, beautiful Kate in San Francisco. Illegal immigrant five times came across the border and shot Kate. Jameel (ph), his father became a friend of mine. He's an incredible father, incredible guy. His son was an unbelievable young boy. Good student. Was going to go to college on a football scholarship. Maybe Stanford. And he was shot in the face three times by a guy that did it because he was just told to shoot somebody. That's the only reason he did it. Just got out of jail. And you have the female veteran, 65 years old, recently in Los Angeles, raped, sodomized and killed by an illegal immigrant.

[14:05:03] We're going to be different, folks. We're going to be strong. We're going to be smart. We're going to be tough. We're not going to play games anymore. We're not going to play games anymore. Not going to happen. Not going to happen.

So we're going to be the strongest on borders and we're going to set the example for other parts of the world. And we're not taking in Syrians that we have no idea who they are, where they come from. And we've already taken in thousands, thousands, and we don't even know where they are. But you have no idea - I spoke to the top law enforcement people and they said, Mr. Trump, they don't have papers, they have absolutely no identification. And do you ever notice the migration - and I want to help people. And I say, you build a safe zone and I'll get other people to pay for it because I don't want to pay for it. We owe $19 trillion. We're not paying for it. But we'll get the Gulf States to pay. They have more money than anybody and they're not spending their money. We've got to loosen up their wallets, folks, and I'm very good at getting people to do that, believe me, because I like the idea of a safe zone.

But did you ever notice the migration comes across and you look and there's so many young men, right? I say, where are the women? Where are the children? Now, they're there, but not like they should be. So law enforcement is telling me - is that a protester? Oh, good, turn the cameras. Turn the cameras. Good. I love protesters. Look at this. Look at this. We have 10,000 people here today. Look at this. Is that a protester? Please be a protester. The only way we can get the cameras turned, the only reason they turn the cameras is if there's a protester because that's a bad thing, right? I'm going to develop my own protesters.

But, look, it can't - it can't be a protester because those cameras won't turn. They won't turn. I'll tell you what, I think the media is among the most dishonest groups of people I've ever met. They're terrible. "The New York Times," which is losing a fortune, which is a failing newspaper, which probably won't be around that much longer, but probably somebody will buy it as a trophy, keep it going for a little longer, but I think "The New York Times" is one of the most dishonest media outlets I've ever seen in my life. The worst. The worst. The absolute worst. They have an agenda that you wouldn't believe. And they're run by incompetent people. They are totally incompetently run.

"Washington Post," I have to tell you, I have respect for Jeff Bezos, but he bought "The Washington Post" to have political influence. And I got to tell you, we have a different country then we used to have. We have a different - he owns Amazon. He wants political influence so that Amazon will benefit from it. That's not right. And, believe me, if I become president, oh, do they have problems. They're going to have such problems.

And one of the things I'm going to do - and this is only going to make it tougher for me, and I've never said this before - but one of the things I'm going to do if I win, and I hope I do, and we're certainly leading, is I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We're going to open up those libel laws.

So that when "The New York Times" writes a hit piece, which is a total disgrace, or when "The Washington Post," which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they're totally protected. You see, with me, they're not protected because I'm not like other people, but I'm not taking money. I'm not taking their money. So we're going to open up those libel laws, folks, and we're going to have people sue you like you never got sued before.

We have many things to do. We have many, many things to do. When I came down on the escalator with my wife, Milania, it was June 16th, and I said, look, let me tell you, it's not easy running for presidents. You get lowlifes like a guy like Rubio saying horrible things, horrible things. And, who needs it? Really, who needs it? This is a lowlife. And Cruz lies, but at least it's reasonable lies. This other guy says terrible things.

[14:10:32] And I will tell you, when you to this and when I agreed to do it, it takes guts to do it. It takes guts. Especially if you're not a politician. Now, I'm not a politician, thank goodness. I guess now I am but I'm not, OK? I don't want to be a politician.

And when I came down the escalator, there were cameras. Look at all those cameras back there. Look at it. Look at it. Hello, folks, how you doing, you son of a guns. But we had cameras like the Academy Awards. It looked like it was the Academy Awards. And I said to my wife, I looked at the Iran deal, which is one of the great insults in the history of deal making. We give them $150 billion. We get absolutely nothing. We get nothing. And then they attack. They take - they take as hostage, our ten sailors, and the only reason we got them back - why did we get them back? Because the money wasn't paid. It went in two days later.

So the Persians are great negotiators. They gave them back. They would have kept them otherwise, unless Trump was president. Believe me, they wouldn't be keeping them. They wouldn't be keeping them. And if I was president, the hostages would have been released four years ago because I wouldn't have negotiated until they released the hostages. And if they didn't release them, I would have increased the sanctions and we would have had those hostages within 24 hours years ago.

I want to tell you one other thing. Your Second Amendment is under siege. Guns. Guns, guns, guns. It's under siege. And every time you have a mental disturbed person, like you had last night, and like you will have, they immediately look to the guns, like the guns pull the trigger. Well, the guns do not pull the trigger. And we are going to protect your Second Amendment 100 percent. One hundred percent.

If you look at what happened - if you look at what happened in California with the 14 people killed by two people that were radicalized, she probably radicalized him. How about this country? We can't even get the cell number. We can't open the cell. I like safety. I want security. When it comes to terrorists, we got to knock them out, folks, and we've got to knock them out and knock them out bigly (ph), big, big, bigly.

But when you look at what happened in California with the 14 people and many people in the hospital that are in very bad shape, and these were people that gave the two radicalized - the couple, this couple, so-called couple. I don't even like to call them a couple. You know what I'd like to call them. It gave this couple anniversary parties and baby parties and showers. These were people that knew them, that were friends and they went in and they just blew them away.

And then you look at Paris, where you have 130 people that were killed. Many people in hospitals gravely injured. These animals just walked in, took their guns and said bing, bing, bing, you, get over here, bing. If we would have had guns, where bullets flowed in the other direction, you wouldn't have had that big problem. It would have been much smaller.

So we're going to protect our Second Amendment. And - and it is so true. Take Paris, take California. If like - you - you're a tough cookie. This guy right here looks like an ex-pat (ph). If a couple of you - you right over there with that big, beautiful beard. If these guys - and I have to pick a woman, that's right, you, raising your hand. She's going crazy. She wants to carry a gun. But if we had a few people, right, if we had a few people with a gun on their side or a gun around their ankle so when these animals start shooting, the bullets start going the other way.

You know Paris is probably the toughest place in the world to have a gun, except if you're a bad guy then there's no problem. You just have a gun. So if we had people or if we had people in Los Angeles, would have been a whole different story, folks, would have been a whole different story. So just remember your Second Amendment with me is protected. Your borders are protected.

[14:15:03] Common Core - Common Core - Common Core is out. It's out. In the top 30 nations, with 30 being by far the worst, in the world for education, we're number 30 but we're number one in cost per pupil by a factor of like - there is no second, OK? We're number one. So we're number one in cost. We're number 30, we're last. You have Norway, Sweden, Denmark, China. You have lots of places. You have some countries you never even heard of are ahead of the USA. Not going to happen anymore, folks. We're going to get up that list. We're going to start climbing up that list.

You know, the American dream is dead, but we're going to make it bigger and stronger and better than ever before. Remember that. But - but it's very hard for a person to live the American dream without good education. So we're going to work very, very hard on that. So Common Core is out. It's dead. Common Core is dead.

We're going to bring it locally. And I've seen the local. It's unbelievable. Where the parents and the teachers and everybody, there's love in the room, and it's a beautiful thing to watch. It's a beautiful thing to watch.

You know another thing that we have to talk about, I've had tremendous support from the evangelicals and from Christians. I've had tremendous support. And, in fact, Pastor Jeffers is here right now. I don't know, Pastor Jeffers, where are you? Where - oh, come here, come here, come here, come here. I saw him. Get him over here. He has been so supportive. I didn't meet him. I've seen him on television for years. I've always liked him a lot. And one day I'm listening to him and he said, Donald Trump may not be perfect, but he's the best leader, he's the strongest guy, he's going to knock out ISIS, he's going to do great for our economy. He may not be perfect - I didn't like that, but that's OK - but he's going to be our best president. Will you come out. See if you can get him up here. I love this guy. He just - I'm just watching him and highly, highly respect him.

And also Jerry Falwell Jr. was so incredible. And since I get - and many others. The Reverend Paula White. So many others. We've had such support. We have unbelievable support from Sarah Palin. She is incredible. She's a great - she's a great person. Come on up here, Reverend. Pastor Jeffers. And is it true - I didn't know him and I love him. Say a few words.

PASTOR JEFFERS: Let me just say briefly, I know three things about Donald Trump. Number one, he sincerely loves this country. You know, he has 10 billion reasons he doesn't have to do this, but he does it because he wants to make America great again. The second thing I know about Donald Trump is that he is truly pro-

life. I have talked to him in Trump Towers. He believes in protecting the unborn. That is an issue we as Christians care about. And I'll tell you what, some of you who say, well, I don't know if his pro-life conversion was real. Let me tell you something. Hillary Clinton doesn't claim any pro-life conversion. If you go for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, there is no doubt you're going to have the most pro-abortion president in history.

But here is what I finally know about Donald Trump. Donald Trump cares about and loves evangelical Christians. You know - one time when Ronald Reagan was running for president of the United States the first time, he met with a group of evangelical leaders and he said, although you can't endorse me, I want you to know, I endorse you. And I have met - I have met with Mr. Trump on several occasions. And I can tell you from personal experience, if Donald Trump is elected president of the United States, we who are evangelical Christians are going to have a true friend in the White House.

God bless Donald Trump.

TRUMP: Wow, how about that! How about that! I'm telling you, I saw the pastor on television like a year ago and he was saying all these good things and I never met him, but I've been watching him and he was saying all these incredible things and I said, we have to meet this man. And like I just have such great respect for him. And you can see that.

[14:20:12] Thank you very much. That's really amazing. Really amazing.

And I'm going to give the pastor a little bit of a present because what I say I mean. And I think it's very important for the Christians in the room. Christianity is under siege. Every year it gets weaker and weaker and weaker. And I had a meeting with various ministers and pastors about two months ago, and I'm pretty good at figure things out. And I sat with them. And some of them said, we love you, we want to endorse you so badly, but we're afraid we're going to lose if we do that, our tax except status. And I said, what's this all about?

That takes you and it makes you less powerful than a man or woman walking up and down the street. You actually have less power. And yet if you look at it, I was talking to some - we probably have 250 million, maybe even more, in terms of people. So we have more - we have more Christians, think of this, then we have men or women in our country. And we don't have a lobby because they're afraid to have a lobby because they don't want to lose their tax status. So I am going to work like hell to get rid of that prohibition. And we're going to have the strongest Christian lobby. And it's going to happen. And it's going to happen.

This took place during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. And it has had a terrible, chilling effect. When I said that there has to be a temporary ban on certain people coming into this country, we have no choice, there's something wrong, there's something really wrong. And when I said Muslim, I was met with furor. If I would have said Christian, people would have said, oh, we can't do anything about it. That's going to end, folks. We're going to say "Merry Christmas" now on Christmas. We're going to start going to department stores and stores and you're going to see big, beautiful signs that's going to say "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holiday" and we're going to have a big, big, big lot of fun. And we're going to get rid of that. And we're going to work very hard. That's one of the first things I want to do, I want to get rid of that. And politically, if we use that power, we're going to start going up, up, up because we are being decimated. So just remember that. Just remember I said it.

Pastor, it starts here. Do you like that, what I just said? He's happy. That's the biggest smile I've ever seen on his face. I'll do it. You - and you can hold me to it, pastor, all right? You're responsible.

So, again, we're going to have a great country again. We're going to have a smart country again. We're going to have tremendous borders and tremendous strength and people are coming in but we're going to have real borders. We're going to have unbelievable trade deals. I have Carl Icahn, some of the best businesspeople in the world. We have right now political hacks negotiating these massive, massive trade deals. The biggest deals in the world, we have people that don't have the slightest clue.

We're going to get rid of Obamacare. We're going to make something great. We're going to get rid of Common Core. We're going to have local education. We're going to protect our Second Amendment. We're going to protect Christianity. We're going to be back. And, folks, I'll tell you, and it's very simple, my whole theme, and your whole theme, because we're all together, I'm just a messenger, our whole theme is make America great again. That's what's going to happen. We're going to win a lot, folks. We're going to win all the time.

Thank you very much. I love Texas. I love Texas. Get out there and vote. Get out there and vote. Thank you. Thank you.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Wow, what a day on the campaign trail. What a moment. You just heard Donald Trump speaking there live if Ft. Worth, Texas.

Let's just put this all into perspective for you. What has transpired in the last three hours, all live, right here on CNN. You have seen it. Just an hour after Marco Rubio comes out with a flurry of insults against Donald Trump at a rally, Donald Trump walks on stage in Ft. Worth, Texas, with Governor Chris Christie for a huge bombshell surprise endorsement.

[14:25:12] Let's take a moment to listen to Chris Christie. Something that just took the wind out of Marco Rubio today. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I can guarantee you that the one person that Hillary and Bill Clinton do not want to see on that stage come next September is Donald Trump. They know how to run the standard political playbook against junior senators and run them around the block. They do not know the playbook with Donald Trump because he is rewriting the playbook. He is rewriting the playbook of American politics because he's providing strong leadership that's not dependent upon the status quo. And so the best person to beat Hillary Clinton in November on that stage last night is undoubtedly Donald Trump.

And so I am thrilled to be here this morning to lend my support. I will lend my support between now and November in every way that I can for Donald to help to make this campaign an even better campaign that it's already been. And then to help him do whatever he needs to do to help to make the country everything that we want it to be for our children and grandchildren.

He's a good friend. He's a strong and resolute leader. And he is someone who is going to lead the Republican Party to victory in November over Hillary Clinton, which is the single most important thing we can do.

So I thank him for his friendship. I thank him for all the kindnesses that we've shared with each other over the years. But more importantly than that, I thank him for leaving the private sector, for seeing that there was a need for strong leadership in this country, and for being willing to step out of the private sector and come and offer himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: OK, now, remember, this endorsement for Donald Trump is very big. It also comes from a man who Trump has insulted before at rallies, on Twitter, et cetera, criticizing Governor Christie. Governor Christie comes in and says this is the man I think should be president. We're going to talk about the thinking here, the strategy, what led to this all in a moment.

But let me take you back to earlier today when Marco Rubio held a rally and, really, he held nothing back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: "Leightweight Marco Rubio was working hard last night." This is true. "The problem is, he is a chaker. And once a chaker, always a choker." I guess that's what he meant to say. He spelled choker c-h-a-k-e-r, chaker. Leightweight choker Marco Rubio looks like a little boy on stage. Not presidential material." He meant to say lightweight, but he spelled it e - l-e-i-g- h-t. So he got that wrong. Looks like a little boy on stage. It's not that I look like a little boy. I wouldn't even be the youngest president, but he would be the oldest president ever elected and it's like an eight-year term, so you start to worry. "Wow, every poll said I won the debate last night." No, this was him about himself, OK. "Great honer." I think he meant to say "great honor." I don't know how he got that wrong because the "e" and the "o" are nowhere near each other on the keyboard. "Great honer." All right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: This is a whole new level. Let's go straight to Sara Murray, who is live for us in Ft. Worth, Texas.

Sara, the crowd there, huge. The crowd cheering for Donald Trump. He actually just went after Marco Rubio as well.

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy, everything is bigger in Texas, and I guess that means endorsements and it also means insults. Take a listen to what Trump just had to say about Rubio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And let's assume it's Marco. And let's assume it's Marco. No, I agree with you, we don't want him. Boo, boo. And Putin's sitting there waiting for a kill. And he knows all about Marco because when they put Marco on to refute President Obama's speech, do you remember that catastrophe? And he's like this. And we will - huh, huh, I need water. Help me, I need water. Help. And he's doing - this is on live television. This total choke artist is refuting - and, you know, I'll tell you, you know about sports. Do I love sports. We love sports. We're athletes. So you notice in sports, almost always true, when you're a choke artist, you're always a choke artist. It doesn't really change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now, both Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz went after Donald Trump in that debate last night, as well as on the campaign trail today. But you almost would not guess it from this Donald Trump rally. He went hard after Marco Rubio and was almost kind to Ted Cruz in comparison, Poppy.

[14:30:02] HARLOW: And, Sara, can you just take us into some of the thinking here from the Christie camp about why they decided to do this endorsement for Trump and why right now.

MURRAY: Well, there are a lot of different elements here. One is that --