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President Donald Trump Speaks After Impeachment Acquittal. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired February 06, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

TRUMP: They kept it going forever. Because they wanted to inflict political pain on somebody that had just won an election that, to a lot of people, were surprised. I mean, we had polls that said we were going to win. We had Los Angeles Times and a few -- a few papers actually said it was -- we were going to win but it was going to be close.

And we did win. It was one of the greatest wins of all time. And they said "OK, he won." And, you know, I wrote this down because that was where a thing called the insurance policy -- to me, when I saw the insurance policy -- and that was done long before the election, that was done when they thought that Hillary Clinton was going to win.

And by the way, Hillary Clinton and the DNC paid for millions -- millions of dollars, the fake dossier, and now Christopher Steele admits that it's a fake because he got sued by rich people. I should've sued him, too, but when you're president, people don't like suing.

I want to thank my legal team, by the way, not for that advice but for...

(LAUGHTER)

... other advice.

(APPLAUSE)

Pat, Jay, Pat, you guys, stand up, please.

(APPLAUSE)

Great job. Right at the beginning, they said "Sir, you have nothing to worry about. All of the facts are on your side." I said, "You don't understand, that doesn't matter -- that doesn't matter" and that was really true.

They made up facts. A corrupt politician named Adam Schiff made up my statement to the Ukrainian president. He brought it out of thin air, just made it up. They say, "He's a screenwriter -- a failed screenwriter. He tried to go in" -- unfortunately he went into politics after that. (LAUGHTER)

Remember, he said the statement, which is a mob statement, "Don't call me, I'll call you." I didn't say that.

Fortunately, for all of us here today and for our country, we had transcripts, we had transcribers -- professional transcribers.

Then they said "Oh, well maybe the transcription is -- is not correct." But Lieutenant Colonel Vindman and his twin brother -- right -- we had some people that -- really amazing. But we did everything. We said "What's wrong with it?" "Well, they didn't add this word or that one." Didn't matter. I said "Add it. They're probably wrong but add it."

So now everyone agrees that they were perfectly accurate. When you read those transcripts -- Tim Scott -- I don't know if Tim's here but he said "Sir" -- he's the first one to call me -- "Sir, I read the transcript. You did nothing wrong." And Mitch, he stayed there right from the beginning, he never changed.

And Mitch McConnell, I want to tell you, you did a fantastic job.

(APPLAUSE)

Somebody said "You know, Mitch is quiet." And I said "He's not quiet."

(LAUGHTER)

"He's not quiet." These are the -- he doesn't want people to know him.

And they said "Is Mitch smart?" I said "Well, let's put it this way, for many, many years, a lot of very smart, bad in many cases, sometimes good -- but people have been trying to take his place and to the best of my knowledge I've never even heard the subject come up because they've been wiped out so fast."

(LAUGHTER)

"This guy is great." And I appreciate it, Mitch. And he's also given us 191 now.

(APPLAUSE)

191 federal judges, two Supreme Court judges, right? We're up to 191.

(APPLAUSE)

Great guy. Great guy. He's a tough guy to read. I'm good at reading people, tough guy to read. I'd call him -- my wife would say "How'd you do with Mitch?" "I don't know."

(LAUGHTER)

That's what makes him good, when you can read somebody. Fantastic job.

And he understood rightfully this was crooked politics -- this was crooked politics.

TRUMP: How about all of these people? They're running for office, they're saying the worst things about me, like, eight senators on the Democrat side. Most of them got wiped out. You know, they got their 1 percent or less; most of them got less. They decided to go home. "Let's go back to California, let's go back to wherever they came from, let's go back to New York." How about that one?

[12:35:00]

Our New York senator, Gillibrand. "Let's go back to New York," after they get nothing. And then they take an oath that they will be fair, that they will be reason (ph) -- all of the different things. Then they had a sign. They're not fair.

But here's the beauty: So we have four left. They're saying the most horrendous things about me. It's OK. It's politics. And then they're supposed to vote on me! They're trying to replace me, and then they're supposed to be voting. So I think it's -- I mean, I think it's incredible.

But -- so Mitch, I want to thank you very much -- incredible. And you have some of your folks here, and they're incredible people, and they've been great from the beginning.

And again, you're out of session, unfortunately. I didn't -- you know, I only told these folks, "Let's do this today."

We did a prayer breakfast this morning and I thought that was really good. In fact, that was so good, it might wipe this out. But by the end, by the time we finish, this will wipe that one out, those statements.

(LAUGHTER)

I had -- I had Nancy Pelosi sitting four seats away, and I'm saying things that a lot of people wouldn't have said, but I meant every...

(LAUGHTER)

I meant every word of it.

But we have some of the folks that are going to be leaving right after this, and they work hard, and they did work hard.

Bill Cassidy, senator. Stand up, Bill. What a guy.

(APPLAUSE)

Great man. When I need to know about health insurance and pre-existing conditions and individual mandates, I call Bill or I call Barrasso. Then we get -- those two guys, they know more than anybody.

A man who just became a senator -- he's a little bit like me. We have a couple of them. Very successful guy in business, and he said, "What the hell? I'll run for the Senate from Indiana." And he ran, and I saw him on television destroying his opponent in a debate. I said, "You know, this guy could win," and I got behind him. And Mike Braun, you have done some great job. Thank you very much.

(APPLAUSE)

Tough! Tough! Thank you.

A man who got James Comey to choke, and he was just talking in his regular voice. He's the roughest man. He's actually a -- unbelievable, and I appreciate the letter you sent me today. I just got it. But he's got this voice that scares people.

(LAUGHTER)

You know, people from Iowa can be very tough. We're doing very well in Iowa. But I'll tell you, Chuck Grassley, he's looking at Comey -- "Well, you tell me, what did you say?"

(LAUGHTER)

Now, he wasn't being rough. That was just the way he talked.

(LAUGHTER)

And that was when Comey -- I think that was when Comey announced that he was leaking, lying and everything else, right? He choked because he never heard anybody talk like that.

(LAUGHTER)

You know, you should have gone -- if -- I wish you got angry. You could have gotten the whole ball game. He would have said, "I give up!"

Chuck Grassley is an incredible guy.

(APPLAUSE)

And a man who -- you know, he was running against a tough, smart campaigner. We learned how good she was, right? She was a great campaigner. In fact, by the end of the campaign she was actually -- I thought she was more for me than you were, Josh. I was worried.

(LAUGHTER)

I saw her ads. She was saying the greatest things about me. And you know who I'm talking about. And I went to a great place, Missouri, and I said, "Who do you have to beat her?" And they said, "Well, we have four people." I said, "Let me see them. I've got to interview..." Can you imagine? I'm interviewing people for the United States Senate. This is what I do. Where have I gone? But I love it. I love it because we're getting great people.

The first one I met was Josh Hawley. After about 10 minutes I said to the people, "Don't show me anybody else. This is the guy." He was the attorney general; did a phenomenal job in the state, highly respected. And Claire McCaskill -- so, the theory was you couldn't beat her. Great campaigner. Remember the last campaign, she was going be taken -- she was always going to be taken out, then she wins, and people say, "How did that happen?" It didn't happen with him.

But she got so friendly toward me -- in fact, one of the ads I still have. I'm putting it in the archives as one of the best ads I've ever made.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: And she tried to convince people that we were best friends. But Josh ended up winning by five or six points.

[12:40:00]

You were unbelievable, you were tough and you are something.

And one of the greatest supports on the impeachment hoax was Josh Hawley. He was incensed, actually, I watched him. He was incensed at what they were going and what they were saying, and those were the ones.

You know, I had some that said, "Oh, I wish you didn't make the call." And that's OK, if they need that. It's incorrect. It's totally incorrect.

And then you have some that used religion as a crutch. They never used it before. An article written today, never heard him use it before. But today, you know, it's one of those things.

But, you know, it's a failed presidential candidate, so things can happen when you fail so badly running for president.

But, Josh Hawley, I want to thank you. You were right from the beginning. Man, did I make a good choice.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you, Josh. Tremendous future.

A man who is brilliant and who actually was deceived to an extent, comes from a great state, Utah, where my poll numbers have gone through the roof. And one of the senators' poll numbers -- and not this one -- went down big, you saw that.

You saw that, Mike?

But Mike Lee is a brilliant guy. He's difficult.

(LAUGHTER)

Whenever I sign bills -- you know, we do sign a lot of legislation that's -- it's big and it's powerful, but it's sort of everybody has to approve it. And I see 99 to one, 99 to one. I say, "Don't tell me who's the one."

(LAUGHTER)

"Is it Mike?"

"Yes."

(LAUGHTER)

And he always has a good reason for it, too, by the way. But he is, he's incredible. And right at the beginning, he knew we were right, Mike. And I appreciate it very much. It's just fantastic.

And say hello to the people of Utah. And tell them, "I'm sorry about Mitt Romney. I'm sorry." OK?

(APPLAUSE)

We can say that Mike Lee is by far the most popular senator from the state.

But you've done a fantastic job, Mike, I -- in many ways, in many ways.

A young woman who I didn't know at all, but she's been so supportive. And I've had great support from other people in that state. And she's been so supportive and she's been downright nasty and mean about the unfairness to the president. And, Kelly Loeffler, I appreciate very much.

Thank you. Good (ph).

(APPLAUSE)

She saw it very early on.

And we have -- I don't know if we have other senators here, but we've got a hell of a lot of congressmen. I'll go over them quickly, but they have -- they have also been -- you know, it helped when we won 197 to nothing.

That's got to be a first, Kevin (ph), right? Is that like a first?

The Republicans have this image. See, I say Democrats are lousy politicians because they have lousy policy. Open borders, sanctuary cities, they have horrible policy. Who the hell can win?

Oh, their new policy is raise taxes. They want to raise taxes. You know, all my life, I wasn't in politics but I'd say, if you're a politician, you want to say, "We're going to lower taxes." They want to raise taxes.

So they have open borders, sanctuary cities, raise everybody's taxes, get rid of everybody's health care -- 180 million people in the United States -- and they're really happy. And we're going to give you health care that's going to cost more money than the country could make in 30 years if it really does well. That's one year. So I've always said they're lousy politicians, but they do two things. They're vicious and mean -- vicious, these people are vicious. Adam Schiff is a vicious, horrible person. Nancy Pelosi is a horrible person. And she wanted to impeach a long time ago. When she said, "I pray for the president, I pray for the" -- she doesn't pray. She may pray, but she prays for the opposite.

(LAUGHTER)

But I doubt she prays at all.

And these are vicious people. But they do two things: They stick together -- historically, I'm not talking now -- they stick together like glue. That's how they impeached, because they had whatever the number is, 220 people. So they don't lose anybody, they'll be able to impeach anybody. You could be George Washington, you could have just won the war and they'd say, "Let's get him out of office."

TRUMP: And they stuck together, and they're vicious as hell. And they'll probably come back for more. But maybe not because the Republican Party's poll numbers, Mitch (ph), have now gone up more than any time, I think, since 2004, 2005. And you know what happened then.

[12:45:00]

But in normal times, decades, you would call it. That was a little unusual time. It was for a very short period.

The Republican Party's poll numbers and Donald Trump's poll numbers are the highest I've ever had that.

(APPLAUSE)

So maybe they were.

(APPLAUSE)

It's no way to get your poll numbers up. It's not worth it.

Because, from my family's standpoint, it's been very unfair for my family. It's been very unfair to the country. Think of it. A phone call, a very good phone call. I know bad phone calls. This is a phone call where many people -- I think Mike Pompeo was probably on the call. Where's Mike?

Mike Pompeo was on the call. Many people were on the call. I know that many people -- they even have apprenti -- bringing up an old favorite word of mine, "The Apprentice" -- they have apprenti; they have people on these calls.

And I know there are many -- when I speak to the head of a nation -- and they have many people on. I mean, all of a sudden, do you think they just -- in the case of Ukraine, he's a new president; he seems like a very nice person, by the way. His whole thing was corruption. He's going to stop corruption. We even have a treaty, 2001, 1999 (ph). It's a treaty, a signed treaty that we will work together to root out corruption in Ukraine.

I probably have a legal obligation, Mr. Attorney, to report corruption. But they don't think it's corrupt when a son that made no money, that got thrown out of the military, that had no money at all, is working for $3 million up front, $83,000 a month. And that's only Ukraine; then goes to China, picks up $1.5 billion; then goes to Romania, I hear, and many other countries.

They think that's OK. Because, if it is -- is Ivanka in the audience? Is Ivanka here?

Boy, my kids could make a fortune.

(LAUGHTER)

They could make a fortune.

It's corrupt. But it's not even that; it's just general corruption.

And the other thing, as mentioned in the call, and something that I've told Mike Pence, our great vice president -- I would tell him all the time, and I told him when he went on the trip, because he was over there. He never mentioned anything about this, when you had your meeting. It's a terrible thing. But I told Mike -- I said, "Mike, we're giving them money and, you know, you're always torn about that because we have our country to build; we have our cities to build and our roads to fix. But we are giving the money. Tell me, why isn't Germany paying money? Why isn't France? Why isn't United Kingdom paying money? Why aren't they paying money? Why are we paying the money?"

Is that a correct statement, Mike?

I say, "Find out what the hell is going on." And I told that to all of my people, OMB. I said -- I asked that question, "How much is Germany paying? Why isn't Germany paying? Why is the United States always the sucker?"

Because we're a bunch of suckers. But that's turning around fast. But it makes it harder when stuff like this happens. Because you want to focus, and you want to focus perfectly.

Think what we could have done if the same energy was put into infrastructure, prescription drug prices. Think of what we could have done. And I'm now talking both sides. Think of what we could have done if we had the same genius -- because it's genius. I will say, it's genius on the other side -- maybe even more so, because they took nothing and brought me to a final vote of impeachment.

That's a very ugly word to me. It's a very dark word, very ugly. They took nothing. They took a phone call that was a totally appropriate call -- I call it a perfect call, because it was -- and they brought me to the final stages of impeachment.

But now we have that gorgeous word. I never thought a word would sound so good. It's called, "total acquittal." (APPLAUSE)

"Total acquittal."

(APPLAUSE)

So -- so I want to, if I could, real fast, just introduce a few of the people. I have to start with -- I have to start with Kevin.

Man, did you do a job. Lucky you're there. Lucky you're there. Because it wouldn't have worked out -- if you don't have the right people. I'll tell you, Kevin McCarthy has done an incredible job.

(APPLAUSE)

And he loves his job. And he loves his country.

[12:50:00]

TRUMP: I'll tell you what, Mitch and Kevin, they love what they do.

Now, Mitch wouldn't even tell you he liked it.

(LAUGHTER)

I'd say "Mitch, do you like it?" "I don't know."

(LAUGHTER)

It's -- he's the greatest poker player, right? Kevin will say "I love it," right? And I will say that you're going to be Speaker of the House because of this impeachment hoax. I really believe it -- I really believe it and I'm going to work hard on it.

(APPLAUSE)

I'm going to try and get out to those Trump -- those Trump areas that we won by a lot. And you know, in '18, we didn't win -- we just won two seats in North Carolina -- two wonderful seats in North Carolina that were not supposed to be won but I went and I made speeches and we had rallies and we did a great job and we won. We took two seats, nobody writes about that. If we lost, it would've been the biggest story of the year.

But we're going to go, we're going to do a job and we're going to win a lot of seats -- we're going to win a lot of seats. People are very angry that Nancy Pelosi and all of these guys -- I mean, Nadler, I know him much of my life, he's fought me in New York for 25 years, I always beat him and I had to beat him another time and I'll probably have to beat him again because if they find that I happen to walk across the street and maybe go against a light or something, "let's impeach him."

(LAUGHTER)

So we'll probably have to do it again because these people have gone stone cold crazy. But I've beaten them all my life and I'll beat them again if I have to. But what they're doing is very unfair -- it's very unfair.

(APPLAUSE)

So Kevin McCarthy has been great. So a few names, right? And there'll be a few you forget. If you want, you can raise and I'll say "great, love to have you, wonderful." But we're going to do the best we can and I have my Cabinet but the Cabinet is different, I appoint them, OK? I didn't see all of them helping so much. You know, they were running their -- their various bureaucracies, right?

No, my Cabinet's great and they're all here but today is the date to celebrate these great warriors, right? These are great warriors, they really fought hard for us. And so I'll start. Kelly Armstrong, North Dakota. Kelly, thank you, great job.

(APPLAUSE)

Great job. Jim Banks of Indiana. Jim, thank you, Jim.

(APPLAUSE)

Andy Biggs -- where's Andy? Boy, oh, boy, Andy, he got...

(APPLAUSE)

There's a guy -- he's tough. I hear we're doing well in Arizona, huh? It's going good, yeah? I think so. I think I saw a poll that was very good for me.

(LAUGHTER)

I think we have to make sure -- Martha's going to do -- I think Martha's going to do good but we have some states that are going to be not easy but Arizona's been great and we're stopping illegal aliens from coming in, we're putting up walls.

New Mexico, too, a state that's never been in play for Republicans is totally in play, right? Nevada's really looking good. We're -- we're doing well -- we're doing well. We're going to have a great -- there's more spirit -- I will say this, there's more spirit now for the Republican Party by far than the Democrats.

You know, Mike Pence just got back from a place -- a beautiful place that Chuck Grassley knows well, Iowa, and he was talking about this fiasco -- the Democrats. They can't count some simple votes and yet they want to take over your health care system. Think of that -- no, think of that.

But we also had an election out there and we got 98 percent of the vote. We have two people running, you know, and I guess to consider them non-people but they are running. I mean, one was a governor, one was a Congressman. They're running. We've got 98 percent of the vote.

And everybody from the media was saying "who are those crowds over there?" You know, they expect it to be one of these competitive where everybody's running cause they want to win -- they want to win, and it was Trump. Right, Mark Meadows? It was Trump. This was a Trump crowd.

And a lot of -- actually, a lot of my guys went there, they went to Iowa and a lot of friends went there and we had tremendous -- they say the spirit -- the spirit for the Republican Party right now is stronger, I think, than it's ever been in the history of our country. I think it's stronger than it's ever been.

(APPLAUSE)

And that includes Honest Abe Lincoln. You know, a lot of people forget Abe Lincoln -- I wish he were here, I'd give him one hell of an introduction, right?

(LAUGHTER)

But he was -- he was a Republican. I -- Abe Lincoln, Honest Abe. Bradley Byrne, Alabama, what a great place. Thank you, Bradley.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: A man who has been a -- an unbelievable friend of mine and spokesman and somebody that -- that I really like. And I know, Kelly, you're going to end up liking him a lot.

[12:55:00]

Something's going to happen that's going to be very good. I don't know. I haven't figured it out yet. But Doug Collins, where is he? Where is Doug?

(APPLAUSE)

You have been so great. Thank you very much, Doug. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. Really amazing job.

A young man who is born with a great gene, because I know his father and how great a politician he was, but he's from Florida, sometimes controversial, but actually, he's not controversial. He's solid as a rock and he's a friend of mine, Matt Gaetz. Matt?

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you, Matt. Thank you. Great job.

All right. This guy. So he's the NCAA -- meaning a couple of years ago when he was in college -- wrestling champion, NCAA. That's the big deal. That means in all of college you're the champ. You're the best. His record was ridiculous. Nobody would -- nobody could beat him. And I see it. You know, every time, I see it. When I first got to know him, Jim Jordan, when I first got to know Jim I said, "Huh, he never wears a jacket."

(LAUGHTER) What the hell's going on?" He's obviously very proud of his body.

(LAUGHTER)

And they say where he works out, you know, where the congressmen, senators, they work at. They say, "When Jim works out, even though he's not as young as he was, but they -- he works out -- the machine starts burning." You know, it's a different form of a workout than us, right, Sonny? And -- there he is. Look at that guy.

(LAUGHTER)

But one day I'm looking, and he looks tough, and I'm looking -- and I'm looking at those ears, and I say, "Those ears have something going on there."

(LAUGHTER)

I said, "Did you ever wrestle?" "Yeah, I did." But he doesn't talk, but I checked. This guy was a world -- this guy was a champion, top, top wrestler. And when I had the top -- I had all of the teams. And by the way, your Super Bowl champions are coming, I think next week, or soon, very soon, and they -- every one of them want to be here.

(LAUGHTER)

And the coach loves us. The coach is great, Andy Reid. And every one of them want to be here. We have -- people love it. But we had all of the NCAA championship teams here. They had the golf, the basketball, the -- they had every team here, and one of the teams was wrestling, the wrestling team. Was that Penn State? And Penn State won the title. They have a great team. And I walked up with Jim, and it's like I didn't exist.

(LAUGHTER)

Those wrestlers, they grabbed him. They love Jim Jordan, and we love you too, because you are some warrior.

(APPLAUSE)

(inaudible).

A woman who became a -- so we have a couple of women that became stars -- you two. And I always liked the name of her -- you know, I liked the name Lesko. I liked it. That's how I picked it. I liked the name. I saw that face, I saw that everything. They gave me cards. She had, like, seven opponents, right? And you have no idea how much the public appreciates how smart, how sharp you are. This, I can't tell. I can't tell. They just said, "You know, she's really good. She's really talented." I said, "Let's go." We worked with her. She won her race -- tough race. It's no longer tough because what she does out there is -- is incredible. Arizona loves her. But you were so incredible representing -- I don't say me -- representing our country and getting it out of this impeachment hoax. What you did was incredible.

So Debbie, please stand up. Debbie Lesko.

(APPLAUSE)

A man who I became very friendly with. I don't know why. Do you ever have where -- I'll ask the media -- certain people call, you take their calls; other people call -- if they don't have information, they won't take anybody's call. But other people call, and you don't.

This is a guy -- he just -- he's just a very special guy. His wife, I actually like better than him, to be honest.

(LAUGHTER)

Because he doesn't know that I know that he didn't actually support me right from the beginning, but she did.

(LAUGHTER)

And on my worst day -- right? On my worst day, my worst -- I won't tell you why it was my worst, but it was not one of those good days. She got on a bus, got many other buses and women all over North Carolina, and they toured North Carolina.

Well, Mark was back -- sort of semi-supporting another candidate, which he ended up leaving very quickly.

[13:00:00]

END