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Isa Soares Tonight
Trump to Hold News Conference at Mar-a-Lago; VP Harris and Governor Walz Campaigns in Detroit; Trump Addresses Media from Mar-a-Lago and Proposes Two Debates with Kamala and One for VPs; Aired 1:45-3p ET
Aired August 08, 2024 - 13:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:45:00]
ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Hello and a very warm welcome, everyone. I'm Isa Soares.
We are beginning, as you can see, the show earlier today, some 50 minutes or so, because at any moment we expect former U.S. president and Republican
presidential nominee, Donald Trump, to hold a news conference at his Mar-a- Lago compound in Florida. As you can see there, the podium is set, is ready. We expect to hear from him shortly.
Now, Mr. Trump has been absent from the campaign trail this week, sending running mate, J. D. Vance, to shadow the Democratic ticket in the
battleground states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and Michigan. We saw that happen live. We took a live at this time yesterday if you were joining us.
Well, his week has been marked by a much talked about appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention and a rally in Georgia
where he raised eyebrows within his own party by reigniting a feud with the state's Republican governor, even taking a verbal shot at Brian Kemp's
wife.
Meantime, Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz are once again campaigning in Detroit as they try to shore up support for the Democrats
among autoworkers in the state.
And while we stand for that press conference, the start of that press conference or news conference, I want to turn to our panel, CNN Senior
Politics Reporter Stephen Collison, Joe , a former U.S. congressman, a member of Republicans for Harris, and Democratic strategist Mark
Longabaugh. He's a former senior strategist on Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign. All faces that you recognize here on the show.
Gentlemen, great to have you this evening. We are keeping an eye on that press conference. Apologies if I interrupt you in advance. But, Stephen,
let's start with this, what we can expect. Because we do not know if this is a news conference, this is a remark. We know he's called a news
conference, but often he calls it a news conference, but just remarks. We don't know where we can take questions from journalists. Just talk us
through what we can expect here.
STEPHEN COLLISON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Well, you're right. We never know what we're going to get with Donald Trump. I think a couple of
things to look out for, ever since there was this explosion of enthusiasm for the new Democratic ticket, the former president has seemed a little
distracted and unfocused. He hasn't really hit on a good way to attack Vice President Harris and her new running mate, Tim Walz.
J. D. Vance, the vice-presidential nominee, as you were speaking about yesterday, actually did launch quite a forensic attack on Harris, calling
her extremely left-wing, and the economic questions that are very important in the Midwest. So, can the former president emulate that?
Secondly, there's a lot of talk about whether he will reverse himself and actually agree to do a debate with Kamala Harris that he was supposed to do
with Joe Biden on ABC News. Then he said he was only willing to talk on Fox. Now, we're looking to see whether the former president is willing to
go to a debate on one of the big U.S. national TV networks. I think there's a growing sense that given the momentum of the Democrats, this is a debate
he probably needs to take on.
SOARES: And, Mark, on that. I mean, the Trump campaign, we heard J. D. Vance talking about this yesterday, has really been hammering the vice
president for that point exactly, for not holding any press conference. I want to play that if we have that sound. Let's just listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JD VANCE (R-OH), REPUBLICAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Hey guys, how are you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good.
VANCE: I just wanted to check out my future plane, but I also wanted to go say hello to the vice president and ask her why Kamala Harris refuses --
why does she refuse to answer questions from the media? And I also thought that the press gaggle following her might get a little lonely.
I at least have enough respect for you all and for the American people you report to, to come and talk to you, and to answer some questions. And so, I
thought her reporters might actually benefit from that as well. So, had a little bit of fun I don't think the vice president waved at me as she drove
away, but I'm glad to have done it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: And we've heard this twice or so, yesterday, I think, early in the day, he had said, you know, she only uses an autocue, she doesn't take
questions from journalists. Does she need to do that? Does she need to take questions from reporters, Mark?
MARK LONGABAUGH, U.S. DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Sure. And I'm sure at the appropriate time, she will. But I mean, listen, the stunt by Vance
yesterday was kind of juvenile.
SOARES: Yes.
LONGABAUGH: And I think it just demonstrates, you know, sort of his weakness on this ticket. But look, I mean, Donald Trump isn't anyone to
talk. I mean, you know, we're sitting here waiting for him to come out at Mar-a-Lago. Heaven knows what he'll say. But he hasn't had a press
conference since the courtroom drama earlier in the summer. So, I think it's a bunch of nonsense, mostly.
SOARES: Joe, I mean, how do you frame this moment? I think this probably has something to do with it. We have some CNN polls to show our viewers.
CNN poll of polls showed pretty marked difference, I think it's fair to say, in the Harris numbers. How concerned do you think the Trump team are
right now given the momentum that they have?
JOE WALSH (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Oh, I think they're concerned. I think they're angry. I think they're pissed off. I think they're
confused. I think they're scared to death.
[13:50:00]
The last place in the world I'd want to be right now is working on the Trump campaign. They didn't think they'd have a candidate. They thought
they were going to run against 81-year-old Joe Biden. And 18 days later, oh, my God, they have an opponent who's drawing thousands and thousands of
people at rallies.
So, that combined with the fact that she's getting a lot of attention, she's in the news every single day, Donald Trump wants to put his mug back
in the news. But mostly, he's confused and angry because now he actually has to campaign.
SOARES: And, Mark, I suspect on that point, that Joe just made there, that Trump will take this opportunity, I assume, given what we've heard from J.
D. Vance just in the last 24 hours, he's going to try to attempt to define Harris and Walz before voters critically make up their minds.
Already we've heard both of them, right? We've heard them both say that Tim Walz, I think he said is -- was a crazy radical, comes from the far-left of
the Democratic Party. I think he said that Kamala bends the knee to the far-left, also attacking Walz's military record. How should Democrats
respond? How should they attack this criticism?
LONGABAUGH: Well, I mean, I think several things. One, you start by having a strong affirmative message. And when we spoke the other day, one of the
things that I was talking about is the need for Harris and Walz to have a populist economic agenda, especially in those blue wall states in the upper
Midwest.
This race is really, at the end of the day, still going to come down to working class voters. And I think Harris has got to lean into her record,
both of us as an attorney general and as vice president and lay out an agenda for the future. So, I think that's one thing you've got to do.
The second thing is you've got to rebut these charges. I mean, this is absurd. The attack on Walz, it reminds me of the swift boat veterans from
years ago. And it's no coincidence that LaCivita is inside the Trump camp, was the architect of that campaign. So, I think you've got to be swift and
knocking that down.
But on that front, I would just say the Republicans better be pretty careful. I mean, Donald Trump himself had five deferments during the
Vietnam era and once for bone spurs. I mean, it's not as exactly as if the GOP has someone at the top of the ticket who served their country.
SOARES: We are going to take a short break. We're going to come back. Stephen, I'll come back to you when -- apologies. We haven't got to you.
We're going to try and get a break in before we potentially hear from Donald Trump. We don't know if he's going to be on time. We'll see you on
the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:55:00]
SOARES: Welcome, everyone. We are keeping, as you can see, an eye on Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago compound in Florida. Any moment now, the former
president is set to hold a news conference there. Of course, we'll bring that to you as soon as it happens.
I want to go back to our panel that we were talking to in just the last few minutes. CNN senior politics reporter Stephen Collinson, Joe Walsh, U.S. --
former U.S. Congressman and a member for Republic of Republicans for Harris, and Democratic strategist Mark Longabaugh. He's a former senior
strategist on Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign.
And, Stephen, let me pick up with you. I mean, we don't know -- like you were saying, we don't know what to expect, but just speak to the timing of
this because yesterday, I think it was Wisconsin, we saw J. D. Vance, and we've seen J. D. Vance pretty much solo for the last few days. Why isn't
Donald Trump, you know, going to these campaign rallies with him? Why is that?
COLLISON: And it's a good question. The only real event that he has scheduled is a rally in Montana, which is a deep red Republican state
that's not going to be influential in this election.
I think presidential election campaigns are defined by big moments and it feels like we're in the middle of one of those with an energetic new
Democratic candidate and vice-presidential nominee and an imperative for the Republicans to step back and really think about how they're going to
take this on. Donald Trump has now been in the presidential politics game for a decade.
There have been many occasions when it looks like he was fading and he's been able to resuscitate his campaign to push out a new profile to his
voters, to inject energy. And I think this is one of those moments. Does Trump have the energy to pursue a much younger Democratic rival through
those swing states for 90 days and an exhausting sprint? Is he prepared to do that? That is a big question.
He's made this campaign about himself and his grievances. At this point, he really has to offer those swing voters in those states that are going to
decide this election, I think a more positive vision to counter what the Democrats are now putting out there.
SOARES: And, Joe, I mean, we don't know what he's going to say or the tone. We know that often these remarks are kind of long diatribe attacks,
of course, on the Democrats. But it perhaps could suggest they recognize -- the Republican Party recognizes the momentum right now behind Harris and
Walz. And perhaps they want to try to disrupt that.
[13:59:57]
In fact, on that, we've heard today from watching -- from Donald Trump speaking to the "Washington Post", I'm going to read you what he says, Joe,
that he's grown increasingly upset about Harris' surging poll numbers and media coverage since replacing Biden on the ticket, complaining relentless
and asking friends about how his campaign is performing. In fact, on that, we've heard today from watching -- from Donald Trump speaking to the "Washington Post", I'm going to read you what he says, Joe,
that he's grown increasingly upset about Harris' surging poll numbers and media coverage since replacing Biden on the ticket, complaining relentless
and asking friends about how his campaign is performing.
Adding that he told an ally, it's unfair that I beat him, and now I have to beat her too. I mean, how do they turn this around? Is this it? Can this
press conference, news conference do that?
WALSH: No, he can't. He's losing. Now, I think -- I think Trump is an idiot, so he may not realize he's losing, but the people around him
understand he's losing. And to Stephen's point, Stephen is correct. Trump should use this time today to present a positive vision, right, about what
Trump and Vance will do if elected.
But he's utterly incapable of that. So, I expect working it here, 45 minutes of complaining and whining and moaning about how he's being treated
and how Kamala Harris is being treated, about how, you know, all the enthusiasm and the fake crowds and how the media won't treat her as tough
as they treat him. And then he'll go after her in a negative fashion. That's all he's capable of.
SOARES: Mark, what do you think we'll hear from them today? I mean, from him today. It is the first time we're hearing from -- for some time, we've
heard from J.D. Vance. What do you think besides, you know, the kind of long diatribes perhaps that we might hear? What do you think we'll hear
from him, and we will -- just a clarity for our viewers. We will be fact- checking him thoroughly here.
LONGABAUGH: Well, to be very honest, he's hard to predict. I mean --
SOARES: Yes --
LONGABAUGH: Who knows which Donald Trump is going to show up. I mean, but clearly, as the congressman pointed out, over the last couple of weeks, he
clearly has been off balance. He and Vance, both have been -- they've got a completely different race than they expected.
And he's also demonstrated, you know, there was a lot of talk in the early Summer and as they went into the convention about how there was a new
disciplined Trump. Well, that disciplined Trump disappeared when Kamala Harris came on the ticket. And I think they're flailing around.
I mean, I can only guess he's going to come with the attacks. He's going to attack as they've telegraphed, Harris says illiberal, and there, you know,
he may make -- he may make -- I think it's a huge mistake on his part. But he may try and attack Walz's military service -- distinguished military
service, I want to say. So, I -- beyond that, I have no idea what he'll do.
SOARES: Oh, just on that. Let me -- let me pick up or just on that, and you can answer this pickup, your thought as well is, how much will the
attacking -- as a liberal, how much does that resonate with voters? Do voters care about that?
WALSH: Yes, they do. Sadly, they do. Let me disagree with Mark on just one --
SOARES: Yes --
WALSH: Thing. I don't think Trump is difficult to predict. I -- because all Donald Trump cares about and all he will speak about today is himself.
And he'll complain about how he's being treated. The quote you read a little bit ago, how unfair --
SOARES: Yes --
WALSH: It is, now he's going to have to beat two Democrats. He'll complain about where things are, and he'll get negative about Kamala Harris. Again,
that's all he's really capable of doing. It will all be about him, me --
SOARES: It sounds -- it sounds a bit like my kids, my brother got two sweets, I only have one kind of comment that I get from my kids often. But
Stephen, you and I have had this conversation yesterday, because not only are such different personalities on both sides, but such different
campaign.
And you know, we saw formerly -- I think it's fair to say, depress party now, very much re-energize on the Democratic side, and reminds me of your
first-line of your article yesterday where you said Kamala Harris and Tim Walz want to make America joyful again.
The chemistry that we have seen between them is visible, that is not the case between Trump and J.D. Vance. Not only are we not seeing them
together, but that chemistry is not there. How visible is that for voters, do they care? Do they sense this?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: I don't think it's necessarily that important. I think voters tend to vote for the top of the
ticket, but at the same time, the impression that is being displayed by Harris and Walz is of a younger campaign, has got a lot of energy, a lot of
exuberance and has a clear idea of where it's going.
[14:05:00]
That is not the case with the Trump campaign. J.D. Vance, I think did a pretty good job as a matter of political business, despite saying quite a
few things that weren't very true yesterday, when he at least tried to prosecute the case on the economy, on inflation and high prices, and what
Republicans see as immigration crisis at the southern border when he was out there on the trail.
The problem is that he's getting no backup from the guy at the top of the ticket who is supposed to be the premier person who is carrying the
message. To the point that this was just made, Trump has made this campaign about himself. He has claimed that he's being persecuted by the Biden
administration, by the legal authorities.
And he's standing up to prevent that happening to other Americans. I don't think that --
SOARES: Yes --
COLLINSON: Campaign rationale is quite so strong when you're facing a younger Democratic ticket, fresh faces that are selling optimism after a
very dark period in American history. The question is, is that message that the Democrats are offering? Does that really gel with what swing voters who
have had a tough time, particularly economically in some of those Midwestern states, is that what they're thinking?
But it clearly has wrong-footed the Trump campaign and the former President, especially himself, because as we've seen, he tends to look
through things, through his own sometimes selfish, personal lens.
SOARES: And just for viewers who are watching -- who are just joining us, we are waiting to hear from former President Donald Trump, you see there in
Palm Beach, Florida. He said there was going to be a news conference. We are waiting for that to happen. We do not know how long this will be, what
kind of form that would take, whether he will take questions.
We are waiting for that to happen. But Joe, let me just pick up with where Stephen just left off. I mean, we have heard -- seen that energy from the
Democrats in the last few days, just Wisconsin yesterday. Have they in your view focused on the policies here, because Stephen and I were talking about
how there is this energy there, but actually, this is honeymoon period after a few days, you need to hit the key policy issues, be economy, be --
you know, be immigration. Do you think they've done that or is that too soon? Is this still a question of introducing Walz to Americans?
WALSH: Yes, it's right now, it's riding the vibe. They've got a hell of a vibe going. They are presenting a -- they're happy warriors. And every
American who's paying attention can get -- can see that and see how that differs from Trump and Vance who are campaigning with scowls on their
faces.
They'll get into policy. We're two weeks away from their convention. Kamala Harris will present an economic vision at the --
SOARES: Joe, apologies, I'm going to interrupt, let's listen in.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Just a statement before I talk about debates. I think that our country is right now in the
most dangerous position it's ever been in from an economic standpoint, from a safety standpoint. Both gangs on the street and frankly gangs outside of
our country in the form of other countries that are frankly very powerful.
They're very powerful countries and we don't know what we're doing. We have leadership that has no clue. How to handle them or how to handle any other
situation. We have a -- we have a lot of bad things coming up. You could end up in a depression of the 1929 variety, which would be a devastating
thing, took many years, took decades to recover from it.
And we're very close to that, and we're very close to a world war. In my opinion, we're very close to a world war. We have people that don't know
how to handle it, they're not respected all over the world. They're left at, then we can't have that. Most dangerous period of time I've ever seen
for our country.
With that being said, we have somebody that hasn't received one vote for President and she's running, and that's fine with me. But we were given Joe
Biden, and now we're given somebody else. And I think frankly, I'd rather be running against somebody else, but that was their choice.
They decided to do that, because Kamala's record is horrible. She's a radical left person at a level that nobody's seen. She picked a radical
left man that is -- he's got things done that he has positions that are just not -- it's not even possible to believe that they exist.
He's going for things that nobody's ever even heard of. Heavy into the transgender world, heavy into lots of different worlds, having to do with
safety, he doesn't want to have borders, he doesn't want to have walls.
[14:10:00]
He doesn't want to have any form of safety for our country. He doesn't mind people coming in from prisons and neither does she, I guess, because he's
not -- she couldn't care less. She's the border czar -- by the way, she was the border czar a 100 percent, and all of a sudden for the last few weeks,
she's not the border czar anymore, like nobody ever said it.
And I just hope that the media becomes more diligent, more honest, frankly, because if they're not going to be honest, it's going to be much tougher to
bring our country back. We have a very sick country right now. You saw the other day with the stock market crashing, that was just the beginning. That
was just the beginning.
It's going to get worse. It's going to get a lot worse in my opinion. And unfortunately, we've had some very good polls over the last fairly short
period of time. Rasmussen came out today, we're substantially leading and others came out today that we're leading.
And in some cases substantially, I guess "MSNBC" came out or "CNBC" came out also with a poll that was, you know, has us leading and leading fairly
big in swing states. In some polls, I'm leading very big in swing states because they want safety, people want safety, they want security, they want
respect all around the world for our country.
They don't want this horrible culture that is developing, a culture of no common sense. It's really a culture of no common sense. And it's not what
anyone wants. We want to have a safe country, we want to have a strong military. We want low interest rates and we want to be able to have the
American dream.
We want to be able to have our youth be able to buy homes, housing, get good jobs. And we're really just at the opposite right now. So, it's so sad
to see, but as a border czar, she has been the worst border czar in history, in the world history. I think the number is 20 million, but
whether it's 15 or 20, it's numbers that nobody's ever heard before.
Twenty million people came over the border in the last -- during the Biden- Harris administration, 20 million people, and it could be very much higher than that. Nobody really knows what the number is. Nobody knows, nobody has
a clue. And the got-aways -- they call them the got-aways.
The got-aways are numbers somebody was quizzing me on the other day -- no, I don't think so, sir. I don't think so. They have no idea what those
numbers are. But they're much higher than you would think. Just like far more people were killed in the Ukraine-Russia war than you ever report.
Just like the October 7th would have never happened, Russia would have never hit Ukraine had the election results been called differently. It was
a very bad call, but Russia would not have attacked Ukraine, October 7th in Israel would have never happened. You wouldn't have inflation, lot of great
things would have happened.
But now, you have millions and millions of dead people, and you have people dying financially because they can't buy bacon, they can't buy food, they
can't buy groceries, they can't do anything. And they're living horribly in our country right now. With all of that being said, I think it's very
important to have debates, and we've agreed with "Fox" on a date of September 4th.
We've agreed with "NBC", fairly full agreements subject to them on September 10th, and we've agreed with "ABC" on September 25th. So, we have
those three dates, and those networks, they're very anxiously awaiting that date, and those dates. So, we have September 4th, September 10th and
September 25th.
We have spoken to the heads of the network, and it's all been confirmed, other than some fairly minor details. Audience, some location, which city
would we put it into, but all things that will be settled very easily, very -- I think it'd be very easy. The other side has to agree to the terms.
They may or may not agree, I don't know if they're going to agree.
They -- she hasn't done an interview. She can't do an interview. She's barely competent, and she can't do an interview. But I look forward to the
debates because I think we have to set the record straight. Why is it that millions of people were allowed to come into our country from prisons, from
jails, from mental institutions, insane asylums, even insane -- that's a -- it's a mental institution on steroids.
That's what it is. When you see the people that are coming into our -- these are institutions that are being emptied out, not in South America,
all over the world, including South America, all over the world. Prisons are being emptied out into our country because we have a President that's
the worst President in the history of our country.
We have a Vice President who is the least admired, least respected, and the worst Vice President in the history of our country.
[14:15:00]
The most unpopular Vice President, and because of political reasons or because of being politically correct, even though she never received a vote
-- don't forget, she was the first one defeated as I remember it, because I watched it very closely, but she was the first one, she never made it to
Iowa at the first stage.
She never made it to Iowa, she was the first one that was defeated. She was the nastiest to him. She was nasty with the -- calling him a racist and the
school bus and all of the different things. She was very nasty to Biden, and shockingly, he appointed her, asked her to serve as Vice President.
Well, I don't know if he's happy about that decision right now. This was taken away, the presidency was taken away from Joe Biden. And I'm no Biden
fan, but I'll tell you what? From a constitutional standpoint, from any standpoint you look at, they took the presidency away. And people were
saying he lost after the debate, he couldn't win.
Well, I don't know that that's true necessarily. But whether he could win or he couldn't win, he had the right to run, and they took it away. They
said they're going to use the 25th Amendment, they're going to hit you hard, either we could do it the nice -- I heard, I know exactly because I
know a lot of people on the other side, believe it or not.
And they said, we'll do it the nice way, but we'll do it the hard way. And he said, all right. So that -- I mean, they've really taken -- what they've
done is pretty incredible, and now I'm running against somebody else and we're leading. We're leading, so, I'm not complaining. I'm saying it's a --
for a country with a constitution that we cherish, we cherish this constitution to have done it this way is pretty severe, pretty horrible.
You would have thought they would have gone out to a vote. They would have had a primary system. They would have done something, but to just take it
away from him like he was a child -- and he's a very angry man right now. I can tell you that. He is not happy with Obama, and he's not happy with
Nancy Pelosi, crazy Nancy, she is crazy too.
He's not happy with any of the people that told him that you've got to leave. He's very unhappy, very angry, and I think he also blames her. She's
trying to put up a good face, but it's a very bad thing in terms of a country when you do that. I'm not a fan of his as you probably have
noticed, he had a rough debate, but that doesn't mean that you just take it away like that.
Or you go out to a vote, you do something, he had 14 million votes, she had no votes. She got no votes. And I think she's crashing. I think when people
find out and I think people are starting to find out what a bad job she did. What a bad job she did on the border. She's trying to say she had
nothing to do with the border, she had everything.
She was appointed to head the border, and then they said border czar, oh, she loved that name, she loved that name, but she never went there. She
went to a location once along the border, but that was a location that you would love to go and have dinner with your husband or whoever, that was a
location that was not part of the problem.
That was not really going to the border. So, essentially, she never went to the border. And if you listen to Tom Holmes(ph), and if you listen to the
great border people, Brandon Judd from the Border Patrol, if you listen to Paul -- I mean, so many different people, I speak to them all the time.
And I did when I was president, we had the best border in the history of our country. Now, we have the worst border in the history of the world.
Millions of people coming in, and our country cannot sustain it. Our country is going down because of this, because of incompetent people.
So, I just look forward to these debates. I think it's very important that we have them, I hope she agrees to them, September 4th, September 10th,
September 25th, and I think they'll be very revealing. I think they'll be very revealing. Do you have any questions, please?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How can you be out there and describe (INAUDIBLE)?
TRUMP: I haven't recalibrated strategy at all. It's the same policies, open borders, weak on crime, she's -- I think she's worse than Biden,
because he got forced into the position, she was there long before, she destroyed San Francisco. She destroyed California as the AG.
But as the DA, she destroyed San -- she -- San Francisco, a friend of mine, Bob Tisch, hey, you all know that Tisch family, he was in many cities with
companies, he said the greatest city in the country is San Francisco, that was about 20 years ago, and he passed away a while ago, and he would be
looking down and saying what happened.
He thought it was the best city in the country. He had divisions there, Loews, and he would be looking down in horror now when he sees she
destroyed -- no cash bail, weak-on crime, terrible. And yet, they weaponize the system against me.
[14:20:00]
They have me -- I got so many lawyers, now, they want to delay cases. I won the big case in Florida -- I won the big case. Nobody even wrote about it.
The big case. The judge was a brilliant judge, and all they do is they play the ref with the judges. But this judge was a fair but brilliant judge. And
as you probably heard, the big documents case, I won it.
Now, Biden lost it because he didn't have presidential immunity. He didn't have the Presidential Records Act. He lost it, but the special -- I call it
prosecutors, special counsel, special prosecutor to me, he -- appointed by him and appointed by Garland, he said the man is incompetent. He can't
stand trial, but he can run for president.
But we no longer have to worry about that because we have somebody that in my opinion is more incompetent. She couldn't pass a bar exam and lots of
other things, and she should not be in the position. Because if she becomes President, our country is going to be a giant fail.
It's going to fail, it's going to be a failure, the likes of which this world has never seen. Yes, please. No, how about you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wonderful evening. So, you know, a big part of the strategy before Harris became the nominee was going after -- increasing the
share -- can you hear me?
TRUMP: You have to speak louder.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No problem. Big part of the strategy for your campaign before Harris became the nominee, was appealing to black voters.
TRUMP: Yes --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Understand you were really (INAUDIBLE). In polls, you really see Harris being proud about hers, and I'm wondering how you are
going to allow the black voters, now that she's the nominee and really winning them over?
TRUMP: Well, it changes around a little bit, I'm getting other voters. Perhaps, you know, I was doing very well with black voters and I still am.
I seem to be doing very well with black males. This is according to polls, as you know. It's possible that I won't do as well with black women, but I
do seem to do very well with other segments, extremely well with Hispanic, Jewish voters way up, white males way up, white males have gone through the
roof. White males way up.
Now, I don't know. All we're doing is giving you the stats that you have. It could be that I'll be affected somewhat with black females where we're
doing pretty well. And I think ultimately, they'll like me better because I'm going to give them security, safety and jobs. I'm going to give them a
good economy.
We have a very bad economy right now. We could -- we could literally be on the throes of a depression, not recession, a depression, and they can't
have that. They can't have that. So, I think I'm going to do well with everybody, especially when the fact is right. Yes, please, in the back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're not leading with Jewish voters in your home state of New York. With that being said, what do you make of Kamala Harris
not picking Josh Shapiro as a VP?
TRUMP: Well, I don't know. I know Josh Shapiro. He's a terrible guy, and he's not very popular with anybody. I think that this election maybe is
better than Josh Shapiro would have been. But I think other than Josh Shapiro, I think she had some good choices, but Josh Shapiro is not one of
them.
He's caused a lot of damage with a lot of people, and I don't think he would have been better. I think he would have been maybe the equivalent,
maybe not as good. But they had some people that they were looking at that were good, far superior to her.
They actually had a story where they had everybody including -- they had like ten people that she was looking at and her, and they said she was the
worst of all. In other words, she was the worst out of the ten people entire.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President -- Mr. President --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are some that agrees with the "ABC" that they would be willing just to do that one -- the date?
TRUMP: I don't know how that's going to work out. Well, you'd like to do three debates, we think we should do three debates. We think "Fox" and
"ABC" and we also have "CBS", is going to do the vice presidential debate. So, "CBS" will do vice presidential, and I have to tell you, J.D. Vance has
really stepped up. He's doing a fantastic job.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The number of people that she's been drawing at her events?
TRUMP: Say?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you worried about all that, the size of Harris' crowds?
TRUMP: Oh, give me a break. Listen, I had 107,000 people in New Jersey, you didn't report it. I'm so glad you asked. What did she have yesterday?
Two thousand people. If I ever had 2,000 people, you'd say my campaign is finished. It's so dishonest, the press, and here's a great example.
I had in Michigan recently, 25,000 people, and 25,000 people were just -- we just couldn't get them in. We had in Harrisburg, 20,000-25,000 people
and 20,000 people couldn't get in. We had so many -- nobody ever mentions that. When she gets 1,500 people, and I saw it yesterday on "ABC", which
they said, oh, the crowd was so big.
I have 10 times, 20 times, 30 times the crowd size, and note, they never say the crowds was huge.
[14:25:00]
That's why I'm always saying turn around the cameras. I'm so glad you asked that. I think it's so terrible when you say, well, she has 1,500 people, a
1,000 people, and they talk about, oh, the enthusiasm. Let me tell you, we have the enthusiasm. The Republican Party and me as a candidate.
But the Republican Party has the enthusiasm because people want to see crime stopped. They want to see a country that's respected. Think of it. If
I were president, you wouldn't have Russia and Ukraine would have never happened. Zero chance. You wouldn't have had October 7th of Israel.
You wouldn't have the horrible withdrawal, and I don't mean to withdraw, because the withdrawal was fine. I was ready to withdraw from Afghanistan
and we were going to do it with dignity and strength. And we were -- we were keeping our equipment. We weren't leaving $85 billion worth of
equipment behind.
That we wouldn't have had 13 great soldiers, I know the families of those soldiers well. We wouldn't have had these soldiers killed, and we wouldn't
have had 45 soldiers obliterated. No legs, no arms, the face, none of that would have happened. And you wouldn't have had inflation, you wouldn't have
had any inflation because inflation was caused by their bad energy problems.
Now, they've gone back to the Trump thing because they need the votes. They -- you know, they -- I don't know if you know, they're drilling now because
they had to go back because gasoline was going up to $7, $8, $9 a barrel. So, they said we better do what Trump did, but the day after the election
if they won, you're going to have fuel prices go through the roof, everybody is going to be forced to buy an electric car, which they're not
going to do because they don't want that.
It's got a great market, it's got a market, it's really a submarket. People want gasoline-propelled cars. They want hybrids, they want to have
everything and they want electric. But they want everybody to have an electric car. We don't have enough electricity. We couldn't make enough
electricity for that.
And you know what else? The weight of a car, the weight of a truck, they want all trucks to be electric. Little things that a lot of people don't
talk about. The weight of a truck is two-and-a-half times, two-and-a-half times heavier. You would have to rebuild every bridge in this country if
you were going to do this ridiculous policy.
So -- but on crowd size, in history, for any country, nobody's had crowds like I have. And you know that. And when she gets a 1,000 people and
everybody starts jumping, you know that if I had a 1,000, people would say -- people would say that's the end of his campaign.
I have hundreds of thousands of people. In South Carolina, I had 88,000 people, in Alabama, I had 68,000 people. Nobody says about crowd size with
me. But she has a 1,000 people or 1,500 people, and they say, oh, the enthusiasm is back. No, the enthusiasm is with me and the Republican Party
because they want to stop crime, they want to stop people from pouring into our country from places unknown, and from countries unknown.
From countries that nobody ever heard of, that's where the enthusiasm is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two questions if I can, thank you, sir. Your campaign is far getting Pennsylvania and do more jobs --
TRUMP: Yes --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you get those two, you could seal the deal, that's what they say. How important is it to you, and is it salvageable for you to
be able to repair a relationship with Governor Kemp in your --
TRUMP: I don't know, I don't know if I can or not. I got him elected. Without me, he wouldn't be governor. I got him elected. He was doing
terribly, I got him elected. With that being said, I hope we can repair it, but if we don't, the people are still the people and they're going to vote.
We're leading in Georgia by a lot. We're leading in Pennsylvania by a lot. So -- but I don't know. Now -- and Pennsylvania have great relationships.
In Georgia, I do too, but unfortunately not with the governor. I've never understood it. When you get somebody elected, they're supposed to like you.
He's not exactly for some reason, and you'll have to ask him about that. Yes, I'd love to see it get repaired. I think that if we don't win Georgia
-- Georgia is a big -- is a big win, it's a big state. So I won Alabama by a record. Nobody's ever gotten that many votes. I won South Carolina by a
record.
You don't win Alabama and South Carolina by records and lose Georgia. It doesn't happen. And the people of Georgia understand that. There was
tremendous anxiety and problems in Georgia. A lot of people say what happened -- and we have to -- all we want is honest elections.
If we have honest elections in Georgia, we have honest elections in Pennsylvania, we're going to win them by a lot.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Biden basically saying that he doesn't think -- he fears that there wouldn't be a peaceful transfer of power if
you lose this election.
TRUMP: Well, he actually said it two ways. First, he said it incorrectly, then he corrected himself. Do you agree with that, right? You know, if you
watch him, he said it two ways. No, I mean, he said it two ways because he doesn't really know what he said. Why didn't he bring it up at the debate?
[14:29:56]
You know, he had a chance for 90 minutes to bring it up at the debate. He could have talked about that at the debate, and he didn't do it. Everyone
said, oh, he said this and he said that. He's just -- you know, they give him something to read off, he read it very badly because he actually said
it the opposite, then he had to go back and correct himself. He said the opposite.
He should have brought this up at the debate. If he had a problem, of course there'll be a peaceful transfer. And there was last time. And
there'll be a peaceful transfer. I just hope we're going to have honest elections, that's all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have not had a public campaign event for nearly a week now. (INAUDIBLE) Montana, which is not a swing state. Some of your
allies have expressed concern that you're not taking this very seriously, particularly at a time --
TRUMP: What a stupid question.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- when there is enthusiasm on the other side. Why haven't you been campaigning this week?
TRUMP: Because I'm leading by a lot, and because I'm letting their convention go through. And I am campaigning a lot. I'm doing tremendous
amounts of taping here. We have commercials that are at a level I don't think that anybody's ever done before. Plus, in certain cases, I see many
of you in the room where I'm speaking to you on phones, I'm speaking to radio, I'm speaking to television. Television's coming over here.
Excuse me, what are we doing right now? She's not doing any news conference. You know why she's not doing it? Because she can't do a news
conference. She doesn't know how to do a news conference. She's not smart enough to do a news conference.
And I'm sorry, we need smart people to lead this country because our country's never been in this danger before, both economically. And from an
outside perspective, Russia doesn't respect us anymore. China doesn't respect us anymore. North Korea, Kim Jong Un liked me a lot, he doesn't
like this group. We are in great danger. We're in great danger of being in World War III. That could happen.
No, after their convention, yes. And I'm going out -- actually, I'm going out to certain places to help certain senators get elected. Not even for
me. I'm trying to help -- when I go out to Wyoming, or when I go out to Montana, or I'm going to different places to help people. And I don't have
to go there because I'm leading those states, as you know, by 35, 40, 50 points. I'm leading by record numbers. I'm going because I want to help
senators and congressmen get elected. Congressmen and women get elected. Yes, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
TRUMP: Yes, go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, can you tell us a bit more about your upcoming interview with Elon Musk this Monday?
TRUMP: The upcoming what?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Interview with Elon Musk on Monday. Also, there are reports now saying that the Chinese communist party showing views and their
(INAUDIBLE) propaganda. What do you think social media --
TRUMP: Yes, the Elon Musk. So -- yes, sure. So, Elon called me. As you know, he endorsed me full-throated. Great endorsement. I respect Elon a
lot. He respects me. And not easy for him to endorse, to be honest, with you. You know, it takes courage to endorse people. Many people have courage
and many people don't. He does have courage.
And Elon and (INAUDIBLE), and he asked me whether or not I'd do a show on Monday. And I think it's going to be Monday night. And I believe he's the
host of the show. So, it will be very interesting. A lot of people are talking about it. I look forward to it.
That will be done on Monday night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, what do you think social media companies in America should be (INAUDIBLE)? Potentially, this is a nation's
threat from the Chinese?
TRUMP: Well, you have a lot of misinformation spread about China. And you have a lot of misinformation spread about a lot of different places. I
think I'm going to get along great with China. President Xi of China and I were very good friends. We met right here, right in that, except we had a
beautiful sofa there as opposed to what we have right now. Right now, we have you.
But President Xi and I had a very good relationship until COVID, and I held him responsible for COVID. It broke up our relationship, but I think we're
going to have a great relationship and I think it's going to be mutually beneficial. But we cannot have it where China is taking advantage of the
United States, and that's what they were doing, as you very well know. Yes, please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, you were -- you just said (INAUDIBLE).
TRUMP: What's your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is, do you think the last time there was a transfer of power, do you know about this?
TRUMP: No, I think the people that -- if you look at January 6th, which a lot of people aren't talking about very much, I think those people were
treated very harshly. When you compare them to other things that took place in this country where a lot of people were killed, nobody was killed on
January 6th.
But I think that the people of January 6th were treated very unfairly. And they -- well, they were there to complain, not through me, they were there
to complain about an election. And, you know, it's very interesting. The biggest crowd I've ever spoken to, and I said, peacefully and
patriotically, which nobody wants to say, but I said, peacefully and patriotically.
The biggest crowd I've ever spoken to, and you've seen, Maggie, I was in -- at the mall, I was at the Washington Monument, I was at -- the whole thing,
I had crowds -- I don't know who's ever had a bigger crowd than I have, but I had it many times. The biggest crowd I've ever spoken before was that
day, and I'll tell you it's very hard to find a picture of that crowd.
[14:35:00]
You see the picture of a small number of people relatively going to the Capitol, but you never see the picture of the crowd. The biggest crowd I've
ever spoken, I've spoken to the biggest crowds. Nobody's spoken to crowds bigger than me.
If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same
number of people, if not, we had more. And they said he had a million people, but I had 25,000 people.
But when you look at the exact same picture, and everything's the same, because it was the fountains, the whole thing, all the way back to -- from
Lincoln to Washington, and you look at it, and you look at the picture of his crowd, my crowd we actually had more people. They said I had 25,000,
and he had a million people, and I'm OK with it, because I liked Dr. Martin Luther King. Yes, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump, you've said repeatedly on Truth Social that it was unconstitutional for the Democrats to replace President Biden
with Vice President Harris as their candidate. Can you explain your constitutional analysis, which part of the constitution did they violate?
TRUMP: Yes, sure. We have a constitution. It's a very important document and we live by it. She has no votes. And I'm very happy to run against her.
I'm not complaining from that standpoint. And I hate to be defending him, but he did not want to leave. He wanted to see if he could win.
They said you're not going to win after the debate. They said you're not going to win. You can't win you're out. And at first, they said it nicely
and he wasn't leaving. And then, you know it better than anybody. Wait a minute. So, when you think about it, they said at first they were going to
go out to another vote, they were going to go through a primary system, a quick primary system, which it would have to be. And then, it all
disappeared and they just picked a person that was the first out.
She was the first loser, OK? So, we call her the first loser. She was the first loser when -- during the primary system. During the Democrat primary
system, she was the first one to quit and she quit. She had no votes, no support, and she was a bad debater, by the way. A very bad debater.
And that's not the thing I'm looking forward to, but she was a bad debater. She did obviously a bad job. She never made it to Iowa. Then for some
reason, and I know he regrets it, you do too, he picked her. And she turned on him too. She was working with the people that wanted him out. But the
fact that you can be -- get no votes, lose in the primary system, in other words, you had 14 or 15 people, she was the first one out, and that you can
then be picked to run for president? It just seems to me actually unconstitutional, perhaps it's not. Please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, you've now had a couple of weeks to watch Vice President Harris campaign run against Hillary Clinton and
against Joe Biden. Are there any ways that you see her as a more challenging opponent than those other two?
TRUMP: So, I've run against Hillary, and I've run against various other people. I would say that in terms of intelligence, Hillary was far
superior. I would say that. Hillary was smart. She was her own worst enemy in many ways, but she was smart. Very smart. OK. If you ask me to compare
them. Please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, you've staked out a position on abortion now. There's probably more popular victim of election voter than
many of the Republican primary (INAUDIBLE). We look to the states. Given that's your position, how do you plan to vote in favor of this abortion
ballot? (INAUDIBLE). Would you support this?
TRUMP: Would you repeat that question, please?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can take --
TRUMP: You have to speak up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, sir. I said --
TRUMP: It's a hard room, because it's very big here. This is worth $18 million dollars.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You sit in a position on abortion law that was probably more popular with general election voters than many of your
Republican rivals. In the primary, you said, leave it to the states. Given that (INAUDIBLE) is a state voting on at this point, how do you plan to go
-- plan to support --
TRUMP: So, I think the abortion issue has been very much tempered down, and I've answered I think very well in the debate, and it seems to be much
less of an issue, especially for those where they have the exceptions, as you know. And I think it's -- when I look for 52 years, they wanted to
bring abortion back to the states. They wanted to get rid of Roe v. Wade, and that's Democrats, Republicans and independents and everybody, liberals,
conservatives, everybody wanted it back in the states and I did that.
Now, the states are voting. And frankly, some of the votes are much more, if you could say, liberal than you would think. Ohio turned out to be --
they had a big vote and it turned out to be a much more liberal standing than people would have thought. Kansas, the same thing. And then you have
Texas and you have other places where it may be different.
[14:40:00]
But the issue has been brought back to the states now, and like Ronald Reagan, I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the
mother. I believe -- you know, I believe strongly. I think that that's a very important thing. I think when you don't -- you have to follow your
heart. But when you don't believe in the exceptions, I think it's much tougher. It's a much tougher issue.
But about 82 percent of Republicans do believe in exceptions. I think the - - and a lot of them are changing their mind and coming even further. I think that abortion has become much less of an issue. It's a very small --
I think it's actually going to be a very small issue.
What I've done is I've done what every Democrat and every Republican wanted to have done, and we brought that issue back to the states. And now, the
states are voting on it. And frankly, some of the votes are a lot different than people would have thought. But it's the vote of the people is taking
care of it.
And, you know, when you think about the radical, the Democrats are really the radical ones in this because they're allowed to do abortion on the
eighth and nineth month and even after birth. If you look at your new governor from Minnesota, he's talking about -- he's like the governor --
previous -- the former governor, I don't want to get him mixed up because Glenn is doing a good job and he's leading our whole campaign in Virginia,
Glenn Youngkin.
But previous to Glenn, the governor, he said the baby will be born, we will put the baby aside and we will decide with the mother what we're going to
do. In other words, whether or not we're going to kill the baby. The Minnesota gentleman, he -- this guy agrees with that. He is the most
liberal -- look, between her and him, there's never been anything like this. There's never been a combination. So, I'll use the word progressive.
You know, they want to go progressive. They don't like the word liberal. I like liberal better. I think it's more appropriate, because nobody knows
what progressive means. But they now like to use the word progressive. But there's certainly never been anybody so liberal like these two, or even
close.
I think the abortion issue has been taken down many notches. I don't think it's of -- I don't think it's a big factor anymore, really. And when people
hear what I said in the debate, and I think I said it very well during the debate, we've brought it back to the states. Everybody wanted it in the
states. And very importantly, and you think about this, assuming you have exceptions -- if you don't have exceptions, it's a more difficult thing.
At the same time, there are people that strongly feel that way, and you have to follow your heart, and you should follow your heart. But that issue
has -- is very much subdued. Yes. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President. Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to ask you about the assassination attempt.
TRUMP: The who?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About the assassination attempt.
TRUMP: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fact that somebody used an AR-15 gun. How it changed your impression of people's access to have to have it?
TRUMP: No, I didn't. Look, if you take away guns -- she wants to take away everyone's gun. If you take away guns, you can't do it. Because people need
the guns for protection. Now, entertainment they wanted, hunting they wanted, you know, different things. But they need weapons for protection in
this country.
People live out in the woods and they're not going to have a gun. If you look at some countries, I don't want to go -- I don't want to get them in
trouble, but some countries have actually gone the opposite way. They had very strong gun laws and now, they have gone the opposite way, where they
allowed people to have guns, where in one case they encourage people to go out and get guns, and crime is down 29 percent.
And remember this, what is the toughest gun law in the United States? Chicago. On July 4th, 117 people were shot and 17 died. The toughest gun
laws in the United States are in the City of Chicago. You know that. They had 117 people shot. Afghanistan does not have that. Afghanistan, by the
way, was the lowest point in the history of our country in my opinion.
That was the worst embarrassment to the history of this country. And I say Putin would not have gone into Ukraine if that didn't happen. When he saw
the incompetence of Millie (ph) and all these guys that are incompetent. When he saw that happen, when they took out the soldiers first, they took
out the soldiers first.
You know, if you go back and check your records for 18 months, I had a talk with Abdul. Abdul was the leader of the Taliban, still is, but I had a
strong talk with him. For 18 months, not one American soldier was shot at or killed, but not even shot at. 18 months, and then we had the disaster of
the lift, where people were falling off airplanes from three times the height of the World Trade Center. I mean, terrible. But now, our country
has to be respected again. Please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
TRUMP: Go ahead, please.
[14:45:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a reporting in The New York Times that Kamala Harris said she might be able to get the idea of weapons embargo against
Israel. Would you comment on that? Would that be --
TRUMP: I'd be against it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And also, on the assumption --
TRUMP: That Kamala is in favor of not giving Israel weapons?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. That's what I mean.
TRUMP: Yes. That's what I hear. Look, she's been very, very bad to Israel and she's been very bad to Jewish people. And I say it, if anybody I know
is Jewish and they would vote for Kamala over me, they should have their head examined. If you think about it, I gave them Golan Heights, I gave
them the capital of Israel, Jerusalem, I built the -- I even built the embassy. I gave them no Iran deal. The problem is they didn't do anything
with it.
Iran was broke. We could have made a deal so easily. I would have had a deal done within one week after the election with Iran. Iran can't have a
nuclear weapon. It's very simple. We would have gotten along with Iran. I was looking forward to it. I was fine with Iran. You know, we hit them a
couple of times pretty hard. But we would have been fine with Iran. But I got them -- I terminated that deal. I got them the Abraham Accords.
Everyone said that's impossible. I got them the Abraham Accords.
She's been very, very bad to Israel, and she's been very bad and disrespectful to Jewish people. And any Jewish person that votes for Kamala
and her friend, her new friend, who I don't know if she knew him before, but I don't think he's too good, but anybody that votes for them, if you're
Jewish or if you love Israel, you have to have your head examined.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, Mr. President.
TRUMP: Go ahead, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's some variable information about issues (INAUDIBLE) FBI and Secret Service are doing an easy job.
TRUMP: They have. The FBI came to see me about the shooter. I think they did a very good job. And I think they did a very good job with respect to
this other lunatic that they have in custody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr President. Mr President, there's been some discussion around Vice President Harris' relationship with Willie Brown,
former mayor of San Francisco, and how that might have intersected with her career trajectory. So, I'm just wondering if you followed that discussion
at all (INAUDIBLE)?
TRUMP: Well, I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this is the end. We were in a
helicopter going to a certain location together. And there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing.
And Willie was -- he was a little concerned. So, I know him. I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven't seen him in years. But he told me terrible
things about her. But this is what you're telling me anyway, I guess. But he had a big part in what happened with Kamala. But he -- I don't know,
maybe he's changed his tune. But he was not a fan of hers very much at that point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President. Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe Vice President Harris would certify your election victory, if you win?
TRUMP: Yes, I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President. Mr. President. Mr. President.
TRUMP: Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you planning to vote on the borders (INAUDIBLE)?
TRUMP: On what?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you planning to vote on (INAUDIBLE)?
TRUMP: Well, I'm going to announce that. I'm going to actually have a press conference on that at some point in the near future. So, I don't want
to tell you now. But Florida does have a vote coming up on that, and I think probably the vote will go in a little more liberal way than people
thought. But I'll be announcing that at the appropriate time. Please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your tax (INAUDIBLE) administration is coming up, you know, fairly soon, and potentially expiring. I wanted to ask you
specifically about the tax code favoring parents versus people who don't have children. There are a number of tax breaks and payments.
TRUMP: Yes. We gave them tremendous and tremendous for child care and all of that. No, our tax cuts, which are the biggest in history, our tax cuts
are coming due, as you know, very soon. And if the Democrats don't renew them, or make it impossible to renew because it's pretty close in terms of
vote, if they don't renew them, it's the equivalent of having a four times tax increase from what you have right now, and it'll destroy the economy.
I think they're under tremendous pressure to do it. I've never seen -- you know, all my life, I grow up and I watch politics, and I used to be on the
other side of politics, then I run for office, but in all the years of studying politics, I've never seen people get elected by saying, we're
going to give you a tax increase.
These guys get up, think of it, we're going to give you no security, we're going to give you a weak military. We're going to give you no walls, no
borders, no anything. We're going to -- all these things they're doing. I mean, the transgender became such a big thing. But they do all of these
things, but they always say, we're going to give you a tax increase. I never heard anybody campaign on a tax increase.
A politician has always said, I will cut taxes. I'll give you one example, Social Security. They're going to destroy Social Security. I am going to
leave Social Security. I'm not raising the years. I'm not raising the age. I will be saving Social Security. And I'm going to work it out that there's
no tax on Social Security for seniors.
[14:50:00]
I'm also doing no tax on tips. No tax on tips. So, waiters, waitresses, caddies, people that drive cars, people that get tips who have been
harassed by this government, we're going to have no tax on tips. That's a big thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you believe that the imprisonment of Steve Bannon was politically motivated?
TRUMP: Yes. Oh, absolutely. Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President. Mr. President.
TRUMP: Because other people have done far bigger things than Steve Bannon. Sure. It's politically motivated. I think it's a horrible thing they did.
Look, they've weaponized government against me. Look at the Florida case. It was a totally weaponized case. All of these cases. By the way, the New
York cases are totally controlled out of the Department of Justice. They sent their top person to the various places. They went to the A.G.'s
office. Got that one going. Then he went to the D.A.'s office. Got that one going. Ran through it.
No, no. This is all politics and it's a disgrace. Never happened in this country. It's very common that it happens, but not in our country. It
happens in banana republics and third world countries. And that's what we're becoming.
We have no borders. We have bad voting regulations. Anytime you have mail- in ballots, you're going to have problems. France learned that lesson. You know, France had all mail-in voting and they went back to paper ballots,
voter identification, voter ID. They went back to a normal system, one day voting. They don't want to be around, you know, voting for 64 days.
And look, the election, I keep talking about November 5th, but the election really starts on September 6th. That's when it starts because it's early
voting. We should have one day voting. We should have paper ballots, we should have voter ID, and we should have proof of citizenship. Please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about the assassination --
TRUMP: No, the gentleman in the back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, do you support continuation of tax credits for EVs? And secondly --
TRUMP: The who?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For electric vehicles, do you support the continuation of tax credits?
TRUMP: You're going to have to talk louder, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you support continuation of tax credits for EVs? And secondly, what sort of political or policy advice does Elon Musk give you?
TRUMP: Elon is a very different kind of a guy. He's a very big believer in the country, but he's very worried about the country. He's very worried
about the country. And I don't know if it's good for him politically to have supported me, although, I think we have a vast majority of this
country does support me.
But Elon, more than almost anybody I know, I mean, he loves this country, he loves the concept of the country, but like me, he says this country is
in big trouble, it's in big -- it's in tremendous danger. OK. Please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Polls suggest overwhelmingly that Americans trust you more than Kamala Harris to fix the U.S. economy. What message --
TRUMP: I like this guy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What message --
TRUMP: I like him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What message do you have to Americans, sir, who are struggling to pay for everyday life such as groceries, rent?
TRUMP: The polls have suggested, there are some polls that say we're going to win in a landslide. People are voting with their stomachs, meaning,
they're going to the grocery store, they're paying 50, 60, 70 percent more for food than they did just a couple of years ago.
Look at what's happened to energy. Look at what's happened not only to their cars, where gasoline's gone from $1.87, and we had moments when it
was below that, but it's gone from $1.87 to $5, $6, and $7. And they take the Strategic National Reserves and they take it out, even though it's
peanuts compared, it doesn't last long. But they're virtually empty now. We've never had it this low.
And he's using that to keep the gasoline prices as low as possible. He's sucked all of the oil out, essentially the gasoline, to keep the price down
a little bit and it's had very little impact. But you know what? We have no strategic national reserves now.
He's emptied it. It's almost empty. It's never been this low. And I had it at a good level. And I would have had it more if the Democrats would have
approved the deal. You know, I had a deal to buy it at $22 a barrel. And now, it's getting -- it's going to be close to a hundred pretty soon, in my
opinion. And the Democrats didn't want to do that, but we bought a lot anyway. And we had it pretty good.
And what they've done to the National Reserves, the Strategic National Reserves, as you know very well, because you cover it, but what they've
done is incredible. They've just -- for the sake of getting some votes, for the sake of having gasoline, you know, that's meant for wars. It's meant
for, like, tragedy. It's not meant to keep a gasoline price down so that somebody can vote for Biden or in this case, Kamala, who by the way is
worse than Biden. And she's actually not as smart. OK. She's actually not as smart. That's hard to believe, isn't it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
TRUMP: Yes, please.
[14:55:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I -- I have a political question, but I want to ask a follow up to one of the abortion questions.
TRUMP: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are other things the federal government could do, not just a ban. Would you direct your FDA, for example, to revoke access to
Mifepristone? That's one of the things that's been discussed.
TRUMP: You could do things that will be -- would supplement, absolutely. And those things are pretty open and humane. But you have to be able to
have a vote. And all I want to do is give everybody a vote. And the votes are taking place right now as we speak.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that's something you would consider?
TRUMP: But it's a very good -- there are many things on a humane basis that you can do outside of that, but you also have to give a vote and the
people are going to have to decide.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I ask a political question?
TRUMP: OK. Yes, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You just said you think Kamala Harris is worse than President Biden?
TRUMP: On what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know you said there's -- you think you're very far ahead.
TRUMP: No, I think he's actually not as smart as he is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you said you think you're very far ahead in the polls.
TRUMP: I don't think he's very smart either, by the way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know you --
TRUMP: I'm not a big fan of his brain. But I think that she's actually not as smart as he is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To what do you attribute her rising in the polls as becoming a more competitive race since she's taken over from Joe Biden?
TRUMP: Well, she's a woman. She represents certain groups of people. But I will say this, when people find out about her, I think she'll be much less.
And I see it right now. I see her going way down in the polls now. Now, that people are finding out that she destroyed San Francisco. She destroyed
the State of California along with Governor Gavin Newsom. He's been a terrible governor. Terrible. But they did it together.
And she was early. I mean, she was the first of the prosecutors, really. You know, now you see Philadelphia, you see Los Angeles, you see New York.
You see various people that are very bad. But she was the first of the bad prosecutors. She was early.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)?
TRUMP: Who?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: White House (INAUDIBLE).
TRUMP: Could you repeat that, please?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: White House.
TRUMP: No, you. Would you repeat that, please? You have to speak up. This room very big.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you're elected, would you commit to more White House (INAUDIBLE)?
TRUMP: Do you hear her?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you be --
TRUMP: Daily press briefings? Why would I do that? I would give you all the press briefings you want. Look what I'm doing here. But why would I do
a daily -- a daily press, you'd get tired of me very fast. No, but I will give you total access and you'll have a lot of press briefings and you'll
have from me.
Now, are you talking about from me or from a press secretary?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Press secretary.
TRUMP: Well, yes, probably they'll do something. If it's not daily, it's going to be a lot. You'll have more than you want.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
TRUMP: Yes, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Biden has vowed not to pardon his son Hunter, who is now a convicted felon and faces more felony charges than his
upcoming father, alleged tax evader. Would you consider granting clemency or a pardon --
TRUMP: I don't think it's appropriate for me to talk about it. I think it's a tragic story. You want to know the truth. And I felt that with
Hillary Clinton, too. You know, with Hillary Clinton, I could have done things to her that would have made your head spin. I thought it was a very
bad thing. Take the wife of a president of the United States and put her in jail.
And then, I see the way they treat me. That's the way it goes. But I was very protective of her. Nobody would understand that, but I was, I think my
people understand it. They used to say, lock her up, lock her up. And I'd say, just relax, please. We won the election. I think it would be very -- I
think it would have been horrible for our country if I -- and we had her between the hammering of all of the files.
And don't forget, she got a subpoena from the United States Congress. And then, after getting the subpoena, she destroyed everything that she was
supposed to get. I couldn't -- I didn't think -- I thought it was so bad to take her and put her in jail, the wife of a president of the United States.
And then, when it's my turn, nobody thinks that way.
I thought it was a very terrible thing. And she did a lot of very bad things. I'll tell you what, she was pretty evil. But in terms of the
country and in terms of unifying the country, bringing it back, to have taken her and to have put her in jail, and I think you know the things as
well as I do, there were some pretty bad acts that she did. I think it would have been very bad for our country.
And a lot of my people, a lot of the MAGA, as they call them, but the base. And I think the base is -- I think the base is 75 percent of the country,
far beyond the Republican Party, because we're a party of common-sense. And I'm a person of common-sense. I want to have low taxes. I want to have
strong borders. I want to have a strong military so that China and Russia - - look, they've allowed China and Russia to do the impossible, combined. They're natural enemies, they always have been, because China needs more
land and Russia has it.
They've always been natural enemies, and because of Obama, it started with him. And then Biden, because he didn't know what the hell he was doing,
they've now become one force. And then, now they're adding Iran to it, and they're adding North Korea to it. Pretty powerful force. This is something
that is unthinkable that they allowed to happen.
[15:00:00]
END
