Annual National Association of Black Journalists Convention and Career Fair.
We are about to begin a conversation with former President
Donald Trump.
We ask that the professionalism that we all bring to
our newsrooms and workplaces every day
is the same professionalism that is maintained in this arena.
Please welcome to the stage ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent
Rachel Scott,
Seema for political reporter Kadya Goba
and anchor of the Faulkner Focus and Co host of
Outnumbered on Fox News Harris Faulkner
NABJ
mics on Here we go test,
test, test.
Good afternoon NABJ and welcome to a conversation with former
President Donald Trump.
This discussion continues a decades long tradition during election years
of inviting journalists to discuss the policies and their impact
with the candidates who are running for president and the
impact of those policies, especially in black communities.
Former Presidents George W Bush,
Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have attended the NAB conventions
either as presidents or as presidential candidates in past years.
NABJ is currently in conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris's
team to schedule AQ and A either in person or
virtually in September.
As journalists, we use opportunities like these both to inform
our reporting,
but also to help voters understand the choices that they
face in a consequential and historic election year.
NADJ has partnered with Politi Fact to Fact Check this
conversation in real time.
You can access that feed on social media
using the hashtag NABJ Fact Check.
Again, the hashtag is NABJ Fact Check.
We have a lot to get to and we do
not want to waste any time.
So let's bring out the former president of the United
States,
the Republican nominee for president,
former President Donald Trump.
Mr. President, we so appreciate you giving us an hour
of your time.
I want to start by addressing the elephant in the
room,
Sir. A lot of people did not think it was
appropriate for you to be here today.
You have pushed false claims about some of your rivals,
from Nikki Haley to former President Barack Obama,
saying that they were not born in the United States,
which is not true. You have told 4 Congresswoman Mcculler,
who were American citizens, to go back to where they
came from.
You have used words like animal and rabbit to describe
black district attorneys.
You've attacked black journalists, calling them a loser,
saying the questions that they ask are quote,
stupid and racist. You've had dinner with a white supremacist
at your Mar A Lago resort.
So my question, Sir, now that you are asking black
supporters to vote for you,
why should black voters trust you after you have used
language like that?
Well, first of all, I don't think I've ever been
asked a question so
in in such a horrible manner.
First question, you don't even say hello.
How are you? Are you with ABC?
Because I think they're a fake news network,
a terrible network.
And
I think it's disgraceful that I came here
in good spirit. I love the black population of this
country.
I've done so much for the black population of this
country,
including employment, including opportunity zones with Senator Tim Scott of
South Carolina,
which is one of the greatest programs ever for black
workers and black entrepreneurs.
I've done so much. And you know,
and I say this, historically Black colleges and universities were
out of money.
They were stone cold broke.
And I saved them and I gave them long term
financing and nobody else was doing it.
I think it's a very rude introduction.
I don't know exactly why you would do something like
that.
And let me go a step further.
I was invited here and I was told my opponent,
whether it was Biden or Kamala,
I was told my opponent was going to be here.
It turned out my opponent isn't here.
You invited me under false pretense and then you said
you can't do it with Zoom.
Well, you know, where's Zoom?
She's going to do it with Zoom and she's not
coming.
And then you were half an hour late.
Just so we understand, I have too much respect for
you to be late.
They couldn't get their equipment working or something was wrong.
I think it's a very nasty question.
I have answered the question.
I have been the best president for the black population
since Abraham Lincoln.
That's my answer. Better than President Johnson who signed the
Voting Rights Act For you to start off a question
and answer period,
especially when you're 35 minutes late because you couldn't get
your equipment to work
in such a hostile manner.
I think it's a, a disgrace.
Let me do it. Let me just ask a follow
up,
Sir. And then we'll move on to other questions here.
Some of your own supporters,
including Republicans on Capitol Hill have labeled Vice President Kamala
Harris,
who was the first black and Asian American woman to
serve as vice president and be on a major party
ticket as
ADEI hire. Is that acceptable language to you?
And will you tell those Republicans and those supporters to
stop it?
How do you how do you define DEI?
Go ahead. How do you define diversity,
equity, inclusion? OK. Yeah, go ahead.
Is that what your definition that is that that is.
Give me a definition then.
Would you give me a definition of that?
Give me a definition. Sir,
I'm asking you a question.
You have to define it.
Define the. Define it for me.
If you. I just defined it,
Sir. Do you believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is
only on the ticket because she is a black woman?
Well, I can say no.
I think it's maybe a little bit different.
So
I've known her a long time.
Indirectly, not directly, very much.
And she was always of Indian heritage and she was
only promoting Indian heritage.
I didn't know she was black
until a number of years ago when she happened to
turn black.
And now she wants to be known as black.
So I don't know, is she Indian or is she
black?
She is always identified as a black.
I respect either one. I respect either one.
But she obviously doesn't because she was Indian all the
way.
And then all of a sudden she made a turn
and she went,
she became a black. Just to be clear,
Sir, do you believe I think somebody should look into
that too?
When you ask a continue in a very hostile,
nasty tone, It's a direct question,
Sir. Do you believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is
ADEI hire as someone? I really don't know.
I mean, I really don't know.
Could be, could be. There are some and there are
plenty. I know this lady right over there.
Harris is a fantastic person who just interviewed me at
length
and we had a great interview,
I think. And I heard you got very good ratings.
Well, you told me it was the longest one of
your life.
So we had a good discussion.
Look, I want to talk about why you're here today.
I mean, it is not lost on us how divided
we are as a country.
And as you were coming today,
we really got to see that we were divided along
the lines of race, along the lines of gender.
And there is this question of in this moment where
we are,
why come here? What is your message today?
My message is to stop
people from invading our country that are taking,
frankly, a lot of problems with it.
But one of the big problems and a lot of
the journalists in this room,
I know and I have great respect for,
a lot of the journalists in this room are black.
I will tell you that coming,
coming from the border are millions and millions of people
that happen to be taking black jobs.
You had the best. What exactly is a black job,
Sir? A black job is anybody that has a job.
That's what it is. Anybody that has a job
and they're taking, they're taking the employment away from black
people.
They're coming in and they're coming in,
they're invading. It's an invasion of millions of people,
probably 151617 million people. I have a feeling it's much
more than that.
And and everybody's been seeing what's happened.
The first group of people,
the black population is affected most by that.
And Kamala is allowing it to happen.
She's the borders are she's the worst borders are in
the history of the world.
There's ever been a borders are like this.
She's never even essentially been said she was there once,
but not the right part of the border.
So she was a border.
She's done a horrible job.
These people are coming into our country and they're taking
black jobs and Hispanic jobs and frankly,
they're taking union jobs. Unions are being very badly affected
by all of the millions of people that are pouring
into our country.
And one thing, as we as we discussed,
many of these people are coming in from mental institutions,
from prisons, from jails. They're gang members in other countries.
Other countries are setting loose
their prisoners, they're opening up their prisons and their mental
institutions and they're taking their their bad people,
drug dealers, gang members, and they're bringing them into the
United States.
And by the way, their crime rate is going down
and our crime rate is going to be a disaster.
Mr. President, I want to get into
how you address some of the issues with black communities.
And I say that plural because we live in communities
of color that are different.
We're not all the same.
We don't vote the same.
We don't think the it's not monolithic.
So as you come here today,
I want to talk about something
that bursts. And this is the weight of the inflation
on this country right now.
The nonprofit Money Management International recently released data
from its mid year analysis that we have found a
52% rise in people who are seeking counseling for being
in credit debt.
They're paying for food that is sky high on their
credit cards and now they can't pay that off.
The credit counseling nonprofit MMI,
as I said, is saying now that they've seen surges
that they haven't seen since we were in a pandemic
of people in financial trouble.
Much of that falls on the the shoulders of single
moms,
single Black moms. When you look statistically,
how do you turn it around?
What's your plan for the Black community when it comes
to money?
So first of all, it's very hard to hear you
for whatever reason,
because of the fact that they have bad equipment,
because I guess, you know,
this woman was unable to get the right equipment.
But it's very hard for me to hear you.
But I can hear every other word.
It's very difficult actually. But so I don't know what
they can fix it or do something with it,
but I'll do the best I can with it.
The inflation is absolutely destroying our middle class,
our working class, virtually every class.
Inflation is a disaster in our country.
Inflation is a country Buster.
It breaks every country. And we had,
in my opinion, the worst inflation we've had.
They say it's 58 years,
but I think it's much more than that.
It's been devastating. And if you just take a look
at a lot of things they don't include,
like interest rates, interest rates went from
2.4% to 10% and you can't get the money.
People can't buy houses. They no longer have the American
Dream.
Young people, young black people,
they don't have the American dream anymore.
They can't buy a house.
They can't borrow the money because of the cost of
the money.
They can't buy it because of the cost of housing,
because of the cost of build it,
because of inflation. Inflation is a disaster and it's destroying
our country and it's destroying the black community probably as
much.
So what do you do than any?
What's your plan? You know what we have to do?
We have to bring down the cost of energy and
that's going to bring down the cost of inflation.
This was all started with a bad energy policy by
Joe Biden,
by the way, Just if I might,
I was running against a man named Biden.
You probably saw that
and he was losing very badly in the polls.
And then he had a rather bad debate.
I would say it was a bad debate.
I would say it was one of the worst,
worst debates in history. And his poll numbers crashed.
And instead of saying, you know,
let's keep going and maybe something happens the other way,
they said, oh, we're going to replace him.
Let's just replace him. That's like you're in a fight,
a price fighters in a fight.
He's not doing what you say.
Let's bring in another fighter.
So our whole campaign was steered toward him,
and now we have to steer to air.
But ultimately it's the same because they have bad policy.
They have policies of open borders,
unbelievable open borders, horrible energy policies.
They want to get rid of,
as you say, gasoline in cars.
They want to get rid of oil.
They want to get rid of
efficient, efficient heating. Environmentally, what they're doing is killing our
country.
They are absolutely destroying our country.
But the inflation is the thing that's hurting
the black worker, the black population and every other population
within our country.
Inflation is the worst it's been,
I think, in over 100 years.
And they'll Fact Check it.
They'll say it's only 58,
whatever it may be. They don't Add all the numbers.
They don't add the really bad numbers.
And you can check that too.
But inflation, Harris, is absolutely destroying this country and the
people in our country.
Mr. President, can I ask you another question that is
also impacting black and that's very clear now.
I'm sorry, it's very clear.
I hear you. OK, so Saudi Massey,
someone from Illinois, an unarmed black woman,
was shot the other day in her home by a
deputy sheriff.
The deputy has since been charged with murder.
You've said police would get immunity from prosecution if you
went.
Why should someone like that officer have immunity,
in your opinion? Immunity. Immunity.
I don't know the exact case,
but I saw something and it didn't look.
It didn't look good to me.
Are you talking with the water?
Right. Yeah. Well, police it did.
I mean, police unions are not backing this person either.
But again, why would they're going to be charging the
officer?
I guess they're charging the officer.
So why should he receive immunity?
Well, he might not. I mean,
it depends. It depends on what happens.
I'm talking about people that are much different cases than
that.
We need people to protect ourselves.
And by the way, in Chicago as an example,
last a few weeks ago,
July 4th weekend, we had
117 shootings and 17 deaths.
Nobody wants that. Nobody wants that.
We need to have our police officers have
the respect and dignity back.
In this particular case, I saw something that didn't look
good to me.
I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all.
So can you get a little more specific back to
the immunity question,
Who would make those change those?
Well, right now, for the most part,
for the most part,
people are protected by their unions,
by their police unions or by their police departments.
But I'm saying if, if I felt or if,
if a group of people would feel that somebody was
being unfairly prosecuted because the person did a good job,
maybe with crime or made a mistake,
an innocent mistake. There's a big difference between
being a bad person and making an innocent mistake.
But if somebody made an innocent mistake,
I would want to help that person.
What would those exceptions be?
What was what would determine you go after somebody and
it's a very close call and it's very dangerous.
And you know, they have
the policeman's life and woman is a very difficult thing
because
sometimes you have less than a second to make it,
you know, life and death
decision. And sometimes very bad decisions are made.
They're not made from an evil standpoint,
but they're made from the standpoint of
they made a mistake. So I want to follow up
really quickly.
You know, I find it interesting because you do talk
about reining in
prosecutors, especially when it comes to prosecutors that are prosecuting
you.
Why doesn't that skepticism apply to law enforcement?
Well, I've been prosecuted because I'm a political opponent of
two people that have weaponized our justice system.
I've been prosecuted. I just won the big case in
Florida.
Everyone said that was the biggest case.
That was the most difficult case,
and I just want it now.
Biden has a similar case,
except much worse. I was protected under the Presidential Records
Act.
Biden wasn't because he wasn't president at the time
and he had 50 years worth of documents.
And they ruled that he was incompetent and therefore he
shouldn't stand trial.
And I said, isn't that something?
He's incompetent and he can't stand trial and yet
he can be president. Isn't that nice,
Mr. President? They released him on the basis that he
was incompetent.
They said he had no memory and he was a
nice old guy,
but he had no memory and said therefore we're not
going to prosecute him.
I won the case and got very little publicity.
I didn't notice ABC doing any publicity on it.
George, are we coming to slap the doctor?
I'd love to move over.
I didn't notice you do any publicity on it at
all.
I won the case. The biggest case
this was this is an attack on a political opponent.
I have another one where I have a hostile judge.
We have you for a limited time,
Sir. I'd love to move on to different.
You're the one that held me up at 35 minutes.
Just so you understand.
If we can move on now to the state of
the race,
Sir, I want to get back to the campaign.
Senator JD Vance is your running mate.
He's had a lot of controversy lately.
And I want to read you a few things that
he has said in the past.
He said the Democrats running the country are a bunch
of childless cat ladies who were miserable at their own
lives and the choices they've made.
And so they don't. They want to make the rest
of the country miserable,
too. He's not talking here about how great it is
to be a parent.
He's attacking what he says are the choices people are
making to not have children.
Did you know that he had these views about people
who do not have children before you picked him to
be your running mate?
And do you agree with him?
No, I know this. He is very family oriented
and he thinks family is a great thing.
That doesn't mean he thinks that if you don't have
a family,
it's not. I know people with families,
I know people with great families.
I know people with very troubled families,
and I also know people with no families that didn't
meet the right person.
Things happen. You go through life,
you don't meet the right person.
He's not just talking about families here.
And some of those people that don't have children should
get less votes than those that do.
I'm just speaking for myself.
I think I'm speaking for him too.
He strongly believes in family,
but I know people with great families.
I know people with not great families that don't have
a family.
And the people without the family are far better.
They're superior in many cases.
OK, He's not saying they're not.
What he's saying is that he thinks the family experience
is a very important thing.
It's a very good thing,
but that doesn't mean that if you
grow up and you grow older and you don't meet
somebody that would be wonderful to meet and would have
been good,
that that's a bad thing.
He's not saying that. He my interpretation,
you'll have to ask him actually,
but my interpretation is he's strongly family oriented,
but that doesn't mean if you don't have a family,
there's something wrong with it.
Just one last point and then we'll move on.
Just just one of the bedrock principles of American life
is one person,
one vote. Senator JD Vance has suggested that someone who
has children should have more votes than a person who
does not have children.
I just want to be clear here.
Is that the position of your campaign?
Well, no, but it's not something I have ever heard
before.
I can tell you this right now.
You have illegal aliens coming into our country,
and many from prisons and many from.
Mental institutions and they want to give them votes.
I don't think they should have votes.
They came into our country illegally and they're taking the
vote away from all of the people in this room
that have been here a long time,
that have worked hard, that in many cases.
And you'll see this happening.
If I'm not elected, you're going to see it happen.
If I am, you're not going to have any problem,
but you're going to see it happening
a long time. You're going to see the people in
this room and people outside of this room are going
to be losing their jobs to people that have come
into this country illegally. Mr.
President, can we stay with just kind of the state
of the race right now?
Because I I felt like that vice president question,
candidate question was right in there with that.
So let's talk about JD Vance for a little bit.
He's had some stumbles out of the gate.
I don't know if you're hearing what we hear as
reporters,
but it's been a tough couple of weeks for him.
Why did you choose JD Vance?
Why didn't I? Why did you choose him?
And I'm having a hard time hearing,
too. Everybody out there can.
But I'll tell you why
I chose him because he's a very strong believer in
work
and the working man and woman,
and especially the working man and woman who have been
treated very unfairly because you have many of them,
many of them in this room.
You have many of those people.
They were treated very unfairly.
They worked very hard and they were treated unfairly.
He wrote the book that became a bestseller.
The movie became a smash hit.
He's a very smart guy without the benefit of having
a family that has contacts,
like a father that was well connected.
He got into Yale Law School.
He graduated in two years from Ohio State.
Summa Kamalani. I mean, you take a look at,
you know, his career has been an amazing career.
He started off at a level with a
difficult family situation, very difficult with the mother and the
father and everything else.
He ends up going to Yale Law School,
was one of the top students,
became the head of the law journal.
I mean, that's an amazing thing.
He went he's a four year.
He was in the military with great distinction
for four years, got out,
went into business, became successful in business,
very successful in business, actually did
public offerings and other things.
And I, you know, I have to believe in that.
I mean, he's somebody that was born in a rough
situation.
Most of the people know that situation because it was
very well documented in his book.
And I have a lot of respect for somebody that
can get into Yale
and become one of the best students in Yale
that meets a young woman at Yale who was also
outstanding.
And they get married. They have a beautiful family.
But he had a, you know,
he's made himself an amazing life.
He then gets goes to Ohio,
lives in Ohio, and he had my endorsement that helped.
But he wins the Senate,
he becomes a United States Senator.
So he's a United States senator.
And so Harris, like, I respect you for your success.
I respect people for their success.
I the reason I asked the question is because the
last time you and I sat and talked was the
day that you were shot.
We've been together for much of that day.
You left to go to Butler,
PA, and we didn't know what was next.
And two days after that,
I cannot understand your microphone.
I know it is really hard for me.
I mean, it's just I can understand you perfectly well
because she's closer.
I can understand you. Happy to hear that,
but I can't understand. I have a few
more questions because of the distance and the mics are
really in lousy shape,
but I cannot understand. So are you asking a question
what you're saying?
So what I wanted to say was the last time
we spoke,
you said some words that were prophetic
because I asked you who you wanted to choose for
vice president.
And you said normally it really wouldn't matter what they
would bring.
You know, you choose somebody that you think has a
future,
that sort of thing. But you said these words
3 1/2 hours before an attempted assassination on your life.
You told me that bad things happen,
Harris, and that's why this decision is important.
This time bad things happen.
You said it twice. When you look at JD Vance,
is he ready on day one?
Does he what ready on day one,
if he has to be?
I've always had great respect for him
and for the other candidates,
too. But I will say this,
and I think this is well documented,
historically, the vice president in terms of the election does
not have any impact.
I mean, virtually no impact.
You have two or three days where there's a lot
of commotion as to who like you're having it on
the Democrat side,
who it's going to be,
and then that dies down and it's all about the
presidential pick.
Virtually never has it mattered.
Maybe Lyndon Johnson mattered for different reasons than what we're
talking about.
Not for vote reasons, but for political reasons,
other political reasons. But historically,
the choice of a vice president makes no difference.
You're voting for the president,
and you can have a vice president who's outstanding in
every way.
And I think JD is,
I think that all of them would have been,
but but you're not voting that way.
You're voting for the president.
You're voting for me. If you like me,
I'm going to win. If you don't like me,
I'm not going to win.
I'm going to get my JD Vance question in
JD Vance. I'm going to get my JD Vance question
in.
To your point and to
Rachel's point, he, you know,
has a lot of opinions about childless women like myself
or divorced
people like yourself. Do you think,
well,
my point is that was said in a friendly manner.
My point is,
do you think the party,
the Republican Party, is getting a little bit too judgy
about people's lives when you think about abortion or when
you think about
what JD Vance is saying?
I don't think, look, I think that
the Democrat Party is really the one that has the
problem.
I think they're radical on abortion because they're allowing abortion
in the ninth month.
They're allowing the death, They're allowing the death of a
baby after the baby is born based on
governor of Virginia, based on the governor of Virginia.
They're allowing the death of the baby
after it's born. They're allowing abortions in the 8th and
9th month.
Well, Democrats have denied, I think they're
and, and I think the Republican Party is actually much
lesser.
I think I've made them much less radical perhaps.
But the Republican Party, what we're doing is bringing it
back to the states where everybody wanted it.
Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservative, everybody wanted abortion brought back.
They didn't want Roe V Wade in the federal government.
They wanted it. Everybody but the majority of Americans opposed
Roe V raid being overturned.
They don't know about this right now.
They're voting it brought it back to the states.
Now, I happen to believe in the three exceptions Ronald
Reagan believed
with rape, incest, life of the mother.
I, I do, I think most people do.
I think most Republicans do also.
But if you take a look right now,
they're doing, it's an amazing thing
out of the federal government.
It's in States and people are voting.
And I will say Ohio is,
let's say, let's call it a more liberal version
has been approved. Kansas, the same thing,
a little bit surprising to a lot of people.
But the people are now voting.
And it's taking this issue that's been going on for
52 years and it's torn our country apart and it's
giving it to the people to vote on.
And they're voting. And many states have already voted.
Others are in the process of voting.
And it's bringing it back to the people and a
vote of the people.
And it's not at all radical.
And I again, you have to follow your heart.
I happen to believe in the three exceptions.
Most people believe in the three exceptions.
Most Republicans believe in the exceptions.
But they don't want to see an abortion in the
ninth month or the 8th month.
Almost everybody agrees to that.
And they certainly don't want to see in the case
of the governor of Virginia,
the former governor in my head
who said we set the baby aside
and then we decide what to do,
meaning what do we do?
We execute the baby. Can I?
That's a radical, horrible position.
And some people, some people want that.
I don't want it. Most people don't.
Thank you. Can I just pivot really quickly to another
question
about you burn up health?
Harris, You're an active man.
You we see you golfing all the time.
But if if you win,
you'll still be president at 82,
which is older than Biden is right now,
but not mentally look, mentally
look, let's here's the question.
He shot. He shot, but most people would you consider
most people,
I know many people in their 80s and their 90s
that are in great shape.
Some of our greatest leaders you look at throughout the
world,
world history, the greatest leaders,
some of the greatest leaders in the world were in
their 80s.
But here's the question, would you consider stepping down if
you felt that your health was declining or would you?
Oh, absolutely. And who would?
I think I'd know. How would you make that decision?
I think I'd know. Look,
if I came onto a stage like this and I
got treated so rudely,
is this woman treated? Oh,
my goodness.
And I'm fine with it because she it does it.
She was very rude, Sir.
Very rude. That was a nasty.
That wasn't a question. She didn't ask me a question.
She gave a statement. That wasn't a question.
I repeated your statement.
Actually, you you said you would.
You would? Oh, absolutely. If I thought that I was
failing in some way,
I want people to be sharp.
I'll go step further. I want anybody running for president
to take an aptitude test,
to take a cognitive test.
I think it's a great idea.
And I took two of them and I aged them.
I took two of them.
But let me ask, I would like to have people
running for president,
and I don't mean by because they are
75 or 85. I think anybody running,
I'd like to do it.
People say it's not constitutional.
I would like to have something passed where you can
do it.
I think we should know.
I mean, I've watched what's happened in the last
couple of years under this gentleman,
and our country is a mess.
We have inflation, we have the millions of people falling
in.
We have Afghanistan, which was the
worst, most embarrassing moment in the history of our country.
What he has done to our country and her too,
what they've done to our country,
She has been a horrible vice president.
She's considered the worst vice president in the history of
our country.
Don't we interrupt you? But would you consider taking the
cognitive test,
Mr. President? I would love to and make it public.
Well, I've already taken two of them,
but I'll do it again.
Mr. Mr. President, how do you intend to?
I suggested Harris that let's take one.
I said Joe and I will go and take a
cognitive test now.
I'd do it with her too.
I would do it with her also.
You know what, She failed her law exam.
She didn't pass her law exam.
So maybe she wouldn't pass the cognitive test.
Mr. President, are you saying she wouldn't?
Pat, just to be clear,
just giving you the fact to be clear,
you don't think Harris, how do you intend?
And she didn't pass her bar exam,
and she didn't think she would pass it,
and she didn't think she was going to have her
pass it.
And I don't know what happened.
Maybe she passed it. I guess she passed it.
There's a man over here.
I think. Mr. President, I would love to ask you
about January 6th.
You've called yourself the candidate of law and order.
When Time magazine asked you if you would consider pardoning
all the rioters,
you said yes, absolutely. You called them patriots.
140 police officers were assaulted that day.
Their injuries included broken bones.
At least one officer lost an eye.
One had two cracked ribs,
two smashed spinal discs, another had a stroke.
Were the people who assaulted those
140 officers, including those I just mentioned,
Patriots who deserve pardons? Well,
let me bring it back to modern day.
Like about 5 days ago,
we had an attack on the Capitol,
horrible attack on the Capitol.
You saw the people that were protesting and spraying these
incredible monuments,
Bells, lions, all these magnificent limestone and granite with red
paint, red spray paint that will never actually come off,
especially in the limestone. It will never.
I'm a builder. I know about this stuff.
It'll never. You'll see it in 100 years from now.
They viciously attacked our government.
They fought with police. They fought with them
much more openly than I saw on January 6th.
What's going to happen to those people?
What's going to happen to the people in Portland that
destroy them?
But Sir, my question is on those.
What's going to happen? My question is on those rioters
who assaulted officers.
You have to would you pardon them?
What's going to happen? Oh,
absolutely I would. You would pardon them if they're innocent,
I would pardon them. They've been convicted.
And by the way, the Supreme Court just under
well, they were convicted by a very,
very tough system. They were.
How come the people that tried to burn down
in Minneapolis, how come the purple that took over a
large percentage of Seattle, how come nothing happened to them?
How come the people but so we're talking about people
that were seen beating officers with flag builders,
dragging them down the stairs.
They're on video. Have you seen that video,
Sir? You would pardon those?
You would pardon those rioters.
They shot a young lady in the face
who was protesting. They shot her.
The vet. You know, nobody died that day.
You do know that? But people died in Seattle.
Nobody died, but people died in Minneapolis.
You know, people died in Minneapolis
and nothing happens and nobody ever talks and nothing happens
to those people.
But you went after the J6 people with a vengeance.
And I'll tell you what,
what about the cops that were and and I'm all
for the police,
as you know. But what about the police that are
ushering,
ushering everybody into the Capitol?
Go in, go in, go in.
What about that? Look,
nothing is nothing is perfect in life.
But you have people from
Minneapolis, you have people just from five days ago in
Washington,
DC, they were having fist fights and fighting with the
police.
They were spraying and destroyed.
They were desecrating our monuments in Washington,
DC 5 days ago, and nothing happened to them.
And you have to, you can't have two systems of
justice.
That's why they went after me as a political opponent,
because they felt they couldn't win without doing that.
And we're going to win our cases and we're going
to be vindicated.
But I have to spend a lot of time on
that and money.
That's what they want. After the election,
they won't care, although in my case I think they
probably will because the hatred is pretty deep.
But I'll tell you, they went after me as a
political opponent.
That's never happened in our country before,
and it sets a terrible,
terrible precedent. What do you do on day one?
If you win, what's your first thing?
What do I do? I closed the border.
I do two things because I can do a lot
of things simultaneously.
I close the border. We don't want people coming.
We want people to come in Harris,
but they have to be vetted.
They have to be checked.
They have to come in legally.
We want I want people to come into our country,
but they have to be vetted.
They have to be checked.
So when you say what do I do that?
And I drill, baby drill.
I bring energy way down.
I bring interest rates are down.
I bring inflation way down so people can buy bacon
again,
so people can buy a ham sandwich again,
so that people can go to a restaurant and afford
it because right now people can't buy food.
Your grocery bills are up 40,
fifty, 60%, right? She's agreeing to me.
Oh, she's agreeing. Thank you.
I like you very much,
but it's but it's true your grocery bills are up
and then they're mandating that you buy an all electric
car.
You know, Elon Musk endorse me and he's a friend
of mine.
He's a good guy, he's a smart guy,
but I'm against all everybody having an electric car.
OK, I'm very much against that.
You have to be able to if you want a
hybrid or if you want a gasoline propelled car.
But you know, we have more liquid gold,
gasoline, oil under our feet than any other country,
more than Saudi Arabia, more than
Russia, more than any other country.
I want to use it.
I want to use what we have.
I want to bring down prices,
bring down costs. And I also have to stop the
invasion.
And remember, they're taking your jobs.
These people coming in are taking your jobs.
Project 2025, I think we have to leave it there
by the Trump team.
So leave it. We'll leave.
That is the last word.
Thank you so much, Mr.
Trump, for coming, coming today and joining us.
Well, thank you very much.
They've been telling. Thank you.
Thank you everybody very much.
Great. Thank you, Mr. Collins,
thank you. Any BJ will e-mail about details regarding the
conversation with Vice President Common Harris in September.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Sir.