Trump Addresses National Association of Black Journalists

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 49th 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, Semafor political reporter, Kadia Goba, and anchor of The Faulkner Focus and co-host of Outnumbered on Fox News. Harris Faulkner.

NABJ. Mic’s on. There 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 NABJ convention either as presidents or as presidential candidates in past years. NABJ is currently in conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris’ team to schedule a Q&A either in person or virtually in September.

(01:55)
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. NABJ has partnered with PolitiFact 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.

Hello.

Hi, Mr. Trump, Rachel Scott, ABC. Thank you.

How are you? How are you?

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 four Congresswoman women of color who were American citizens to go back to where they came from. You have used words like animal and rabid 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 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 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.

(04:54)
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, 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.

Mr. President-

I think it’s a very nasty question.

… I would love if you can answer the question on your rhetoric and why-

I have answered the question.

… you believe that Black voters can trust you with another four years.

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?

And 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 disgrace. I really do think it’s a disgrace.

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 is the first Black and Asian American woman to serve as vice president and be on a major party ticket, as a DEI hire. Is that acceptable language to you and will you tell those Republicans and those supporters to stop it?

How do you define DEI? Go ahead. How do you define it?

Diversity, equity, inclusion?

Okay. Yeah, go ahead. Is that what your definition-

That is literally the words.

Give me a definition then.

D-E-I.

Would you give me a definition of that? Give me a definition of that.

Sir, I’m asking you a question, a very direct question.

No, you have to define it. Define it for me if you would.

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 has always identified as a Black woman.

But you know what?

She went to a historically Black college.

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 became a Black person-

Just to be clear, sir, do you believe that she’s-

… and I think somebody should look into that too when you ask, continue in a very hostile, nasty tone.

It’s a direct question, sir. Do you believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is a DEI hire as some Republicans have said?

I really don’t know. I mean I really don’t know. It 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 on that interview.

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 are 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 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-

All right. Mr. President, can I-

… and 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 15, 16, 17 million people. I have a feeling it’s much more than that 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 border czar. She’s the worst border czar in the history of the world. There’s never been a border czar like this. She’s never even essentially been. She said she was there once, but not the right part of the border. So she was a border czar. 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.

(09:24)
Unions are being very badly affected by all of the millions of people that are pouring into our country. And one thing, Harris, 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 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

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 same.

Sure.

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 midyear 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 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 ’cause I guess 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 if 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.

(11:44)
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 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 or more-

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 debates in history, and his poll numbers crashed. And instead of saying, “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 prizefighter is in a fight. He’s not doing well, you say, “Let’s bring in another fighter.” So our whole campaign was steered toward him and now we have to steer it toward… 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 get rid of oil. They want to get rid of efficient heating.

Mr. President-

Environmentally, what they’re doing is killing our country. They’re 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. Yes, ma’am.

Mr. President, can I ask you another question-

Yes.

… that is also impacting Black Americans?

And that’s very clear now. Good.

I’m sorry?

It’s very clear. I hear you.

Okay, so Sonya 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 win. 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 good to me. It didn’t look good to me. Are you talking with the water, right?

Yeah. Well, police-

It didn’t look-

Police unions are not backing this person either.

Okay. Okay, and they’re going to-

But again, why would-

Are they going to be charging the officer? I guess they’re charging the officer?

So why should he receive immunity?

Well, he might not. 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, a few weeks ago on July 4th weekend, they had 117 shootings and 17 deaths. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants that. We need to have our police officers have their 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 distinctions?

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 I felt or 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 would determine an innocent mistake?

You go after somebody and it’s a very close call and it’s very dangerous and they have… The policeman’s life and woman is a very difficult thing because sometimes you have less than a second to make a 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.

Can I ask-

So I want to follow up really quickly.

Okay, I’m sorry.

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 won 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. 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, one of the-

But 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 therefore we’re not going to prosecute him. I won the case and it got very little publicity. I didn’t notice ABC doing any publicity on it, George-

We covered you extensively-

… George Slopadopoulos-

… sir. I’d love to move over on to different topics now.

… I didn’t notice you do any publicity on it at all. I won the case, the biggest case. This is an attack on a political opponent. I have another one where I have-

Sir, if you don’t mind, I’d love to move-

… a hostile judge-

We have you for a limited time, sir. I’d love to move on to different topics if we can.

… [inaudible 00:18:06] You’re the one that held me up for 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 are miserable at their own lives and the choices they’ve made, and so 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-

But he’s not just talking about-

Excuse me-

… families here. He also says that-

… and some of those people-

… people that don’t have children should get less votes than those that do.

That’s all right. I’m just speaking for myself.

Is that your campaign position?

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. Okay? 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 it would’ve been good that that’s a bad thing. He’s not saying that. 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 that.

Mr. President-

Just one last point, and then we’ll move on. Just one of the bedrock

… our principles of American life is one person, one vote. Senator J.D. 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-

People who are only Americans citizens are allowed to vote, sir.

… they’re taking the vote away from all 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 felt like that vice president question, candidate question was right in there with that. So, let’s talk about J.D. 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 J.D. Vance?

Why did I?

Why did you choose him? And I’m having a hard time hearing, too. Everybody out there can, but it’s hard to-

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, but 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 best-seller. 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 Cum Laude. I mean, you take a look at, 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.

(22:20)
He ends up going to Yale Law School and was one of the top students, became the head of the law journal. I mean, that’s an amazing thing. 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 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… He’s made himself an amazing life. He then 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.

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’d been together for much of that day. You left to go to Butler, Pennsylvania, and we didn’t know what was next.

Yeah.

Two days after that-

I’m sorry, I cannot understand. Your microphone is so-

I know. It is really hard for me to understand you, too.

I mean, it’s just, I can understand you perfectly.

Because she’s closer.

I can understand you.

I’m happy to hear that, sir.

But I can’t understand-

Really happy to hear that.

… Harris.

I have a few more questions.

Because of the distance and the mics are really in lousy shape, but I cannot understand-

Are you asking a question?

… what you’re saying? Go ahead.

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 choose somebody that you think has a future, that sort of thing. But you said these words three and a half 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 J.D. 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 J.D. Is, I think that all of them would’ve been, 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 J.D. Vance question in.

J.D. Vance?

I’m going to get my J.D. Vance question in. To your point, and to Rachel’s point, he has a lot of opinions about childless women like myself, or divorce people like yourself. Do you think… Well, I mean, my point is here-

But at least was said in a friendly manner.

My point is, do you think the Republican Party’s getting a little bit too judgy about people’s lives, when you think about abortion or when you think about what J.D. 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-

But, I think it’s about freedom, right?

They’re the death of a baby after the baby is born based on governor of Virginia.

Sir, that’s illegal in every state in America.

Based on the Governor of Virginia, they’re allowing the death of the baby-

Executing a baby in every state in the country is illegal.

… after it’s born.

It’s a crime.

They’re allowing abortions in the eighth and ninth month.

Well, Democrats have denied-

I think they’re right, 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, conservatives, everybody wanted abortion brought back. They didn’t want Roe, v. Wade in the federal government. They wanted it, everybody wanted it back-

But the majority of Americans oppose-

Excuse me.

… Roe v. Wade being overturned. Multiple poles have shown that, sir.

That 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 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 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 has 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.

(28:10)
And 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 eighth 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 I might add, who said, we set the baby aside and then we decide what to do, meaning what do we do, we execute the baby. That’s a radical, horrible position, and 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 brought up health, Harris. You’re an active man. We see you golfing all the time, but if you win, you’ll still be president at 82, which is older than Biden is right now.

But not mentally. Look, mentally.

Here’s the question.

He’s shot. He’s shot. But most people-

Would you consider-

Most people, I know many people in their eighties and their nineties 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 eighties.

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 make-

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 me.

Oh my goodness.

And I’m fine with it, because she was very rude, sir. Very rude. That was a nasty… That wasn’t a question. She didn’t ask me a question-

Sir, could you answer question?

She gave a statement, that wasn’t a question.

I repeated your statement, sir, actually.

You said you would make that decision.

Oh, absolutely. If I thought

… that I was failing in some way. I want people to be shocked. I’ll go a 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 aced them.

Well, can I just-

I took two of them, but let me ask.

Yeah. Yeah.

I would like to have people running for president, and I don’t mean because they’re 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’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.

Mr. President-

Don’t mean to interrupt you, but would you consider taking the cognitive test?

Mr. President-

I would love to do it-

And make it public?

Well, I’ve already taken two of them, but I’ll do it again.

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’re saying she wouldn’t pass? Just to be clear, you-

I’m just giving you the facts.

To be clear, you don’t think Harris would pass a cognitive test?

How do you intend… And look-

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 ever pass it. And I don’t know what happened. Maybe she passed it. I guess she-

She did pass it.

There’s a man over here.

She did, in fact, pass it.

I think he must work for her.

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.”

Sure.

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 five days ago. We had an attack on the Capitol, a 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. You’ll see it in a hundred 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 in Portland that destroyed that city?

My question is on those-

What’s going to happen to people that tried to burn-

My question is on those rioters who assaulted officers.

Excuse me. You have to ask-

Would you pardon those people?

… what’s going to happen. Oh absolutely, I would.

You would pardon those-

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 tough system. They were… How come the people that tried to burn down Minneapolis, how come the people that took over a large percentage of Seattle, how come nothing happened to them? How come the people that-

But sir, we’re talking about people that were seen beating officers-

No, no, no. We’re talking about federal buildings.

… with flag poles, dragging them down the stairs. They’re on video. Have you seen that video, sir?

Really? Oh, really? Well, they shot-

You would pardon those rioters?

They shot a young lady in the face who was protesting. They shot her the face. Nobody died that day. You do know that, but people died in Seattle. Nobody died, but people died in Minneapolis.

140 officers were assaulted that day.

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 I’m all for the police, as you know, but what about the police that are ushering everybody into the Capitol? “Go in, go in, go in.” What about that? Look, nothing is perfect in life, but you have people from Minneapolis, you have people just from five days ago in Washington D.C., they were having fist fights and fighting with the police. They were spraying and destroying. They were desecrating our monuments in Washington D.C. five days ago, and nothing happened to them.

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And 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 close the border. I’d 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 people-

Legal, yeah.

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, 50, 60%, right? She’s agreeing to me. Oh, she’s agreeing. Thank you. I like you very much,

Mr. President. I think we are-

But it’s true. Your grocery bills are up. And then they’re mandating that you buy an all-electric car. Elon Musk endorsed me, and he’s a friend of mine. He’s a good guy. He is a smart guy, but I’m against everybody having an electric car. Okay? 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 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. That is the last word. Thank you so much, Mr. Trump, for coming today and joining us.

Well, thank you very much.

They’ve been telling us.

Thank you, [inaudible 00:37:04]. Thank you everybody, very much. Great honor.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you.

NABJ will email about details regarding the conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris in September. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.