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Soon: Trump Expected To Take Questions From Reporters; Trump Attacks Harris On Economy & Immigration; Trump Takes Questions From Reporters At New Jersey Golf Club; Trump Rants About His Legal Troubles At News Conference. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired August 15, 2024 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:00]
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: A pack of MS 13 gang members, the toughest in the world, probably the toughest gangs in the world. They come from -- they come from different parts of South America, and they want to come in Long Island, not too recently, but recently. They carved up with a knife two beautiful 16-year-old girls who are walking to school. And the reason they used a knife instead of shooting them was very simple, because it's more painful. They wanted to watch them agonize.
And these are animals, and we have to get them out of our country, or we have to put them in jail because we don't want them back. Sometimes you have to put them in jail because their country doesn't want them back. They'll send them back the way they do. Just so you know, I know all of the people that we're dealing with at --
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, we've all been watching former president Donald Trump delivering remarks. He's been going on for almost a half an hour so far, an opening statement at what was supposed to be a news conference. So far, he hasn't answered one question. Hasn't taken any questions. He's doing all of this at his New Jersey Golf Club. We're going to check back in once he starts taking some questions from reporters.
But right now, I want to get some analysis from our political experts who are joining us right now. Kristen Holmes, you cover the campaign, the Trump campaign for us, he appears to be talking pretty much on his message so far, reading from his notes, carefully scripted as we all can see for much of his remarks, is this what his campaign actually wanted him to do today?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is what they've been wanting him to do for the last several weeks. I mean, he's not just carefully scripted, he's literally reading almost word for word from a binder in front of him. Now he has props. They're framing this as a speech on the economy. And I continue to remind our viewers, this is one of the messages that they have tried to get Trump to hammer home.
If you look at the polling pre-Kamala Harris from President Joe Biden, Donald Trump polls ahead of Joe Biden on the issue of the economy. They believe that he could poll ahead of Kamala Harris on that issue if he continues to link Harris to the Biden administration, say that any policies of Biden's were the policies of Kamala Harris. You saw that yesterday, really for the first time, him kind of trying out these new attack lines where he says Kamala Harris says on day one he's -- she's going to end inflation. Well, her day one was three and a half years ago. Allies have been trying to get him to say this for the last several weeks. They believe that Kamala Harris overall can be painted in their own -- in the way that they want her to be painted, which is negatively and as a radical liberal. However, Donald Trump has taken his own approach to this, and one that many of the people close to him, many of the people who want to see him elected in November believe is the wrong approach, focusing on personal attacks, focusing on these fringe conspiracy theories.
Now, the big interesting part of all of this, how does he handle taking questions from reporters? He's obviously still talking there. We don't know how long he's going to go. This is already longer than what we saw last week when I was at his press conference at Mar-a- Lago, but when he interacts with those reporters, that's when he gets off script. That is when the door is open for him to talk about those fringe conspiracy theories, for him to go off message.
And that's really why some of these allies are surprised he's doing this again. Now this again is all part of the narrative we've heard from Donald Trump and his team that he is taking questions from the press so does JD Vance, but Kamala Harris is not. But again, what we're waiting to see is what actually happens when Donald Trump puts that binder down and speaks to reporters.
BLITZER: Well, once he starts taking reporters' questions, we'll go back and listen to hear what he has to say.
David Chalian, you're a political director. What do you make of what we've heard from Trump so far today?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: You know, I think he is trying to do a sort of traditional political bit of stage craft here, which is to what they call bracket your opponent's event. And so, understanding that Kamala Harris is going to go and put out a slice of her economic policy tomorrow in North Carolina, he's trying to pre but that and obviously draw the contrast that if indeed he does take questions, that he is willing to take questions when she wasn't.
It was interesting to hear one thing he said, Wolf, when he said, you know, I've been around politicians long enough to know they always return to their original position. I don't know if that means that Donald Trump was signaling that he was going to be prochoice again at some point, that he would start donating to Democrats, that he's going to start campaigning again on the repeal of Obamacare, which he went away from. So, I'm not sure exactly what he was trying to do there other than, of course, highlight that Kamala Harris ran on super liberal positions in a Democratic primary in '19 and '20, or she didn't make it to '20, actually, she was out by the December of '19, and that we know through her aides in comments to reporters that she has tossed aside a lot of those positions. And clearly the Trump campaign wants to try and tie those more liberal perhaps less popular with the voters she needs right now in a general election context, positions around her neck. [17:05:09]
BLITZER: You know David Urban from what we've seen of Trump over these many years so far, this has been a somewhat low energy performance from Trump, at least so far. Are you happy with the economic message he's been delivering?
DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Wolf, I love it. I love just how it's going. It's perfect, right? Let's talk about the issues, Wolf. I think you know, Kristen hit on earlier when Trump said, you know, Kamala Harris said day one she's going to attack inflation, that she's been on the job for three and a half years. Her day one was three and a half years ago.
So, I love that. I love the messaging. I love the props. This is a little bit traditional. It's a little bit traditional politics, which Trump supporters aren't used to seeing. As David Chalian says, a little stage craft there with some items where they used to cost what they cost today, showing the kind of rampant inflation. So, I love it. I'll take low energy and on message any day. I think it's perfect.
BLITZER: You know, David Axelrod, Trump has been taking a direct aim, as we all know, at Kamala Harris, blaming her for price increases, slamming her plan to ban on price gouging. You think that has been effective, at least so far?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, we'll see Wolf. I don't know that I would call what I just heard perfect, because he can help but include sort of side, long references that are personal in nature and so on. One thing that caught my ear was he condemned her for not wanting to extend the Trump tax cut. I think that one of the single least popular elements of his of his presidency was that tax cut, which heavily favored very wealthy people and corporations at a huge price tag, and now he wants to make them permanent. That gives her something to work with on Friday.
But what this press conference does reflect is that his team is trying to drag on him into following a script. I'm not sure he completely did here, but he is moving toward that end. This is the -- this is the case they want to make that she was copilot on this journey with Biden, and therefore she should be held accountable for everything that people perceive hasn't gone well under Biden. And I mean by that token, I guess that you could blame Mike Pence for the all the policies of the Trump administration, but we'll see if it sticks. She's on a glide path right now.
They're going to hit some bumps in the road. They're trying to throw some bumps in the way, but he's trying to stop her momentum, which has been substantial since the day that Joe Biden dropped out and she dropped in.
BLITZER: And when it comes to tax cuts, David Axelrod, as you well know, Trump was reducing tax cuts for people making more than $300,000 or $400,000 a year, very wealthy people. The Biden-Harris administration has been trying to reduce taxes for people, for middle class workers, people making a whole lot less, and that's a huge difference between these two campaigns, right?
AXELROD: Well, yes, and I think you'll see a focus on that. I don't know what she's going to say, but I suspect that she will draw that contrast, that they want tax cuts that are going to help working families, or they're going to speak to a cost of childcare and raising children and trying to help working families with those expenses, the cost of elder care and taking care of older loved ones. Those -- you know, if I were them, I would want to contrast the nature of the kind of tax cuts they want to give to the kind of tax cuts Donald Trump wants to give.
And, you know, I mean, look, a hero of the press conference, so far from what I heard was the mention of Elon Musk. And I think you can guess that the supporters of Kamala Harris are going to point out that he -- Elon Musk is the American who Donald Trump wants to help and people like him, they want to help working families. That's the argument that they're going to make, and that's the argument that they should make. And if they stick to that argument, I think they can continue their momentum.
URBAN: Yes. Wolf, I was just --
BLITZER: All right, everybody standby. I want to bring in our CNN -- yes, go ahead.
URBAN: I was going to say quickly, I just add that I think if the Trump -- president -- former president, and the campaign sticks with the messaging that, you know, Kamala Harris's name is on the door. She has been the copilot for the past three and a half years. Her day one started three and a half years ago. She wants to fix things for working class Americans, why hasn't she done it to date? I think that's a message that resonates, and you're going to hear repeatedly throughout this next week in the coming next, you know, 80 plus days.
[17:10:08]
BLITZER: All right, everybody standby. I want to bring in our senior reporter, Daniel Dale, for a fact check in what we just heard from Trump.
You do all the fact checking beautifully, Daniel. What stood out to you from what we have just heard in this so called opening statement? He still hasn't started answering reporters' questions.
DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: There's a whole bunch of lying, Wolf. Many claims that I've debunked before, but I want to focus on two claims I haven't heard and made before, both of which are egregiously wrong. He claimed that California allows people to rob stores as long as the thieves take under $950 and he said that Vice President Harris is the one who did that. Both parts of that claim are totally false. First of all, shoplifting continues to be illegal in California at any amount.
What actually happened was that in 2014 there was a referendum, a proposition on the ballot, passed by California voters that made it a misdemeanor rather than a felony to steal under $950 worth of goods. But it's still illegal. It's still punishable by up to six months in jail. Now as for the claim that Vice President Harris was the one who did that, in fact, she did not do it. She was attorney general, and as attorney general, she said it would be inappropriate for her to even take a public position on this initiative, so she stayed neutral on the matter.
Now Trump also claimed that mortgage rates are now 10 percent. Well, according to our really good business reporter Bryan Mena, the standard 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 6.9 percent in the week ending August 15, not even close to 10 percent. There are a whole bunch of other false claims, Wolf, but I fact checked them before, including earlier this week, so I'll leave it at that for now, but just a whole bunch of nonsense from former President Trump.
BLITZER: All right. We're going to continue to stay in very close touch with you. Daniel Dale, thank you very much.
We're continuing to monitor the former president of United States. He's still with this so called opening statement that's been going on well more than a half an hour, close to 40 minutes already. Usually at a news conference like this when a candidate or a president, for that matter, says there's going to be a news conference, they usually open with a short opening statement, maybe five, perhaps 10 minutes. But this has been going on and on. We're going to continue to monitor this event by Trump once he starts taking reporters' questions. We'll have some more live coverage of that as well.
Also coming up, why President Biden and Vice President Harris teamed up on stage just days before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. And after mediators talked into the night, what's next in the Gaza ceasefire and hostage negotiations? We're live here in Tel Aviv, and you're in the Situation Room.
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[17:16:51]
BLITZER: We're live here in the Middle East where Gaza ceasefire mediators are getting ready for a second round of talks after a very high stakes day of negotiations in Doha, Qatar. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is on the scene for us in Doha right now.
Jomana, what do we know about the talks today and what happens next?
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, sources are telling us that the talks have concluded for the day. They're expected to resume again on Friday, tomorrow here in Doha, with the participation of the Israeli delegation as well, of course, as the mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt. And as you know, Hamas is not part of these talks. They have said that they're not going for another round of negotiations. They say they have accepted President Biden's proposal, that framework agreement, but they are willing, they say, to speak with the mediators on plans for the implementation of that agreement.
And our sources are saying that the Qataris and the Egyptians will be engaging with Hamas separately, as they always have in these indirect proximity talks. And that essentially is relaying whatever comes out of the talks with the Israelis back to Hamas. And we understand from our sources that the mediators are continuing to work to try and bridge the gaps that remain on key differences between both sides.
Wolf, everyone went into these talks with very low expectations. No one was expecting that they are going to reach any sort of a major breakthrough or sign an agreement at the end of the day. There are some serious sticking issues that remain that they are trying to work through, but the fact that these talks have resumed, the fact that they are going to go into a second day, is seen as a positive and a step in the right direction, Wolf.
BLITZER: Jomana, all this comes as a grim milestone is reached inside Gaza. Tell us about that.
KARADSHEH: Well, Wolf, as these talks resumed, a grim milestone reached with more than 40,000 people Palestinians killed over the past 10 months of this war. This announced today by the health ministry in Gaza, and they say the majority of those who have been killed over the past 10 months are women and children, nearly 17,000 children who have lost their lives. And while we can't verify these figures, Wolf, it has been clear that it is the civilians in Gaza who are paying the heaviest price, that it is the children in Gaza who continue to bear the brunt of this war.
We want you to take a look at this report that captures the reality of this war for Gaza's children. And, Wolf, we have to warn viewers that some of the images they're about to see are graphic and disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Everything we're about to show you was filmed over the course of four hours in a single day, a snapshot of 10 months ago for Gaza's children.
[17:20:02]
Nothing can erase what these little eyes have seen, but they've come here to try to forget, even if just for a little while. Most of these children were on their way to queue up for water, one of the newfound hardships of this miserable life when they stopped for a makeshift puppet show. Cardboard and string, it's a distraction, but kids have to relate to their make believe friends with stories just like theirs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When the war happened, everything was bombed and destroyed. We were displaced to the south. Dad was worried about us, and we are searching for safety.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Twelve-year-old Hala (ph) longs for the days when she had a home in Gaza City.
HALA (PH) (through translator): Life is unlivable. I only live for my siblings and parents. Here, I stop thinking about all that's on my mind, I watch the show and play with kids. KARADSHEH (voice-over): This might seem like a surreal scene, but at times of war, life does go on, as does the horror. In the same area of Gaza, injured children arrive into one of the last, hardly standing hospitals. It's a constant stream of casualties from an Israeli strike nearby. Among them a severely injured toddler. He clings on to the stranger who brought him here.
There's no room left. They leave him on the floor. His cries, his pain drowned out by the chaos. Outside, another ambulance pulls up with another boy, here for the morgue.
It wasn't the bombs that killed him. He starved to death, his father says. As they prepare him for burial, his emaciated body lays bare for the world to see what Israel's siege has done to Gaza's most vulnerable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Put us somewhere safe and then fight as much as you want. I wish God would take us all and let us follow this child. I'm holding it together now, but when I leave here, I'll probably collapse. Maybe I'm pretending to be strong. But inside, I can't take it anymore.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): A broken father, like so many parents who helplessly watch their children die in their arms, their suffering has become a statistic by which the world that watches on measures the awfulness of this war. His name was Mohammed Abu Kalub (ph). He was only nine, born with cerebral palsy. He died by a garbage dump where his displaced family was forced to camp.
Back inside the emergency room, that toddler is still on the floor, barely conscious, surrounded by medics, but no family by his side. No one knows his name. Thousands of children like him have arrived to hospitals injured and alone throughout this war.
We found that toddler days later at another hospital, his name is Abdul Kamal al Ahq (ph) in intensive care. He hasn't uttered a word since the attack. The shock is still clear behind his glassy eyes, the dirt still under his fingernails. It's his aunt who's here with him. His mother was seriously injured.
Kamal still doesn't know his 14-month old sister is gone. Days after our cameraman filmed him in the ICU, we received the news that Kamal did not survive. He was three.
This one day, showing how fragile existence is in this place where life death and stolen moments of joy meet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KARADSHEH (on camera): And, Wolf, this is what is at stake at these talks, the lives of children like little Kamal and the lives of Israeli hostages who were ripped away from their families, from their loved ones, more than 300 days ago.
BLITZER: Jomana Karadsheh in Doha Qatar for us. Jomana, thank you very much for that report. Up next, what President Biden and Vice President Harris have been saying today about one another as they teamed up on stage for the first time since she replaced him on the Democratic ticket.
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[17:26:45]
TRUMP: It has to stop. The killing has to stop. Yes, please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, President Trump.
You've spoken very passionately about how God saved your life. And I'm wondering, have you put much thought into why God saved your life? As in, for what purpose has he been shielding and protecting you?
TRUMP: So, I don't know if you heard the question. You've spoken about God saving your life, that I've spoken passionately about it, and something happened, because that was a miracle. I never looked that way. The audience was massive, and it was in front of me. I never have the -- that particular graph. That was a graph on, as you all know, now that it's very -- I think everyone knows it very well, but it showed the great numbers on illegal immigration.
It was the lowest point we've ever had, and it was one that I use less than 20 percent of the time. It's always at the end of the speech, not at the beginning of the speech, and it's always on the left side, not the right side. And yet, for some reason, I called it, it's not on a teleprompter. I do things largely without a teleprompter, frankly, because it's hard to hold an audience if you're going to go for an hour and a half or two hours reading a script. And I just talked about it, and I moved to my right, turned sharply to my right, ping.
And if I didn't do that, I'm not here with you. So, yes, God has something to do with it. It's a miracle, and God had something to do with it. And maybe it's -- we want to save the world. This world is going down. This world is going down. So, it could be.
But I believe that. I believe that my sons are very good shooters. They're like scratch golfers better relatively speaking, with huge, great shooters. And Eric and Don both told me from 130 yards, I said, well, that's pretty far away, isn't it? They said, No, that's like a one foot putt with, you know, weapons like the one being used.
Plus he was a good shooter. This guy was a good shooter. He went to the range and shot a lot, and he was supposed to be a pretty good shooter. They said a bad shooter would hit the target almost 100 percent of the time. So, something happened.
And I have to say the Secret Service sniper did an amazing job. He had five seconds to find the target and hit the target, and he hit the target within, think of this, five seconds, and he was much further away, because he was over here, and this other person was over there. So you have to give credit. And I have to also say about secret service, when I was hit, I knew it, because when I touched there was blood pouring all over my hand. I said, I guess I know what that is. And I went -- I was going down for protection, and they were screaming, get down, get down, there was bullets. And those Secret Service guys were and person, Kate (ph), they were on top of me in a matter of, I think three seconds, it was time dead, and bullets were coming out. I would hear the bullet.
I didn't realize you could hear it, but now I know very well those bullets were going right over my head. They were there and very brave. There was nobody that said, I'm not going to be going there. They just -- they were there very quickly. And they were very brave.
They were -- and there were mistakes made, obviously, shouldn't have been up there. The roof should have been taken care of. And there were mistakes made. There's no question about it, but there was a lot of bravery also, we have to remember that. OK. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, Mr. President --
TRUMP: Right
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. We're talking about credit card debt for just a second. You've got all these records.
TRUMP: It reached the record.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a record.
TRUMP: Right.
UNDIENTIFIED MALE: 48 percent up.
TRUMP: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In many families using going into debt just to pay for groceries.
TRUMP: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your message to Americans right now, that you can make America affordable again?
TRUMP: Well, I'm not saying my message to them. So he said, credit card debt is at the all-time high. It's never been like this. Watch you -- what's your message to America, how we're going to solve that, and what will they do? You know what I think they should do? They should -- on November 5 or sooner, if it's early voting, which largely it is, which is ridiculous. We should have one day voting paper ballots. We should have voter ID, and we should have proof of citizenship, because people are voting, and people are going on now without citizenship, but we should do it, and maybe we'll be able to get that done too. It's one of the things I want to do.
But my message to them would be very simple, vote for Trump and we're going to fix the problem. We're going to get it fixed. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Follow up question.
TRUMP: Yes. Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kamala has been promising on day one, I'll do this. And for basically four years, she's promised this day one.
TRUMP: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What will you do on day one to turn this country around?
TRUMP: So she is saying, when she gets in, she's in now, and especially with Biden, because, I mean, he's not in the best of shape, but you know what, she's in there now. She could do anything she wants, and she's still saying, If you elect me, I'll do this. I'll do -- why didn't she do it?
Here's my one question. That's the easiest question, because she complains about everything, everything, every -- why didn't she do it? That's the all I ask.
On day one, we're going to drill baby drill, and we're going to close the border, and we're going to let people come in, but they're going to come in legally. They're going to come into our country legally. But on day one we're going to do many things. You know, I can do a lot of things at one time, but the questions often is, what's the first thing you're going to do?
I would say we have a tie. We're going to close the border. We're not going to let -- we're going to stop the millions of people coming in, and we're going to take all of the criminals that have come in, and we know every one of them. I know. And the local police know better than anybody else. They're going to work with us.
I've spoken to a lot of the sheriffs, every police, virtually every law enforcement group in America, has endorsed Trump. I don't think anybody has endorsed Kamala. Not one. I don't think anybody has endorsed them. And you know that better than anybody in Florida, all over California, they've endorsed me. We have the relationship I have with law enforcement, and these are great people and people that we have to really cherish and respect and let them do their job and protect them.
And you'll always have a bad apple. And everything you have bad apples as reporters that I can tell you many, I'd say about 80 percent, but you're always going to have bad apples. But you can have very -- you have very, very few, when you look at it, very, very few. You have to let them do their job. You have to protect them.
But basically, we're going to drill, baby drill. We're going to get the energy prices down almost immediately, and we're going to close the border, and we're going to get the crooked ones out, the bad ones out, and we're going to let a lot of people come in, because we need more people, especially with AI coming and all of the different things, and the farmers need, everybody needs but we're going to make sure that they're not murderers, killers, drug dealers and the kind of people that we have largely coming in right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President. Mr. President. Many of your allies who want you to win in November say your current strategy isn't working, that you need to stop with the personal attacks on Kamala Harris and deliver a more disciplined message. Do you agree? And also, you added more people to your campaign today. Is that a sign of a shifting strategy?
TRUMP: No, I think it's a sign of, we want to close it out. We had -- we have great people. Susie is fantastic, as you know, and Chris is fantastic. They're leading it. Corey Lewandowski is coming in. He'll be, you know, personal envoy, or he'll be at some level, they're going to be, you know, they're doing a great job.
Look, we've taken with all of the abuse we've taken from the fake news media, all of this horrific abuse we take. And all I want to do is make the country get -- all I want to do is have strong borders and good education. We want to have choice for education, so important, so many different things. You would think it would be the other way. We rebuilt the military. We did so many great things, but that's the way it's been for Republicans, and I guess more so for me than anybody in history.
And that's OK, because we're leading in the polls. For the most part, we're leading in the polls. We were leading Biden by a lot. We're leading now, but I think when she's exposed, I think we're going to beat her by a lot more than we would have beaten Biden by because he had a little group of people that have been voting for him for a long time. She doesn't have that. People don't know who she is.
As far as the personal attacks -- because of what she's done to the country.
[17:35:00]
I'm very angry at her that she'd weaponized the justice system against me and other people, very angry at her. I think I'm entitled to personal attacks. I don't have a lot of respect for her. I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence, and I think she'll be a terrible president. And I think it's very important that we win, and whether the personal attacks are good bad. I mean, she certainly attacks me personally. She actually called me weird. He's weird. It was just a sound bite. And she called J.D. and I weird. He's not weird. He was a great student at Yale. He went to Ohio State, graduated in two years at the top of his class, and all of these different things.
And we have this guy that's running a failed, really, a very failed state, who's had a terrible career. I mean, you have him saying they're weird. No, he's a weird guy, and she's weird in her policy, who wouldn't want to have strong borders, who doesn't want to have lower taxes.
You know, all my life, I've watched as politicians campaigned, and I've always been on, you know, for the most part, on the other side, on the side that these people are on, and they always talked about, we're going to reduce taxes. This is the only campaign I've ever heard where they're saying, we're going to increase your taxes, and then people say they're going to vote for her. I don't know.
So I don't think so. I don't think people know who she is yet. When people because really, people didn't know. You can ask the man on the street. I saw it on one of the shows today. They asked him in the street, what's the last name of Kamala? Nobody knew. It's Harris. Nobody knew the last name.
I don't even use it because nobody knows who I'm talking about. People don't know who she is. She's a radical left socialist. But beyond that, I mean, she's way beyond socialism, who's going to destroy our country,
And when they find out, I think you're going to see something. But right now, even not knowing her, and with all of the, like, the cover of Time Magazine. They didn't put a picture. They got a great artist to do with. What was that all about? You know, what was that all about?
The whole thing is crazy. I just want to win for the country. Some people say, Oh, why don't you be nice? But they're not nice to me. They want to put me in prison, you know, just so you understand, you know, they tell me I should be nice. They want to put me in prison. It's never happened before in the history of our country. I did nothing wrong.
I have crooked judges. I have crooked prosecutors, and they're all Democrats, all Democrat areas, other than in Florida, where you had a brilliant judge who ruled in my favor. I won the case. The documents case won it in its entirety. And Jack Smith, deranged Jack Smith, suffered a defeat.
But in New York City, everything is clubhouse, everything. I know it very well. I grew up there. I know it very well. And we have a very crooked system, and it's one of the reasons that New York is dying. Nobody wants to come in, no companies want to come in because the courtroom system is so corrupt, both at a federal level and at a state level and a city level, and they put you into an area where you have 3 percent Republican vote. It's all a rigged deal, just like Fani, F-A- N-I, Fani with her boyfriend, and I think that's been discredited too. They've been discredited.
But think of it. They don't want me to be a little bit nasty. They want to put me in prison. Me. They want to put -- never happened before in the history of our country. It's happened in third world countries, but it's never happened here. And they're in danger because you create a precedent for doing that.
And once that happens, that's a really bad thing, you know. And the years before, and I've said this a few times, not too much, but with Hillary, she was subpoenaed by Congress to give everything she's got, and she burned it, she acid washed it, bleach bit, they call it. She totally scrubbed it. And then they broke everything with hammers, with fire, they burned it. And then she said, I don't have anything. What turned out that she had a lot to give. And everybody said, lock her up. Lock her up. And I used to go easy, just easy, easy. Then we won.
And I said, wouldn't it be terrible? And, you know, I lose some people are upset when I did this, but you have to look at it maybe differently now. I say, wouldn't it be terrible to put the wife of the president, former president of the United States, into a prison? Now think of that.
Hillary Clinton, she was Secretary of State. She was the wife of a president of the United States who used to be a friend of mine before I ran for, you know, for politics. He was a friend of mine. Used to play my golf course all the time. I have a great golf course right next to their home in Westchester. He used to be there all the time. It's his favorite course.
But you know what, I could have done that very easily.
[17:40:00]
She was so guilty. And I said to my people, wouldn't it be terrible to put, I don't know, wouldn't it be terrible to take -- and we won the election. Wouldn't it be terrible to take a former Secretary of State who was the wife of the president of the United States and put her into a prison? But that's what they want to do with me, and I did nothing wrong. It's all crooked politics and really crooked judges.
You know, I have a gag order. You know, I can't even talk about it right now. You know that I have a judge who has a gag order. He doesn't want me to talk. And the reason he doesn't want me to talk is because what I say is so devastating and so horrible for him and but think of it. I have a gag order. There's never been a politician in history.
I mean, probably for any politician for a city council office. I'm the leading candidate to be president. I won virtually unanimously, and I beat everybody the quickest. It was the quickest primary in history. There's never been one that was done so early.
I had people that were very talented people, and I beat them by 45, 50, 60, 70 80, points. There was never a close race. Nobody was even close, good talent, they weren't close. And I'm running against the Democrats, so it's a two party system, whether we like it or not, Republican -- I'm the Republican and I'm leading, but let's say I'm tied, but I'm leading. I believe I'm leading by a lot more than people think, and I believe will be leading by a lot more.
And I have a judge who put a gag order in me. So when you ask me a question, or when you ask me a question, I can't give you an answer, because if I give the answer, they want to put you in jail. He said we'll put him in jail if he talks beyond the gag order.
And this is in a state where the unfortunately, the laws have been very bad and they haven't been upheld by the appellate divisions generally. Although I have one case where we -- judge -- a certain Judge, I won't use names, but the attorney general case where we won five appeals on the same case, the most ever. It was a ridiculous, horrible decision where you have a very, very biased voting population and a judge that whose hatred of Donald Trump was beyond belief, and we won the case, but he ruled a ridiculous amount of money. Civil case ruled ridiculous.
Now this is a -- what they're doing is interference with an election. They want to interfere. Look at the one thing they want to sentence right before the election takes place. Let's sentence him, because who's going to vote for him if we sentence. Let's sentence him right before.
No. This is interference with a presidential election at a state level, and it's a state that always goes Democrat. It's interference. And as you know, the Supreme Court ruled recently on immunity, and I'm immune from all of this stuff that they charged me with.
But isn't it a terrible thing? And yet, Hillary Clinton, when it came time to make a decision I said, I don't want to put the wife of the president of the United States in prison. I want the country to come together and to be unified.
And here it is, a few years later, and these people say, let's put him why? Because I challenge an election, because I want to challenge an election or some other reason. It's a really disgraceful thing. It's a shame, and it's a very dangerous thing for both parties, because once they start that ball rolling, once they started rolling, that's a nasty ball. Yes, please. Please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two quick questions here. Nikki Haley told our Bret Baier that Republicans need to stop whining about Kamala Harris. Focus on courting those independents, of suburban women, the moderates out there. What do you think of that strategy, and would you consider having Nikki Haley on the campaign trail with you?
TRUMP: Sure. I think that we've done very well. I think that we're hitting a nerve. I think this is a different kind of a race. All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody that's going to destroy our country.
You know, I fought Nikki very hard. I beat her in her own state by legendary numbers, and I get along with her fun. I appreciate that she endorsed me and all of that.
No, I think that -- I think relatively to what they're doing and how radical they are and how, in many ways, how sick they are. I think I'm doing a very calm campaign. I mean, we're here. There's no shouting.
Now you'll say he ranted and raved, I'm not you. But some of you will say he ranted and I didn't rant and rave. I'm a very calm person, believe it or not. If I wasn't, probably wouldn't be around anymore.
[17:45:00]
You know, probably wouldn't be around. But no, I think I appreciate her advice. I have to do it my way. You know, I ran against her and I did it my way. People said I should maybe do it a different way, but I won in South Carolina by numbers that nobody's ever seen before. You know, wasn't even close and I think she's a good woman. I'd love to have her support.
Yes, she give me -- she gave me support, but I'd love to have her go around and campaign.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Quick follow up on the economy. You mentioned this in your remarks. Vice President Kamala Harris wants to put a ban on price gouging. Do you think that the federal government is should be responsible for determining food prices?
TRUMP: Well, not only responsible, they probably can't do it legally, and that will drive up prices. She wants no fracking. Now she may go and change that. I think she's already changed it, but she wants to have no fracking. I want no fracking.
But for her whole life, she said that no fracking, then about, I don't know when, a couple of months ago, all of a sudden, when she started looking at polls. Remember this, she all of a sudden, says, fracking.
I don't think any -- I won Pennsylvania, and I did much better the second time. I wanted in 2016 did much better the second time. I know Pennsylvania very well. I don't think there's any way in hell that somebody that's intelligent living in Pennsylvania is going to vote for somebody that basically will eventually end fracking, end fossil fuel.
So whether it's Oklahoma or Texas or Pennsylvania, a big energy state, people don't realize that 350,000 people work in that industry. But maybe more importantly, they don't want to pay $9 a gallon for gasoline.
So no, I think that she's made statements. I don't know how you get out of it. I don't know how you can say, for 10 years, there will be no fracking. We have tapes of her laughing at the stupidity of the question. Of course, I'm not going to allow fracking. Then all of a sudden, a few months ago, she comes out in favor of, oh yes, I'd allow fracking.
I don't think anybody in Pennsylvania will be. I think she's going to do very badly in Pennsylvania. You have to frack. We need the energy, and Pennsylvania needs the jobs. But Pennsylvania needs the energy also.
That energy is going to support our new system for AI and all of the other modern things that that need massive amounts of electricity and energy massive so it's a very good question, actually, but we have to -- we have to unify as a country. We have to come together. And I think we can, you know, I get that question oftentimes, and I used to think maybe there's no way because, you know, some people want to border. Some people don't want to border. Most people do want to border. But there's such a difference in people.
But just before COVID coming out, so three years, we went a long period of time, and we had an economy going the likes of which no country had ever seen before. I think you would agree. There's never been anything like it. And people were coming together. People were calling me very -- I would call them radical left, but I would say very liberal people, very progressive people. They came to me we would like to get together.
In fact, we worked out criminal justice reform. I was the only one that could have done that. I won criminal justice reform, and I got that for black leaders that came to see me, criminal justice reform. Obama couldn't do it. Biden wouldn't even try. But nobody could do it. I got that done, and I got conservative votes to get it done. They needed at least five very conservative votes. It was very hard to do. I got that done.
Our country was coming together. And you know, I can tell you the story of criminal justice you have. When you do that, that means that's a big step. But I was seeing people that were not seeable, that I wouldn't want to see them, and they wouldn't want to see me. And all of a sudden we were having -- I was having lunch with people that, if I told you who they were, you wouldn't even believe it. Our country was coming together.
Success was bringing our country together. And it can be done. Success will bring our country together again. It can be done. It was an amazing phenomena, and I used to say, I don't know, it's awfully tough to get it together.
I've never seen anything like it. Like for instance, me getting criminal justice reform done, and I did that with Democrats and some very conservative Republicans who said, it's very unfair where people are staying in jail for 35, 40 years, and today they wouldn't even be charged with a crime for what they did. And we got it done. And I was very proud of it. But our country was coming together.
The black population had the best numbers they've ever had on jobs, on income, on everything. The Hispanic population had the best numbers. Asian population, men, women, young people with diplomas from the best schools, Harvard, MIT, the Wharton School of Finance. They're all coming together, and everybody was happy.
[17:50:00]
Every -- and young people without a high school diploma, the best MIT students and people without a diploma were all working. They were getting -- they were making more money than they've ever made. Every single -- there wasn't one group that wasn't doing better than it was the year before, two years before, 10 years before, it was the best our country had ever do. And we were leapfrogging China.
China didn't have a chance. I took in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs from China, hundreds of billions of dollars. No president ever took in 10 cents. And what happened was an amazing thing. We had a great, successful country, and our country was unifying. It was the first time anyone's seen it, but our country was unifying.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From the polling out there, I know you're saying that you're leading in some polling, but there is other polling out there. Fox News poll out just yesterday has you up by just one point. How do you break --
TRUMP: In Fox News has always been my worst poll, believe it or not, and even Fox News had me up by one or two points yesterday came out, I think two points, one point. I also think, you know, I tend to poll low. In some cases, really low. You know, in 2016 I was polling low because people didn't want to say who they're voting for. I don't know if that's supposed to be a good thing or a good thing or a bad thing, but it is what it is.
And we did very well in 2016 and we did much better in 2020 --
BLITZER: We're going to continue to monitor this news conference Trump at his golf club in New Jersey, in Bedminster, New Jersey. Lots to discuss to assess right now. Kristen Holmes, a reporter who has been covering the Trump campaign for us.
Kristen, when asked about the personal attacks he continues to make against vice president Kamala Harris. Trump responded that he thinks he's entitled to say those things about her, among other things, he said, I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence. She's not very smart. She's a radical left socialist. Who will? She's a radical left socialist who will destroy our country. What did you make of that assessment?
HOLMES: Well, first of all, I do want to note that that question came from our very own Alayne Treene, who has been reporting out with me that allies have basically asked him to stop with the personal attack. She was questioning whether or not he was going to and then he went on for roughly what seemed to be 10 to 15 minutes in an answer that one yes, he said that he felt like he was entitled to personal attacks because he was angry at her, he was angry at the state of the country.
But then he went into a series of diatribes, talking about the court cases against him, talking about how everyone was out to get him. That was really just Donald Trump in his own element, going through the grievances that have fueled a lot of his campaign.
He almost at one point seemed like he was on a roll as he continued to personally attack her and then continued to dive into all of the things that were out to get him play into the real victimhood there, but again, him saying that he was entitled to those personal attacks. He also actually said that she first was the one who called him and J.D. Vance weird and then defended the two of them. But it was interesting to hear him say that essentially, he's not going to stop.
BLITZER: Daniel, I want to get your analysis as well, because you're a fact checker. At one point and he kept saying this, they want to put me in prison. I did nothing wrong. Does he forget that he's been convicted of 34 felony charges?
DALE: That's a fair point, Wolf. I think I personally will stay away from that. As a fact checker, he's entitled to assert his innocence, but I made a whole list here of other claims that were just flat out wrong, like this was just a whole bunch of nonsense. He claimed that nobody knows that Vice President Harris's last name is Harris.
Like, what are we even doing here? That was the caliber of the claim. He said, when his crowds in 2016 chanted lock her up about Hillary Clinton, he said, easy, easy. In fact, on some occasions, he said, lock her up himself. On other occasions, he stood back and allowed those chants to continue. So he wasn't calming them down.
He said, again, you're allowed to rob a store in California. You're not no matter what the amount. He said he won his civil fraud case, but then a lower court judge ignored an appeals court decision and still penalized him for a large amount of money. He never won that case. He's grossly mischaracterizing what the appeals court actually said.
He said he did much better in Pennsylvania in the 2020 election than he did in 2016 when he won the state. No he did worse. He lost it fair and fair and square in 2020. And on that same note, he spoke vaguely of mystery votes in 2020 he claimed were not counted, votes in addition to his actual vote totals. Those votes simply did not exist. His vote total was his vote total. He lost the election fair and square.
BLITZER: David Chalian, what did you make of the way Trump defended his use of personal attacks against the Kamala Harris.
[17:55:00]
CHALIAN: You know, this was just vintage Trump. I mean, this is why, you know, when you hold a press conference like this and you see that the Harris campaign and allies would like him to do this every day. You know, David Urban was talking earlier. I'm sure he'll talk in a moment here about how great the scripted portion was that we heard earlier in the show, Wolf, this was obviously not that at all.
And as Kristen said, when you think about Donald Trump's current place in this race, first of all, he clearly needs to alter the trajectory at the moment, something has to change for Donald Trump, and what he's doing here is actually going through the greatest hits. So I'm not sure how that will accomplish his goal, which he stated in this press conference. His goal is to define Kamala Harris.
I don't know how going through court case by court case and prosecutor by prosecutor, or revisiting 20 -- lies about the 2020 election, or any of that is going to help him in his stated goal of defining Kamala Harris. Because he says, right now, his assessment is the country doesn't know her very well. That's working to her benefit this.
So she's winning this battle at the moment of this race to define her. And he says, the onslaught is coming, but then gets completely taken off track into these other things. That is not what his campaign wanted out of this press conference.
BLITZER: Let me get David Urban's reaction right now. Go ahead, David.
URBAN: Yes, look so I agree with David Chalian, obviously. The defining Kamala Harris is the important part of this press conference. You heard it. The president knows what he needs to do, but he kind of got lost along the way.
Listen, I think he's strongest when he's talking about fracking and he's talking about people involved in the oil and gas industry, and how Kamala Harris needs to answer, how about she transitioned for being the queen of the Green New Deal to suddenly sending out some nameless, faceless press person to say, no, no, now I support fracking.
I think he was strongest when he's talking about the first step act and working with, you know, in a bipartisan fashion to release, you know, nonviolent drug offenders from prison. And he had to wrestle up votes amongst the Republican Party to get things done in a bipartisan fashion.
Those things are important. I think when we talk about issues, that Trump is very, very strong, and he doesn't talk about issues. It's weaker. We need to keep defining it. He needs to keep doing the job that he started out. And I think you know, the tide will turn if he keeps defining Kamala Harris is being part of the Harris-Biden administration. Her name is on the door.
BLITZER: David Axelrod, let me get some final thoughts from you.
AXELROD: Look, he just once again, stepped over all over his own press conference. And if he keeps doing that, he just displayed the behavior that has caused Americans to want to turn the page.
And, you know, just a grievance filled rant that in a press conference that was called to specifically discuss economic issues in advance of her speech.
I agree with David Chalian, I think Democrats would pay to have him out there every day right now, and his campaign has to figure out how to get him under control.
BLITZER: David Axelrod, David Urban. David Chalian, three Davids, guys. Thank you very, very much.
Just ahead, we get the latest on the urgent ceasefire and hostage talks that are ongoing right here in the Middle East. You're watching the situation room. We're live from Tel Aviv, Israel.
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