Fox News "Laura Ingraham" - Transcript Interview with Donald Trump

Interview

INGRAHAM: Mr. President, thank you so much for joining us.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Thank you.

INGRAHAM: On Friday, Ted Wheeler, the Mayor of Portland, sent a letter to you saying basically we don't want your help, you make matters worse. Saturday, one of your supporters is murdered in Portland by, it looks like, a suspected antifa individual. And then on Sunday, Wheeler comes out, and Biden, and essentially tries to blame shift to you for the violence there. Your reaction?

TRUMP: Well, these are terrible and very incompetent people. Portland has been burning for many years. For decades, it's been burning, but now it's gotten to a point they don't want to do - I watched the Mayor try and get in with these people. And he went to a protest, and he went in and they almost killed him. If he didn't have security with him - he had five security guards - he would have been dead, just like they would have done to Rand Paul, who's a great guy, and his wife, Kelley. It is a disgrace when you look at happening.

Now, we sent in Homeland Security. The reason we sent them in was to protect our courthouse. We have a $300 million courthouse, and they wanted to blow up our courthouse or burn it down. Take your choice, blow it up or burn it down, they said. And I said, no, no, that's not happening. So they wouldn't protect it because the Mayor said - he doesn't care. So we sent in our Homeland people. They did a great job. Immediately - Homeland Security. Immediately, it was protected. And that's the only reason they were there.

I've offered to send in the National Guard. I've offered to send in anybody they want. I could put that out in 45 minutes and it would stop. And I think the people of Portland and the people of Oregon, I know it's a liberal state, considerate liberate, they're tired of it. They are tired of having - of living with this curse. They're living with a curse. They say that when you walk through the streets of Portland, this is years and years of burning and it's--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: --last 90 days, it's been really a chaos--

TRUMP: No, no, it's been horrible in the last 90 days.

INGRAHAM: --protests.

TRUMP: But no, it's been going on for many - it's been going on for many, many years. It's like you're in - I won't name the city, but it's a city someplace in the world that's not so good. OK? It's a terrible situation.

INGRAHAM: The Oregon Governor said no one is safe in Donald Trump's America.

TRUMP: Yes.

INGRAHAM: They're trying to turn the tables on you--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: --after months of - they're not really saying much about the violence.

TRUMP: Right. But they won't ever criticize anybody that's really - that's a violent person, frankly, that's violent. They stick up for the violence. They don't - the people that are getting hurt, they don't care about. They don't care about these people.

It's a weird thing. It's like warped minds. And for the last 93 days, I've been offering to send in - as you know, they have to take the offer. They have to make - they have to ask to have help. I've been standing and I've been saying, anytime you're ready, we'll put it out immediately--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: What's motivating them, Mr. President?

TRUMP: I think it's a sickness. Actually - I think they're also - there's a fear. I watched the way they treated this mayor, Wheeler, when he was standing there. And I'll tell you how unfair the news is. NBC News didn't show that he was being shouted at and cursed at, and he ran - literally, he had to run for his life because they were going to really hurt him. He had security. If he didn't, he would have probably--

INGRAHAM: They showed up at his apartment building over--

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: No, no. How he can still stick up for him - I think there's a fear. I think he's afraid.

INGRAHAM: Are they afraid that Oregon could be in play because of people's concern about law and order? Is that what you're saying?

TRUMP: It could - it could - I don't know. I don't know. I think that like the Mayor, Wheeler, I think he's probably afraid for his life, because if you would have seen him - but I'll show you how dishonest - NBC News put on - and they didn't have the people shouting. They had them standing there, and they talked about how it was a show of great unity, the Mayor standing with the people. Those people were going to kill him. They were saying things that I can't repeat right now, but horrible things. But they didn't put that on.

I actually happened to see the real tape on Fox. He escaped with his life. And yet he doesn't want any help. It's so unfair to the people of Oregon. We could solve that problem quickly, like I did in Kenosha. You know Kenosha went through three or four days of - you wouldn't have a Kenosha right now. We demanded that they send in the National Guard, call the Governor. And in all fairness, the Governor did it. Not enough, but it was enough to put it out, and we ultimately put in more. We had a thousand people, and we put it out quickly. You wouldn't have Kenosha right now.

INGRAHAM: In Pittsburgh today, Joe Biden gave a speech and he spoke directly about this violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: He may believe mouthing the words "law and order" makes him strong, but his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows how weak he is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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INGRAHAM: Your response to the Vice President, sir?

TRUMP: Look, he's a weak person. He's been weak all his life, but now he's really weak. He shouldn't be running for president. He should not be there.

INGRAHAM: But do you want your supporters to confront the--

TRUMP: No.

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INGRAHAM: --left-wing protesters--

TRUMP: No.

INGRAHAM: --or do you want to leave it to law--

TRUMP: No, I don't want them.

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INGRAHAM: --law enforcement?

TRUMP: I want to leave it to law enforcement. But my supporters are wonderful, hardworking, tremendous people, and they turn on their television set and they look at a Portland or they look at a Kenosha before I got involved and stopped it, or they look at Chicago were 78 people were shot last weekend and numerous people died, or they look at New York where violence is up by, like, what, 150 percent. It's up by a number that nobody - and people are leaving. They are looking at all of this and they can't believe it. They can't believe it--

INGRAHAM: But you don't want them--

TRUMP: --whether it's my supporter or not.

INGRAHAM: But you don't want them showing up to try--

TRUMP: No, I don't. Well, that - it's a peaceful protest. I mean, they were protesting. They weren't - you know it's amazing. They want to protest, and they get criticized. The other people run through the streets, burn down storefronts, hurt people, beat people and kill people, kick people in the face - that would have happened to Rand Paul, by the way, and his wife, except that you had two and then ultimately four very good policemen who took a big beating. They took a big beating.

And they really saved Rand Paul. Like, we're going to bring him into the White House and give him some kind of an accommodation because they really - they really - what they did was very brave, actually. I mean, can you imagine them saying policemen were brave because they're escorting? But they're escorting a U.S. Senator and his wife. And as Rand said, he would have been killed if they weren't there. It's a terrible--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: Isn't it true also, Mr. President, that Democrats have been in their own way inciting this violence--

TRUMP: (inaudible)

INGRAHAM: --against individuals for - as almost as long as you've been in office.

TRUMP: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you see anybody from that cabinet, you get out and you create a crowd. And you'll push back on them. And you tell them that they are not welcome anymore, anywhere.

SEN. CORY BOOKER, D-NJ: Please get up in the face of some Congress people.

REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY, D-MA: There needs to be unrest in the streets--

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CA: The domestic enemies to our voting system and aren't honoring our Constitution are right at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with their allies in the Congress of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's not only the Democrats. It's the media, the fake news. The news is so fake. Like I told you with the Mayor, where they make them look like it's a great unity thing when actually they were cursing at him and they would have done big numbers on him, but they don't show that. They just show the Mayor standing with these very tough thugs. And he was gone. OK? They saved him. But NBC shows that like it's unity with the people. I don't get it. I don't know why they are doing it.

And I say - and I will say this. At some point, I will not be President. Hopefully, that will be in five years from now, but I will not be President. And they're going to die, they're all going to die. Can you imagine if they had to cover sleepy Joe Biden? It won't be very much fun.

But much more importantly, our country would go to hell, our stock markets will crash, as sure as you're sitting there. We will have problems like you've never had. But if you take Kenosha and if you take other parts of the country that I don't even talk about, I could show you things that we've done to stop this kind of a thing that's happening in Portland and happening in Chicago and happening in other places.

INGRAHAM: Most red states are cooperating with federal--

TRUMP: Almost all.

INGRAHAM: --law enforcement--

TRUMP: Almost--

INGRAHAM: --and things are relatively calm in red state America. But Biden said again today in Pittsburgh that essentially you're not going to be safe in Donald Trump's America.

TRUMP: Yes. So, if it weren't Donald Trump's America, to just use the expression as I'm President, you would have riots like you've never seen. The Democrats have lost control of the radical left. And if you look at Bernie and the - I call it the manifesto that was agreed to with Biden and his group, that's further left than Bernie ever was. They won't be able to control these people. These people have - they have lost control of these people. And that's hurting them. Don't forget, Biden wasn't going to come out of his basement until the election.

INGRAHAM: You've--

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Now he had to because the polls are so good for me. Now he had to because the polls are different. So, all of a sudden, he's in Pittsburgh. He wasn't going to leave his basement. Then he said, OK - he's leaving, but he won't leave for 10 days. Ten days is a long time.

So, in the meantime, like, on Sunday - and so, Saturday, I'm in Texas, I'm in Louisiana. I was going to stop in two other places. Fortunately, they didn't get hit. Arkansas wasn't hit very much, et cetera, et cetera. I would have stopped - but I'm all over the place. I leave early in the morning, I get home late at night. And that's what you have to do as president.

INGRAHAM: And tomorrow--

TRUMP: Joe doesn't have energy.

INGRAHAM: Tomorrow you're going to Kenosha, Wisconsin--

TRUMP: Yes.

INGRAHAM: --of course, the scene of so much unrest lately. And the Governor says he doesn't want you to come. Why is it important for you to be seen by the people of Wisconsin now?

TRUMP: Because I am a tremendous fan of law enforcement and I want to thank the law enforcement. They've done a good job. And when the Governor says that I shouldn't come or he'd prefer that I don't come, I'm the one that called him and said, Tony, you've got to bring out the National Guard. While I don't really want to do it, Tony, you've got to bring it out. And unlike your Governor of Oregon that just keeps saying no, he agreed to it at least. Now, he agreed to a small number, but the small number was plenty.

INGRAHAM: But isn't it a political motivation? They don't want to come to blue-state America because they don't want the media to have to cover what's really happening on the ground.

TRUMP: Oh, that's--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: Isn't this political?

TRUMP: Oh, that's true. If you look at what's going on in blue - as you call it, blue-state America, blue city America, you look at what's going on in New York, you look at what's going on in these states. Chicago is a disaster. Portland, you look at Portland - now, Portland is a little different. That's anarchists, and that's - I actually think in many ways that's easier to handle.

I think Portland is very easy to handle because that's a group of anarchists that are paid by the outside. And we've put a lot of people in jail. I don't know if you know this or not. Remember, three or four months ago, we were having a problem with monuments. They were ripping down statues and monuments all over the place.

INGRAHAM: Democrats didn't say anything about that.

TRUMP: Oh, the Democrats had no control - they had actually got out of control even for them. I signed in an executive order, 10 years in jail if you knock down a statue or monument. You haven't heard one thing about it. You haven't - we wouldn't have - they were going after Thomas Jefferson. There were going after Lincoln and they were going after the Washington Monument that they could knock that one down.

They were going after - and I actually don't even think they know. I think they're just thugs. I don't think it's - it's - it may be an ideology and it may not. It is an ideology for the people that are paying them. And the funny thing is - and the strange thing is, the people that are paying them and all this money because somebody is doing it. They--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: What about the corporations?

TRUMP: They travel - well, wait. The people paying them, those people will be overthrown. Their lives will be taken away. Their lives will be endangered. They're all going to be gone. They're just stupid, foolish people that made a lot of money.

INGRAHAM: But corporations have given an enormous amount of money in the tens of millions or - I mean, hundreds of millions to Black Lives Matter--

TRUMP: Because they are weak.

INGRAHAM: --which is all over a lot of these protests.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: That's--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: So what does that mean--

TRUMP: That's because--

INGRAHAM: --about these corporations? Why are they paying that money out, Mr. President?

TRUMP: Because they are weak people led by weak people in many cases, not all corporations that--

INGRAHAM: What does that mean, they're weak people?

TRUMP: I looked at numbers where one company is giving hundreds of millions of dollars--

INGRAHAM: When you say they're weak, what do you mean? Explain that.

TRUMP: --because they just do what's the easiest path. That's not the easy path. That's a very dangerous path. Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization. You remember "pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon." That was - first time I ever heard of Black Lives Matter, I said that's a terrible name. It's so discriminatory. It's bad for black people. It's bad for everybody. And all of a sudden, it becomes like sort of - although now if you look, it's gone way down because people are tired of this stuff, what's going on, the Black Lives Matter. If you look at what's going on with the bats and the - the - a lot of thugs, a lot of--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: --run through D.C. last night.

TRUMP: Oh, it's terrible, what's going on. But Black Lives Matter came into existence, walking down the street screaming "pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon," and that was about police office - that was representing police. They were pigs. Pigs in a blanket, like the sausages or hot dogs, fry them like bacon.

INGRAHAM: Well, they were saying the words over the last couple of days in these--

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Oh, I think even worse, probably.

INGRAHAM: Yes. No. It's - it's gotten--

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: --I don't know. Did it get worse? But--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: But DOJ's role in trying to really hit the law enforcement accelerator here against these groups, a lot of these individuals coming into Wisconsin have been tracked as out-of-staters--

TRUMP: Yes. We have them more.

INGRAHAM: --the ones who've been arrested.

TRUMP: We have them more.

INGRAHAM: Can DOJ do more, and what could they do to really start putting the fear of God in these violent - not the peaceful protesters, but violent protesters?

TRUMP: So they have under investigation a lot of - in fact, I'll show you. I just had this because of this very important interview with you, but I just - and I'll give this to you. In Kansas City, violence has decreased by a third since the initiative began. In Indianapolis, 49 guns confiscated. More than 1,000 arrests have been made under the initiative. DOJ is addressing violence and crime across the country. FBI - but you don't read that. The FBI and ATF are assisting the Portland Police Department. But you can't do much when you have absolutely no cooperation. I--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: But if they don't think they're going to go to jail for 10 years- -

TRUMP: Yes.

INGRAHAM: --for doing what they're doing, then they're going to keep doing it.

TRUMP: Well--

INGRAHAM: So how does a--

TRUMP: Well--

INGRAHAM: --Trump reelection calm things down in the United States? Biden says he's going to calm things down. How will a Trump re-election calm--

TRUMP: He won't calm things down.

INGRAHAM: Why? Why won't he calm things down?

TRUMP: Biden won't calm things down. They will take over. They will have won. If Biden gets in, they will have won. He's a weak person. He's controlled like a puppet. So it's not going to be calm things down. It's going to be they will have won. They will have taken over your cities. It's a revolution. You understand that. It's a revolution. And the people of this country will not stand for that. They're not going to stand for that.

The vast majority of people feel like me. They feel like - every time I put "law and order" up on social media, it gets such an incredibly positive response. The people of this country will not stand for it. If you say calm things down, yes, calm things down because they will have taken over. Take a look at what's going on. And Biden - what Biden is - I don't even like to mention Biden because he's not controlling anything.

INGRAHAM: Who - who do you think--

TRUMP: They control him.

INGRAHAM: --is pulling Biden's strings? Is it former Obama officials?

TRUMP: People that you've never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows. People that are--

INGRAHAM: What does that mean? That sounds like conspiracy theory, dark shadows. What is that?

TRUMP: No. People that you haven't heard of. They are people that are on the streets, they're people that are controlling the streets. We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend. And in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that. They're on a plane.

INGRAHAM: Where is - where is this?

TRUMP: I'll tell you sometime, but it's under investigation right now. But they came from a certain city, and this person was coming to the Republican National Convention. And there were like seven people on the plane like this person and then a lot of people were on the plane to do big damage. They were coming--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: Planning for Washington.

TRUMP: Yes. This was all - this is all happening. And--

INGRAHAM: But the money is coming from somewhere.

TRUMP: Money is coming from--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: When - how can it be tracked?

TRUMP: --from some very stupid rich people that have no idea that if their thing ever succeeded, which it won't, they will be thrown to the wolves like you've never seen before.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

INGRAHAM: Still ahead, President Trump reminds us of the racial unrest during the Obama-Biden era and their total inability to stop it. Plus, I pressed him about his plans for racial outreach during a second term. Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

INGRAHAM: Women voters. So important to reach out to them, whether--

TRUMP: Yes.

INGRAHAM: --you're a Republican or a Democrat. You have a deficit among women voters now.

TRUMP: But that's what they said last time, too.

INGRAHAM: Right. Well, let's say for the sake of argument, you have a deficit among female voters, who - maybe in some cases, you're too aggressive, your tone or your tweets. What do you say to them directly about what you'll do in a second term?

TRUMP: OK. I have to be aggressive because I'm like standing here in a sea of incompetent people, stupid people and violent people. Very violent people.

INGRAHAM: But that's the kind of language - stupid people--

TRUMP: That's OK.

INGRAHAM: That's a - a lot of women don't like that.

TRUMP: It's also like - well, where are we? Oh, we are in the White House, I see. See. OK. So I'm standing here in a sea of people, and we need law and order in this country, and women see that with me. You're never going to have law and order with Biden.

And look at Ferguson. Look what happened during the - people forget. Look at all of those horrible race riots you had during Obama. Ferguson is just one that comes to mind, but you had them all the time. Look at all of what happened with Brown and this one and that one. Look at all of the problems you had under Obama. It was a disaster. It was actually worse than anything. This is a much different situation.

Again, the anarchists in Portland are different than what's going on in Chicago. Chicago can be solved. I think it's actually a little bit more difficult to solve. I think the anarchists, in many ways, are much more solvable. But for women, more than anything else, they want security, they want safety. They have to have safety. They talk about the suburban woman. What I did recently, I ended the regulation that provided low-income housing that - that mandated low-income housing--

INGRAHAM: That was Obama's rule.

TRUMP: That was the Obama rule. It was a disaster.

INGRAHAM: Do you think the suburbs are in danger if Biden is elected?

TRUMP: (inaudible)

INGRAHAM: We already know the cities are in danger--

TRUMP: OK. So--

INGRAHAM: --but are the suburbs in danger? Because they say that's fearmongering on the part of Republicans.

TRUMP: I know suburbs - look, Westchester was ground-zero - OK? - for what they were trying to do. They were trying to destroy the suburban, beautiful - the American dream, really. They want low-income housing, and with that comes a lot of other problems, including crime. May not be nice to say it, but I'll say it.

INGRAHAM: You're not saying all poor people are criminals, though?

TRUMP: No, I'm not saying that at all, but it does - there is a level of violence that you don't see. So you have this beautiful community in the suburbs, including women, right? Women. They want security. I ended where they build low-income housing project right in the middle of your neighborhood. I ended it.

If Biden gets in, he already said it's going to go at a much higher rate than ever before. And you know who's going to be in charge of it? Cory Booker. That's going to be nice. OK? So I think that women are going to want - well, for a lot of other reasons. The stock markets will crash. As sure as you're sitting there, your 401(k)s will go down to a small percentage of what they are--

INGRAHAM: Biden says he's not going to raise taxes on anyone making--

TRUMP: But he's always--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: --under $400,000 a year.

TRUMP: He's going to do $4 trillion in tax increases. He's going to do things that are going to cost so much - on the Green New Deal, which is done by a child - OK? That's the mind of a child, because the Green New Deal is ridiculous. It doesn't work. They're going to do things under the green - the Green New Deal, if you actually did it, is $100 trillion. That's more money than this country could make in a thousand years.

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: They say it's going to be good paying jobs. All the great paying- -

TRUMP: Yes, good paying jobs.

INGRAHAM: --jobs that Obama apparently didn't create.

TRUMP: Let's rip down a building and build a new one with no windows. OK?

INGRAHAM: The African-American community - you've made more strides in outreach to African-American voters than I think of any Republican president--

TRUMP: Yes.

INGRAHAM: --in my lifetime. What can you tell the African-American community tonight about your commitment to doing more in the second term, and what will that include?

TRUMP: So I've done criminal justice reform. I saved the historically black colleges and universities. What they went through was for years, including Obama--

INGRAHAM: The funding.

TRUMP: --prison reform, criminal justice reform--

INGRAHAM: Next term.

TRUMP: --opportunity zone, more of the same. And in fact, I actually said in the speech, the best is yet to come. And I've been treated very well. At least in the polls, I hope - I hope that translates, because unfortunately, the African-American, the black community has been so used to going and oppressing a Democrat lever. And what have they got out of it? They've got nothing.

Obama didn't give them criminal justice reform. I did. Obama didn't give them opportunity zones. I did. Obama didn't do all of the things - didn't say - Obama could have saved the historically black colleges and universities. He didn't do anything for them. He didn't do anything for them. I've done more - and I said in the speech - some people would say you shouldn't say it, it's too aggressive. I said, what's aggressive? I've done more than any president in the history of our country except for maybe - and I say maybe - maybe Abraham Lincoln. The reason I say maybe is - I'll explain that to you later. OK?

INGRAHAM: All right. The - I want to talk about--

TRUMP: But wait a minute.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

TRUMP: I've done more for the black community than any president in the United States with the exception of Abraham Lincoln. And it's true. Criminal justice reform was such a big deal. And look what Biden did in 1994. What he did to people, to black people--

INGRAHAM: He called the criminals predators.

TRUMP: Well, he called them predators--

INGRAHAM: Super-predators.

TRUMP: --super-predators, actually.

INGRAHAM: Yes. Yes.

TRUMP: He called them super-predators.

INGRAHAM: So when you see the unrest on the streets - and so much of it is driven by an antipathy toward law enforcement.

TRUMP: Yes.

INGRAHAM: And more African-Americans are stopped by the police, the statistics that are cited over and over again. What can you say to those families who live on those streets and who are worried? They're worried because they think their sons or even--

TRUMP: Yes.

INGRAHAM: --their daughters could be targeted. Because I know - because I've known you for a long time, you don't want that. You want people to all be treated equally. But they have a caricature of Republican voters, and you're the leader of the party. What do you say to them about that mischaracterization?

TRUMP: What the black community wants in this country is they want police and they want law and order. They don't want what's happening to their communities. They're being affected in a much harsher, meaner manner than anybody else. That includes Hispanics, where I'm doing very well also. Look, they want law and order. They want the police. They do polls, and the polls are at 82, 83 percent, they want the police. They've gotten along with the police, and the police have been very badly mistreated because you got one bad apple, and it becomes a story for weeks.

INGRAHAM: St. Louis African-American police officer shot in the head and killed --

TRUMP: Yes, Dorn.

INGRAHAM: -- last night. No another African-American just killed yesterday.

TRUMP: That's true. Yes, that's true. Killed.

INGRAHAM: It's more dangerous to be a police officer today, do you not think, than it has been a long time?

TRUMP: The police are under siege because of things -- they can do 10,000 great acts, which is what they do, and one bad apple, or a choker -- you know a choker, they choke -- shooting the guy in the back many times. Couldn't you have done something different? Couldn't you have wrestled him? In the meantime, he might've been going for a weapon. And there's a whole big thing there. But they choke. Just like in a golf tournament, they miss a three-foot --

INGRAHAM: You're not comparing it to golf, because of course that's what the media --

TRUMP: I'm saying people choke.

INGRAHAM: People make -- people panic.

TRUMP: People choke. And people are bad people. You have both. You have some bad people, and they choke. You could be a police officer for 15 years, and all of a sudden you're confronted. You've got a quarter of a second to make a decision. If you don't make the decision and you're wrong, you're dead. People choke under those circumstances, and they make a bad decision. I've seen bad decisions of people that it looked bad but probably it was a choke. But you also have bad police, but you also, the vast -- not only the vast majority -- thousands and thousands of great acts, and one bad one, and you make the evening news for weeks.

INGRAHAM: I know you reached out to Jacob Blake's mom, and she said on camera she was sorry she missed the call. She respects the office of the presidency, and I think she said she would like to talk to you. Have you tried to talk to her again, and would you talk to her?

TRUMP: The call is being made, as I understand it, yes.

INGRAHAM: Fantastic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

INGRAHAM: Coming up, the president's fiery response to his COVID critics, such as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Plus, will Biden actually participate in any debates? The president offers his thoughts. Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

INGRAHAM: In New York, a place where you lived, you grew up as a little boy, and now in New York city we've had a woman in broad daylight, they tried to rape her. We had another shooting at like 46th and Lex today. New York, what does that do personally, given your life?

TRUMP: Very sad.

INGRAHAM: What does that do to personally?

TRUMP: And the prosecutors go after people for political reasons, but if somebody killed somebody, it's like there's nothing wrong with that. The prosecutors in New York are out of control. They're out of control. They go after political people. Cuomo and your state attorney general, your prosecutors --

INGRAHAM: They are targeting you.

TRUMP: They target me. I won everything in Washington. Now I got targeted in New York.

INGRAHAM: But a woman being raped and attempted rape in broad daylight. This is New York City.

TRUMP: No, that's the people they should go after. They have to get that, and they have to put that person away.

INGRAHAM: How do you put New York back together again?

TRUMP: You need a young version of Rudy Giuliani. He was a great mayor. He did a great job. I think people are really beginning to -- I saw the other night, he was at the event. People were like Rudy, we love you, Rudy. They are desperate for a younger version -- should probably put Rudy back now, he's doing great. But you get a young version or a younger version of Rudy Giuliani. You need a tough, smart guy. Rudy was always fair, but tough and smart, and he worked 24 hours a day.

And it was all about crime. He had to get the city back. But the city now, it's amazing, because I could see it happening. I left New York, I had to leave New York, because I'm being -- I'm being targeted. It's horrible what they're doing. I won in Washington, and then they say here --

INGRAHAM: Do you think you could win in New York? Will you campaign or try to campaign in New York?

TRUMP: So I'm going to give it a very good shot. I'm going to give New York a very good shot, because the same people that voted against me like me now. And you know I won upstate big, I won Long Island. All the outside of the little circle in the middle, which is crazy because I built so many things there. But outside of that circle -- and I said it the other day. I said, I can't believe these people are happy. I can't believe they're happy. But you have to understand, a lot of people are leaving because of de Blasio and because of Cuomo. They're fleeing New York. And they're fleeing New York --

INGRAHAM: Speaking of, ground zero for COVID there, and you seem to have a good working relationship with Andrew Cuomo during the COVID -- the height of the COVID pandemic.

TRUMP: I gave him more than he asked for, and all they are is nasty.

INGRAHAM: Yes, but now he is coming after you, saying it's your mismanagement that's gotten us into this mess. So what do you -- how do you --

TRUMP: The good news, he hasn't gotten very far with that because people understand. He killed 11,000 people with bad decisions on nursing homes. He's the number one state in the country by far for death. Probably in the whole world for death. You take New York out of the equation, I think we have among the best numbers anyway, but you take New York, we have the best numbers in the world country-wide.

No, Andrew said I did an incredible job. Andrew said, everything that he asked for -- as an example, they wanted the ship, I got him the ship. They wanted the Javits Center, I got him the -- they didn't even use it. They should have taken those senior citizens, put them in Javits Center, put them in the ship, they could have done so much. But he was desperate for Javits Center. They wanted four regional hospitals. We got them that, these beautiful temporary, the Army Corps of Engineers did an incredible job, so did FEMA. We got him everything.

And then, same thing with de Blasio. I never spoke to de Blasio before, and then I spoke to him 10 times. He'd call, can we have this? Yes. Could we have that? Yes. Could we have doctors? He wanted me to send doctors and nurses to a hospital that was having a lot -- I got it. I did so much, and then what happens? He does a Black Lives Matter sign in front of Trump Tower.

INGRAHAM: Does that bother you, that sign?

TRUMP: No, I think it was so -- people are vandalizing it, people are so angry, it's built such anger. You know what's happening, people are going by there, they're throwing paint on it, they're vandalizing it, because it was meant as a bad thing. What we've done for de Blasio is incredible, what we've done for Cuomo. But it doesn't matter. New York is in serious trouble.

INGRAHAM: Do you think they're really worried about COVID given the fact that we had tens of thousands of protesters in Washington on Friday, lots of Black Lives Matter protesters? A lot of them had masks, but they obvious weren't socially distancing.

TRUMP: A lot of them --

INGRAHAM: They were all packed in together and there's no concern, but then they called the RNC is super-spreader?

TRUMP: Yeah, right.

INGRAHAM: Is the left really freaking out about COVID, or is this more of a political concern going into the election?

TRUMP: I think they're worried about the election, because law and order has increased my poll numbers a lot. We've done a great job in COVID but we don't get the credit. We worked through the governors. The governors have gotten everything they wanted, every ventilator. We didn't have ventilators -- we had empty cupboards when I got there. As I said, the cupboards were bare.

I think they're going crazy over the election. I think they're seeing what's happening. Joe Biden now today goes to Pittsburgh, right? So he goes to Pittsburgh. He wasn't scheduled to leave ever. Then he said he's going to leave three or four days ago because his polls are going like this, right?

INGRAHAM: Will he debate you? Do you think he is going to debate you?

TRUMP: I know he'd like not to. I know that because I have people representing us --

INGRAHAM: He might do all right in a debate. I think people are trying to say he's not going to do well or he can't -- I don't know. He's been in public life for 40 years.

INGRAHAM: What is strange, I watched the various debates when he was running against all these people, and they were killing him. He was so bad. But against Bernie he was --

INGRAHAM: But you'll be debating the media. Will you not be debating the media? Why not have no moderators? Why not just you and Biden?

INGRAHAM: I would rather have that. First of all, the media is unbelievable. But what I'd like is -- that would be the ultimate debate, two guys standing on a stage and you just debate it out. So I know he'd like not to do the debates. I think he probably has to. I don't know how you get out of the debates. I think you probably have to.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

INGRAHAM: Still to come, if he had to do it all over again, would President Trump make Dr. Anthony Fauci the face of the nation's COVID response? His surprising answer in moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

INGRAHAM: On the flu vaccines in Massachusetts, they are mandating that children get flu vaccines in order to go back to school. There's a controversy about that, a lot of parents are like, whoa, we don't want our kids to get the flu vaccines. Are you worried that on the push for vaccines, these fast vaccines for COVID, you might be splitting a coalition of Americans, frankly, in both parties who aren't comfortable?

TRUMP: Well, once you get to a certain number -- we use the word "herd," right -- once you get to a certain number it's going to go away. So it doesn't have to be. But yes, a lot of people are not going to want to do it. A lot of people don't want to do the flu vaccine.

INGRAHAM: Should it be mandatory?

TRUMP: I never had the flu, but I never had a shot. I never had the vaccine. I come the first day -- sir, you have to have a flu shot. I said, why? Because you have to have it. I say what's the percentage? And I wasn't thrilled with the percentage. It's like 50 percent, 52 percent --

INGRAHAM: But Dr. Fauci said it might not give, quote, great protection because it's a coronavirus.

TRUMP: I said look, if I've never had it, wouldn't it be good? And then I thought I should have it because I'll set an example. So I had it. So I've had it now three times. And I still haven't had the flu. So maybe I will give credit to the flu vaccine. I don't know.

INGRAHAM: If you --

TRUMP: I can say this. You'll -- I think we are going to have a vaccine very soon. A lot of tremendous work has been done. You're going to have a vaccine just like we have therapeutics, which to me are even more important. You going into the hospital and you make people better. That's to me, the most -- and we just did the convalescent plasma. I think -- and you have other things, too. So I think we're going to have a lot of therapeutics and we're going to have a vaccine very soon.

As to whether or not people take it --

INGRAHAM: Thirty-five percent say they are not going to take the COVID vaccine. They don't want it. So they shouldn't be mandatory.

TRUMP: If you add 35 to the people that have had it and to all the other things, people that have had it where in theory you can't get it, although they found one person and they are making a big deal. One person got it twice. But if you add it all up, it gives a very good protection.

INGRAHAM: Biden says he would shut down the economy again if the scientists said that was the right thing to do in the fight against COVID. Would you?

TRUMP: I think it's a very dangerous statement for him to make. We did the right thing. We shut it down and now we built it up, and we are setting records on job numbers, we're setting records and retail numbers. So this guy comes in. I heard it the other day. If they said -- so that means that if some doctor said we have to shut it down, we're going to shut it down. We're setting records.

By the way, the stock market is at an all-time record right now. You look at what's going on in the stock market, look at what's going on. We are going to have a phenomenal year next year. We're going to have a great third quarter. Interestingly, the numbers for the third quarter will come out before the election.

INGRAHAM: Are you worried if something happens in the market and it corrects in October, you peg it all on the market, and they're like Trump's pushing the market?

TRUMP: I'll tell you, I can tell you what is happening. Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to give any stimulus. We should have it. It wasn't the people's fault that China give us the virus. China gave us the virus, whether it was through incompetence or on purpose.

INGRAHAM: She called you a domestic enemy, an enemy of the state, your supporters. How do you work with her on another stimulus? Will it happen?

TRUMP: I always tell her to go back to San Francisco, take care of your homeless problem, take care of your problem in California, because there's nothing like what I'm witnessing out there. Right outside, right where she lives, right in her district is so bad, needles all over the place.

INGRAHAM: Will you get a stimulus or not?

TRUMP: We should have. We'd like to get it for the people because it wasn't their fault, but she doesn't want to give it because that will make the economy a little bit better, and that would be a terrible thing.

INGRAHAM: If you have to do it all again -- I know it's kind of a hard question, but do it all again, would you put Fauci front and center every day in charge of the coronavirus task force?

TRUMP: I get along with him very well. I disagree with a lot of what he said. He said keep it open for China. That was a big mistake, and he admits it. I get along with them, but every once in a while, he'll come up with one that I say where did that come from? I inherited him, he was here, he was a part of this huge piece of machinery -- I didn't put anybody in charge. He was here. He's been here for 40 years.

INGRAHAM: Since 84, 1984.

TRUMP: OK, he's been here for many, many years. And you inherit a lot of people, it's part of the machinery. And you have some you love, some you don't. I like him. I don't agree with him that often, but I like him.

INGRAHAM: And when you look back on the last four years, and the first three were impeachment, Mueller, pandemic, investigations, what do you say to the American people about what they don't see when they're doing interviews like this, how you cope with this constant barrage from the Hill? There's always back and forth, that's fine, but it's been different for you.

TRUMP: It's been different because I've accomplished so much. On the military I've accomplished -- first of all, bringing many of the troops home and most of the troops home, even cutting down Germany, OK, because they've taken advantage of us like you wouldn't believe. But it's been different for a lot of different reasons, I think primarily because I've accomplished so much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

INGRAHAM: A look ahead to part two of our interview with President Trump in moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: That wraps up part one of my exclusive interview with President Trump, but tomorrow night it gets even better. Join us again at 10:00 p.m. tomorrow for part two of the interview, including his response to Biden's lame attempt to blame Trump for the partial shutdown of college football. Also his thoughts on Bill Barr and what we might expect from various investigations before the election. You're not going to want to miss it.

That's all the time we have tonight. Shannon Bream and the fantastic "Fox News @ Night" team take it all from here.

Shannon?

END

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