Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript Interview with Donald Trump
Interview
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All right. Part two of Laura's exclusive interview with President Trump is just moments away. Why he suggested Biden should be drug-tested before the debates, and will we see Melania on the trail? The President has answers. That's next.
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TRUMP: I was investigated practically from the time I came down the escalator with our great first lady. I was under investigation, and it's a disgrace. And it should never be allowed to happen again.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Speaking - yes.
TRUMP: And I say this openly. Bill Barr can go down as the greatest attorney general in the history of our country or he can go down as just another guy. It depends. They have all the stuff. You don't need anything else. They want everything. You don't need anything else. They all lied to Congress. They were liars. They were cheaters. They were treasonous. There was treason. That--
INGRAHAM: But Bill Barr, you're saying, has to prosecute all of these individuals to be a great attorney general?
TRUMP: Well, look, look--
INGRAHAM: You mean he's - he's--
TRUMP: I - I--
INGRAHAM: --one of the most talented attorney generals that--
TRUMP: I will--
INGRAHAM: --we've ever had?
TRUMP: I'll let you know about that, and I really like him a lot, but I'll let you know about that. Right now, if I just read the newspapers, even the bad ones, even the ones that are--
INGRAHAM: Yes.
TRUMP: --fake news, there's a case - look, there was a 78-page report about Comey done by Horowitz. And I have to tell you - Inspector General Horowitz. I have to tell you, that report was one of the most brutal reports I've ever seen. Let's see what happens with it. The report on McCabe was one of the most brutal. I actually read them.
INGRAHAM: Yes.
TRUMP: One of the most brutal reports I've ever seen. Let's see what happens with them. If I get another report, if I were a Democrat, this whole thing would've been so different. People would be in jail now, two years ago, for 50-year terms, because this was treason, this was subversion, this was the overthrow of a country. And--
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: Have they ever stopped trying to take you out before the election, meaning, the protests, the impeachment. It's been a constant drumbeat--
TRUMP: Well, the protests--
INGRAHAM: --from the beginning.
TRUMP: --were interesting because they thought the protests would be good for them because it's all Democrat stirred up and led. They thought - and sin cities (ph), they've lost control of it. They've actually lost control. They thought the protests would be good for them and it turned out to be very bad.
INGRAHAM: Melania - you mentioned the first lady - she got rave reviews for her speech, so many of the speeches at the RNC. Are we going to be seeing more of her on the campaign trail?
TRUMP: Yes.
INGRAHAM: Because I know a lot of women, especially in Middle America, are desperate to still get to know her better.
TRUMP: And they like her. And they love her style, her class, her grace. I thought she gave an incredible speech. And you have to understand it's not her first language. How many people could come over and make a speech to the world?
INGRAHAM: Not I.
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TRUMP: No, think of it. When you think of it, she did an incredible job.
INGRAHAM: Will we see her on the campaign trail?
TRUMP: Yes, she will be very much involved. She wants to - she wants to see this be a victory. She--
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INGRAHAM: Why do you think in the popular culture where you came from, you were massive success with "The Apprentice."
TRUMP: Yes.
INGRAHAM: Everybody knows it. Why do you think there's this push for massive ideological conformity in Hollywood, in the entertainment industry, comedians, everyone? Why is that happening? Why are they so unhinged now?
TRUMP: They are unhinged, but a lot of those people are going to vote for me because they don't want to lose their money, because they know if Biden gets in, the stock market is going to crash, they're going to lose their money.
And I saw a recent number on Beverly Hills. The people in Beverly Hills, California, where I had a home, sold it, but I lived for a while on and off because I was doing a project out there. Beverly Hills, California that many, many people voted for me, and then I see them on television saying bad things. And they say, you know, that person voted for you. A large percentage of people voted for--
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INGRAHAM: But they're afraid to say so.
TRUMP: Yes, but they don't want to lose their wealth. They are very - they're greedy people. They don't want to lose their wealth. So they will talk one way, but they're going to vote another way. And I think - I saw one poll, 62 percent of the people said they were lying about the polls. I think that's going to be - I will say this.
INGRAHAM: The polls were right in 2018. Republicans lost a lot, but you weren't on the ballot.
TRUMP: Well, 2018, I wasn't on the ballot.
INGRAHAM: Right.
TRUMP: They try and tag me with that. You're going to win the House and you're going to get rid of Pelosi. You're going to win the House, you're going to win it. We're going to win here. The Senate is going to be tough, but we're going to, I think, come through. But you're going to win the House because people are angry.
And 2018, they tried so hard. But I wasn't on the ballot. And they went out and did polls on that too. Many people said I'm not voting if Trump is not on the ballot. Watch what happens. The level of enthusiasm for this campaign is far greater. Hey, this crazy Michael Moore said it the best. He said, "I've never seen anything like it." The level of enthusiasm now--
INGRAHAM: Do you think he's going to win the--
TRUMP: --is more--
INGRAHAM: --popular vote?
TRUMP: --it's more than 2016.
INGRAHAM: The popular vote. People say it's important for you to win it, not because you wouldn't be president but because it sends a message to the country--
TRUMP: OK.
INGRAHAM: --and that itself calms down. So if conservatives or Republicans in blue states that would - it kind of doesn't matter if I vote. What do you tell them tonight?
TRUMP: I think I could win. I think I did win the popular vote on a true sense. I think there was tremendous cheating in California. There was tremendous cheating in New York and other places. And if you take a look at the libertarian, they always talk about Jill Stein. Jill Stein took, what, half a percent. They talk about Jill Stein. Well, I have a libertarian - I'm somewhat libertarian. I have to be honest with you. Rand Paul will tell you that. I have a libertarian candidate on last time that got, what, 4.5 or so percent. Those are all Republican voters. They're wasting their vote because they have to vote for us.
INGRAHAM: But this time, the popular vote would be a huge message to the country if you won it (ph).
TRUMP: If there wasn't a libertarian on the ticket, I would win the popular vote. I would have won it last time.
INGRAHAM: OK. And finally, Mr. President--
TRUMP: The biggest risk we have--
INGRAHAM: Yes.
TRUMP: --I have to say - is this whole crazy thing where they're sending out 80 million ballots to people that don't even know what a ballot is. They're getting a - they're sending them all over.
INGRAHAM: Applications for voting.
TRUMP: Who's sending them? Where are they sending them? They're sending 80 million ballots to everybody. And there's tremendous cheating going to go on, as sure as you are sitting there. And all you have to do is look at the recent races that happened. It's the single biggest problem that there is because everybody wants an honest election. I want an honest election.
INGRAHAM: How do you know in Michigan if you're down by 50,000 votes, like the - if they are down by 50,000 votes, the Democrats, the next week, Governor Whitmer is, oh, we found 50,000 votes.
TRUMP: It's a crazy thing.
INGRAHAM: People are worried about that.
TRUMP: No, no. It--
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INGRAHAM: What can you say to supporters today about that?
TRUMP: Well, it's wrong. It shouldn't - the courts - it's in many courts, and hopefully the courts will stop it. If you take a look at what's going on with that, where they are sending unsolicited - I came up with a new name because they call them universal, they call them Lyva (ph). They are unsolicited. You're sending out 80 million ballots unsolicited. Then you have solicited ballot. That's absentee ballot. It's the biggest problem.
You look at New York, Carolyn Maloney, they gave her a victory. They don't even know where the ballots are. You look at - you take a look at what's happening in New Jersey. You take a look at what's happened in Virginia. You take a look at what's happening all over. These are small little races that are easy. They can't find the ballots. The ballots are a fraud. Now we're sending 80 million ballots out.
INGRAHAM: Hillary says you're not going to leave office if you lose. You're not going to leave office. How do you respond to her?
TRUMP: I think - I think Hillary is a sick woman. Honestly, she's deranged. She is - remember the famous debate where she said, will you respect the wishes of the voter? I didn't say yes or no. I didn't give her an answer. But it was like, you know, she was saying you must respect. She didn't. She lost. She wanted to get it again this time, as you know, and she got defeated then too. She wanted it very badly behind the scenes. She worked - - she wanted to be vice president behind the scenes. Hillary is a sick person. She should just take it nice and easy, relax. Go out, vote. Maybe she should go to the poll instead of sending out an unsolicited ballot.
But the biggest problem we have in this country is going to be this election with the unsolicited ballots, because even a small little district race, a small little congressional race -- Carolyn Maloney. They should do that race over again. They should do that race over again. There's fraud. There's deception. What they've done with the ballots, there are seven different things are happening.
You know the other thing, who are they sending them to? Who is sending them --
INGRAHAM: Are you going to be ready with lawyers? Are you going to have lawyers all across the country ready to challenge this stuff? Because they have a lot of lawyers.
TRUMP: We have lawyers. They do. They have more lawyers than any human being has ever hired. I don't who is hiring their lawyers, but the Democrats have lawyers, and we do, too. We're in Pennsylvania right now. We're in Nevada right now. We're in all different states fighting this. Everybody knows, including the Democrats, they know more than anybody else. Look and what -- and then they harvest. Harvesting is illegal. Except in California. They do ballot harvesting.
INGRAHAM: Why did you ask for a drug test before the debate? What prompted that with you and Joe Biden?
TRUMP: Because I watched Biden in the previous debates and he was horrible. And I watched him in the Bernie debate and he was normal. He wasn't Winston Churchill, but he was normal. It was like and even deal. He got by it. And I said, that was a different guy then the guy that was in the debates where Kamala just took him apart. Kamala is terrible. She went down from 15, to -- I watched her drop like a rock. So that's automatically -- that's like a poll. She never even got to Iowa. She never got -- she never even -- because she was so low. So that's the person. But she was really mean to him. She said the worst things.
INGRAHAM: But on Biden, why the drug test? What do you think he's on?
TRUMP: He is on some kind of enhancement in my opinion. And I say we should both. I should take a drug test. So should he. Because we don't have a situation where a guy is taking some kind of --
INGRAHAM: It's like athletes?
TRUMP: No, no. I want to take one. I'll take one. He'll take one. We should both take a drug test.
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PETE HEGSETH, FOX NEWS HOST: Wow, good stuff. In moments, more from Laura's news-making exclusive. The president reacts to Biden blaming him for college football getting partially canceled. And he also lays out his plans for making China pay for unleashing COVID on America. That and more when we return.
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INGRAHAM: Now Joe Biden has just put out a commercial trying to turn the tables on you on the question of football. Let's watch it.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good weather by opening day standard. We are going to be in the 60s. Enjoy the game.
And now, to honor America, please join in the singing of our National Anthem.
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INGRAHAM: Why is football so important, especially for the Big Ten, all these moms, players, want them to play, and then they're not able to play. Are they safer playing than not?
TRUMP: It shows you the lie of the Democrats. I'm the one that says play football. I said they are young, strong people. They are not going to have a problem with COVID or the China virus or whatever you want to call it. I'm the one. And they didn't like my narrative, so they made up a narrative, because if you look, Michigan is closed. All the states that are closed. North Carolina is close. These states that are closed are run by Democrats. And the reason they are closed is because we have an election on November 3rd, and they don't want the opening of the states and they don't want the income. They want to keep it nice and close.
But you take a look at what, the states that are close, it's terrible what they've done. And those people, and you discuss it a lot, so do I. There's a lot of death, depression, drug addiction on the other side. When you keep it closed, I think you're losing more people than -- it's terrible what you're doing to people than when you open it.
So I'm the football guy. I'm the one that wants to have football. I put it out all the time. I'm very upset with Big Ten. Big Ten, they should've opened it. But I'm the one that wants the football. Everybody knows it. They saw that, and they said Trump -- these people just --
INGRAHAM: They have players suing now to play.
TRUMP: Good. Good.
INGRAHAM: And their parents are really upset. Michigan State, Penn State, Minnesota, Ohio State. They could've been the national champions this year, Ohio State.
TRUMP: Absolutely. And there are a number of them in that category. But look at Pennsylvania. You have a Democrat governor. You have a Democrat in North Carolina. You have a Democrat in Michigan. They're all Democrats. Those are the states. And I do believe the governors are telling those colleges we don't want it.
INGRAHAM: That's an important point for Americans to understand. You think that the governors are putting their foot down, saying no. The SEC, they are going to try to play. ACC is playing. But no way. And you think it's political, Mr. President. Is this political?
TRUMP: The governor of Pennsylvania, the governor of Michigan, the governor of North Carolina. They control those teams directly or indirectly because so much money, so much aid, so many other things, including traffic signs and everything else that they have to give. Those governors control those schools. That's all done by Democrats.
But just to show you how they lie and how they cheat. And the biggest problem you have, I want football back. By the way, are you watching? I want football, OK? Joe Biden doesn't even know football. Joe Biden, look, Joe, doesn't know he's alive. But let's see how it all turns out, OK. Let's see how it all turns out. It's a very sad thing.
I will say this. We have tremendous potential. We closed it up. We're opening it up. We're doing record numbers. As you saw, over 9 million people employed now over the last three months, that's a record in the history of our country. We have a chance of having one of the best years we've ever had next year. Unless somebody comes in and wants to raise your taxes, put back on regulations.
I'm not sure. I gave the biggest tax decrease in the history of our country, and we're going down lower. But I'm not sure. I think that the regulation cuts that I did, which were the biggest in the history of our country, might have been even more important than the tax cuts.
INGRAHAM: You said that Joe Biden is China's candidate to win. They want him badly. But you said, well, at your RNC speech, you said, I know that but I'm not going to tell you why. Without compromising national security, tell us a little bit more about that.
TRUMP: Number one, you look at his son walking away with 1.5 billion. Joe, he doesn't even criticize China. I've never even heard him even criticize China. He was the one that said, oh, China is wonderful. China is this, China is that. China is not the enemy, they are not the problem. I've taken billions and billions, tens of billions of dollars out of China.
INGRAHAM: He's taking the tariff off, that's for sure.
TRUMP: China, the tariffs are going to come off. We're taking in billions of dollars on tariffs. That would destroy us because it gives them such an unfair competitive advantage. We're taking in billions. They don't want me. I get along very well with President Xi, although I must tell you, since the COVID situation I have not exactly been talking to him too much.
INGRAHAM: Can you make them pay for them?
TRUMP: They are paying a lot now.
INGRAHAM: But how could they pay specifically for COVID?
TRUMP: What they've done to us in terms of the death of people -- and I'm not talking about just us. I'm talking about the world. You can never pay for that. What they've done to this country, what they've done to the world, you can never, just in terms of death. Economically at some point maybe you can catch up, but you're talking about a lot of good trade deals. I made an unbelievable trade deal. And frankly, they ordered more corn last week than any time at any time in the history of this country.
INGRAHAM: Are they taking advantage of this pandemic with what they have done to Hong Kong, what they are trying to do in the Philippines, maybe choking off some of the South China Sea? Are they taking advantage of it?
TRUMP: I think that they are hurt much worse than people think. They are having a very hard time in China. China is going very bad inside, the real numbers.
INGRAHAM: Their manufacturing, they say, has gotten back to par.
TRUMP: It's not. And they are doing poorly. China is doing very poorly. And they lost tens of thousands of people. They lost more than any other country. They just don't report it. We report everything.
INGRAHAM: How do you know that?
TRUMP: And by the way, I saw a statistic the other day talking about only six percent of the people actually died from COVID, which is a very interesting -- that they died from other reasons.
INGRAHAM: They had comorbidities, which you have gotten criticized for because there are comorbidities as the Italians showed for every COVID death, I think it was 70 something percent had two or three comorbidities. But the COVID might ultimately have been the key morbidity to hit them, but the bottom line.
TRUMP: It could be, but it's an interesting statistic.
INGRAHAM: Mr. President, are you still having fun doing this?
TRUMP: I'm having a good time because we are doing a job like just about nobody else has ever done. And I said it before, I'll say it again, and nobody even challenges me on it -- I, this administration, despite all of the fake Russia, Russia, Russia, and hoaxes and impeachments, we have done more in this administration than any president in the history of our country. If you look at our military is rebuilt. If you look at choice for the vets, and if you look at accountability for the vets, and I protective the Second Amendment, which, by the way, if they got in, your Second Amendment is gone. Your taxes are tripled. Your Second Amendment is gone. Your religious liberty, forget it. They are keeping the churches closed on purpose. You have churches that still aren't open, but you're allowed to go to a casino. It's a terrible thing that's happening.
INGRAHAM: You're allowed to riot. Because a lot of people don't know how funny you are, but you're one of the funnier people that I know, but you're also in a very serious time.
TRUMP: This is a very serious -- this isn't time for games. And people say he comes across as a little bit rough or a little bit direct. I don't have time not to be. I really don't have much time not to be. We have to get things done. And we are getting them down like no president has ever -- despite the obstruction, because they are up obstructers. Despite the tremendous obstruction, we are getting them done like nobody's ever done before, and that makes me happy.
INGRAHAM: Mr. President, it's always great to see you. Thank you so much for joining us tonight.
TRUMP: Thank you very much, Laura.
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