Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Trump's Remarks in Press Briefing; September 10, 2020
PRESS BRIEFINGS
Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing
FOREIGN POLICY
Issued on: September 10, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
3:29 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Wow. We have some big ones today, huh? This is a room — loaded up. Wow. Paula Reid. Jonathan Karl. Phil Rucker. Hi, Phil. How are you? Kaitlan. We’ve got the all-stars. A lot of all-stars today. You too.
Q Alex Alper, Reuters.
THE PRESIDENT: You too. That’s good. Well, that’s fine.
Thank you very much. In the past four months, we’ve added 10.6 million jobs, including 643 [thousand] manufacturing jobs and 658,000 construction jobs. It’s far beyond expectations.
We’ve experienced the smallest contraction of any Western nation, meaning we’ve been affected less than any other nation — Western nation — and probably, almost, I think you can put us in — I just saw some numbers — I think you can put us into just about any category anywhere. And the fastest recovery by far. And that’s anywhere. Nobody has recovered like we’re recovering.
If we follow Joe Biden’s strategy, we’d shut down the entire country after just having set records on growth.
{snip}
As we continue to follow the science-based approach to protect our people and vanquish the virus, Joe Biden continues to use the pandemic for political gain. Every time I see him, he starts talking about the pandemic. He’s reading it off a teleprompter. I’m not allowed to use a teleprompter. Why is that, Phil? They ask questions and he starts reading the teleprompter. He says, “Move the teleprompter a little bit closer, please.” I don’t know, I think if I did that, I’d be in big trouble. I think that would be — that would be the story of the year.
{snip}
All right, please, Jon.
Q Yes, thank you, Mr. President. Why did you lie to the American people? And why should we trust what you have to say now?
THE PRESIDENT: Such a terrible question and the phraseology. I didn’t lie. What I said is: We have to be calm; we can’t be panicked. I knew that the tapes were there. These were a series of phone calls that we had — mostly phone calls. And Bob Woodward is somebody that I respect, just from hearing the name for many, many years, not knowing too much about his work, not caring about his work.
But I thought it would be interesting to talk to him for a period of, you know, calls. So we did that. I don’t know if it’s good or bad. I don’t even know if the book is good or bad, but, certainly, if he thought that was a bad statement, he would have reported it because he thinks that — you know, you don’t want to have anybody that is going to suffer medically because of some fact. And he didn’t report it because he didn’t think it was bad. Nobody thought it was bad.
Q But when you told him that this —
THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. And your question — the way you phrased that is such a disgrace. It’s a disgrace to ABC Television Network. It’s a disgrace to your employer. And that’s the answer. Are you ready? Because I —
Q Are you saying you didn’t lie?
THE PRESIDENT: I love —
Q I mean, you — you told him that you knew that —
THE PRESIDENT: Of course I didn’t. Of course I didn’t.
Q — it was “deadlier than the flu.”
THE PRESIDENT: No, no. No, no.
Q And then you went out and told the American public that this was “just like the flu.”
THE PRESIDENT: Let me tell you something: We’ve had flu years —
Q I mean, you told Woodward one thing and you told everybody else something else.
THE PRESIDENT: No. And five times, right? Five times. You ever hear the expression, “five times”? We’ve had flu years where we lost 100,000 people. The flu is a very serious problem for this country also. And we’ve been losing them — Scott, what kind of a number have we lost over the years with flus? Into the hundreds of thousands?
DR. ATLAS: Well, I mean, the last five years have been something like 35 to 80 thousand per year, every year, even with antiviral drugs and even with vaccines.
THE PRESIDENT: Flu is a very serious problem also.
Q But you told Bob Woodward this is — this is worse than the most deadly — “deadlier than the most strenuous flu.”
THE PRESIDENT: Okay.
Q And then you went out and said, “It’s just like the flu.”
THE PRESIDENT: What I went out and said is very simple —
Q And that it was “going to go away.”
THE PRESIDENT: Listen, what I went out and said is very simple: I want to show a level of confidence and I want a show strength as a leader, and I want to show that our country is going to be fine, one way or the other. Whether we lose one person — we shouldn’t lose any, because this shouldn’t have happened. This is China’s fault. This is nobody’s fault but China. China should not have allowed it to happen.
Whether you have a — one person, 180,000 people, or two and a half or 3 million people, which it could have been very seriously if we didn’t make the moves. And when you look at the opposition, where they said, “Oh, why did he put the ban on?” — Doctor Fauci said we saved hundreds of thousands of lives by putting the ban on China and then, ultimately, putting the ban on Europe. There was no lie here.
What we’re doing is we’re leading, and we’re leading in a proper way. And if, frankly, somebody else was leading it, they wouldn’t have closed it.
If you look at Nancy Pelosi, you look at Cuomo, you look at de Blasio, you look at Biden, months later, they said there’s no problem — they’re talking about me. Months later. And before any statement was made — you have to remember, I put the ban on China. So, obviously, outwardly I said it’s a very serious problem. And it’s always a serious problem. That doesn’t mean I’m going to jump up and down in the air and start saying, “People are going to die! People are going to die!” No. No. I’m not going to do that.
We’re going to get through this. And we’re, right now, I hope — really think we’re going to — we’re rounding the final turn. And a lot of good things are happening with vaccines and with therapeutics, but there’s no lying. And the way you ask that question is very disgraceful.
Q But should people trust you now?
THE PRESIDENT: Phil, go ahead, please. Go ahead.
Yeah, I do think so. And I think we did a great job. I think we did a great job. And the people that did such — our generals, our admirals, Mike Pence, all of the people that have worked so hard — and now Dr. Atlas — all of the — Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx — they should be respected for the job they’ve done.
Q So you won’t downplay it again?
THE PRESIDENT: And you haven’t —
Q You won’t downplay it again? Because you said you downplayed it. That’s what you told (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: All I’m doing is — no, I don’t want to jump up and down and start screaming “Death! Death!” because that’s not what it’s about. We have to lead a country. We’re leading a great country, and we’re doing a great job.
And the people that have done such a good job should be given the kind of credit that they deserve. We possibly have done the best jobs when you start looking at what we’re doing with the vaccines and therapeutics and ventilators. We had no ventilators, Jon. We make thousands of ventilators now a month, and we’re supplying them to the whole world. The job we’ve done is the best job. And don’t give me any credit; give the people that have done this the credit. They’ve done a great job.
Yeah, Phil. Go ahead.
Q Yeah, Mr. President, you talked about the need to stay calm and not jump up and down and scare people. A lot of other world leaders were calm. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was very calm and she presented information to the German people so that they could stay safe and protect their families. So why as you, as President of the United States, did you not level with the American people, did you not share the information that you knew at the time, in real time?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t know what — what Angela is doing. But if you look at the European Union right now, they’re having breakouts like you’ve never seen before. And, frankly, their numbers are at a level that are much worse than the numbers here.
Q Many people have died in the United States.
THE PRESIDENT: We are — we have done — we have — Phil, we have done much, much better than the European Union. I just read you numbers that are not good on their behalf; that are very good at ours. And we have rounded the final turn, and we have — we’re going to have vaccines very soon —
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: — maybe much sooner than you think. Listen, maybe much sooner than you think.
But we have done a phenomenal job, and the people that have done this job — including the American public that’s had to put up with a lot with the lockdowns and all of the things that they had to do — they have to be given credit. They have to be given credit.
Q But you knew this was a deadly virus.
THE PRESIDENT: Please, go ahead.
Q You knew it was airborne. You knew — on February 7th, you told Bob Woodward how it transferred from person to person in the air, how deadly it was. Why did you not come to the podium and (inaudible) people what you —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me ask you this: If Bob Woodward thought that was bad — because this is stuff that everyone knew. There’s a report that I have here someplace where China said it was airborne earlier than the statements I made. People knew it was airborne. This was nothing — this was no big — when I say it was airborne, everybody knew it was airborne. This was no big thing.
Q (Inaudible) put that out in February?
THE PRESIDENT: But read the reports. China came out with a statement that it was an airborne disease. I heard it was an airborne disease. I assumed it early on. The fact is, there has to be a calmness. You don’t want me jumping up and down, screaming, “There’s going to be great death. There is going to…” and really causing some very, very serious problems for the country.
If Bob Woodward thought what I said was bad, then he should’ve immediately, right after I said it, gone out to the authorities so they can prepare and let them know.
Q But Bob Woodward is not —
THE PRESIDENT: But he didn’t think it was bad, and he said he didn’t think it was bad. He actually said he didn’t think it was bad.
Q Bob Woodward is not the President.
THE PRESIDENT: The only one that said it was bad or thinks it was bad were the fake news media, because they take it and they try and put it a certain way.
If Bob Woodward thought it was bad, then he should’ve immediately gone out publicly, not wait four months. You know, he’s had that statement for four months, maybe five months. He’s had it for a long time. It was a series of taped interviews, mostly by telephone — quick ones, not long ones. Quick ones. And it was — I did it out of curiosity, because I do have respect, and I want to see — I wonder whether or not somebody like that can write good. I don’t think he can, but let’s see what happens.
Yeah, please.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. We’re just about 50 days out from the election and we haven’t seen a lot out of the Durham investigation yet.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q Where is that? And do you — do you have confidence in the investigation?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I can’t tell you that yet. I have to see. I’m not involved in it. I purposely stayed uninvolved. I’m, I guess, considered the chief law enforcement officer of the country. I could be involved if I wanted to. I thought it would be better if I wasn’t. I think it’s better if our great Attorney General handle it. He has Durham, who is a very, very respected man, and we’re going to see what it is. I can’t tell you that.
Q But do you want to see more indictments?
THE PRESIDENT: I can tell you this — I can tell you this: They — they lied, they cheated, they leaked, they got caught. They spied on my campaign. Never in history has there been anything like this. And I guarantee if the roles were reversed and I was on the Democrat side, people would have been in jail at the very highest level. People would have been in jail for two years already. Nothing like this has ever happened. And the term would be for many, many years, because it’s treason and other words can be used also.
Q So you think there should be more indictments as a part of this investigation?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think — just on what I read in your wonderful papers, I think — and — and see what, you know, just looking at the media — not even what I know. I think Comey is a disgrace to our country. I think Strzok — who just wrote a book, which is a total fake — is a disgrace. I think Page — Lisa Page, his lover — is a disgrace to our country.
I think that when you look at McCabe, where his wife got $700,000 in campaign contributions from Hillary Clinton — right?
And then Hillary Clinton is under investigation, and yet she paid the head of the FBI — one of the top people, but actually the head, because he took over for — for the other guy, who fortunately I fired. I made a good move when I fired. That was a smart move — because they were looking to take down this administration, duly elected administration. So I fired him. That was a great move when I fired him. Because maybe, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here talking to you as President.
But when McCabe’s wife gets $700,000 in campaign contributions when she was running for whatever office she was running from — from Virginia — and yet he’s in charge of the investigation of Hillary Clinton. Now, he says, “Well, I wasn’t really in charge.” Of course, he was in charge. He was totally in charge. He knew exactly what was going on.
These people got caught in the — probably the biggest political scandal in the history of our country. They got caught.
Now, what the Durham report is going to say, I can’t tell you. But if they say half as much as I already know — just from seeing it. You know, you have people — I watch some of the shows. I watch Liz McDonald; she’s fantastic. I watched Fox Business. I watched Lou Dobbs last night, Sean Hannity last night, Tucker last night, Laura. I watched “Fox and Friends” in the morning. You watch these shows; you don’t have to go too far into the details. They cover things that are — it’s really an amazing thing.
They got caught in the biggest political scandal in the history of our country. They were spying on their opponent’s campaign. Not only spying; they were making up fake dossiers. You have the dirty dossier. They were making up the dirty — and it was all made up. It was all fiction. It turned out to be fiction. And then they were using that in the FISA courts — this revered court. Well, it’s not so revered anymore because when you look at what they did and how they played it — and they hurt a lot of people.
General Flynn is still being hurt, and he’s being hurt very badly. He’s a wonderful person. I spoke to General Milley about General Flynn two weeks ago. I said, “What do you think of General Flynn?” He said, “He’s a great soldier, sir. He’s a wonderful, wonderful human being.” He’s been destroyed. He’s been destroyed.
No, I think that this — without knowing anything about what Durham is going to release — the “Durham report,” we’ll call it, or maybe it’s going to be more than a report. Maybe it’s going to be much more than a report, I don’t know. Maybe it’s a report or maybe it’s much more than that.
But when I look at the — the things that everybody in this room knows, just from reading about it from yourselves back and forth, I think it’s a disgrace to our country. And I think if people don’t pay a very, very substantial price, it’ll happen again. And this should never ever happen to another President.
Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody.
END 4:00 P.M. EDT
Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing
FOREIGN POLICY
Issued on: September 10, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
3:29 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Wow. We have some big ones today, huh? This is a room — loaded up. Wow. Paula Reid. Jonathan Karl. Phil Rucker. Hi, Phil. How are you? Kaitlan. We’ve got the all-stars. A lot of all-stars today. You too.
Q Alex Alper, Reuters.
THE PRESIDENT: You too. That’s good. Well, that’s fine.
Thank you very much. In the past four months, we’ve added 10.6 million jobs, including 643 [thousand] manufacturing jobs and 658,000 construction jobs. It’s far beyond expectations.
We’ve experienced the smallest contraction of any Western nation, meaning we’ve been affected less than any other nation — Western nation — and probably, almost, I think you can put us in — I just saw some numbers — I think you can put us into just about any category anywhere. And the fastest recovery by far. And that’s anywhere. Nobody has recovered like we’re recovering.
If we follow Joe Biden’s strategy, we’d shut down the entire country after just having set records on growth.
{snip}
As we continue to follow the science-based approach to protect our people and vanquish the virus, Joe Biden continues to use the pandemic for political gain. Every time I see him, he starts talking about the pandemic. He’s reading it off a teleprompter. I’m not allowed to use a teleprompter. Why is that, Phil? They ask questions and he starts reading the teleprompter. He says, “Move the teleprompter a little bit closer, please.” I don’t know, I think if I did that, I’d be in big trouble. I think that would be — that would be the story of the year.
{snip}
All right, please, Jon.
Q Yes, thank you, Mr. President. Why did you lie to the American people? And why should we trust what you have to say now?
THE PRESIDENT: Such a terrible question and the phraseology. I didn’t lie. What I said is: We have to be calm; we can’t be panicked. I knew that the tapes were there. These were a series of phone calls that we had — mostly phone calls. And Bob Woodward is somebody that I respect, just from hearing the name for many, many years, not knowing too much about his work, not caring about his work.
But I thought it would be interesting to talk to him for a period of, you know, calls. So we did that. I don’t know if it’s good or bad. I don’t even know if the book is good or bad, but, certainly, if he thought that was a bad statement, he would have reported it because he thinks that — you know, you don’t want to have anybody that is going to suffer medically because of some fact. And he didn’t report it because he didn’t think it was bad. Nobody thought it was bad.
Q But when you told him that this —
THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. And your question — the way you phrased that is such a disgrace. It’s a disgrace to ABC Television Network. It’s a disgrace to your employer. And that’s the answer. Are you ready? Because I —
Q Are you saying you didn’t lie?
THE PRESIDENT: I love —
Q I mean, you — you told him that you knew that —
THE PRESIDENT: Of course I didn’t. Of course I didn’t.
Q — it was “deadlier than the flu.”
THE PRESIDENT: No, no. No, no.
Q And then you went out and told the American public that this was “just like the flu.”
THE PRESIDENT: Let me tell you something: We’ve had flu years —
Q I mean, you told Woodward one thing and you told everybody else something else.
THE PRESIDENT: No. And five times, right? Five times. You ever hear the expression, “five times”? We’ve had flu years where we lost 100,000 people. The flu is a very serious problem for this country also. And we’ve been losing them — Scott, what kind of a number have we lost over the years with flus? Into the hundreds of thousands?
DR. ATLAS: Well, I mean, the last five years have been something like 35 to 80 thousand per year, every year, even with antiviral drugs and even with vaccines.
THE PRESIDENT: Flu is a very serious problem also.
Q But you told Bob Woodward this is — this is worse than the most deadly — “deadlier than the most strenuous flu.”
THE PRESIDENT: Okay.
Q And then you went out and said, “It’s just like the flu.”
THE PRESIDENT: What I went out and said is very simple —
Q And that it was “going to go away.”
THE PRESIDENT: Listen, what I went out and said is very simple: I want to show a level of confidence and I want a show strength as a leader, and I want to show that our country is going to be fine, one way or the other. Whether we lose one person — we shouldn’t lose any, because this shouldn’t have happened. This is China’s fault. This is nobody’s fault but China. China should not have allowed it to happen.
Whether you have a — one person, 180,000 people, or two and a half or 3 million people, which it could have been very seriously if we didn’t make the moves. And when you look at the opposition, where they said, “Oh, why did he put the ban on?” — Doctor Fauci said we saved hundreds of thousands of lives by putting the ban on China and then, ultimately, putting the ban on Europe. There was no lie here.
What we’re doing is we’re leading, and we’re leading in a proper way. And if, frankly, somebody else was leading it, they wouldn’t have closed it.
If you look at Nancy Pelosi, you look at Cuomo, you look at de Blasio, you look at Biden, months later, they said there’s no problem — they’re talking about me. Months later. And before any statement was made — you have to remember, I put the ban on China. So, obviously, outwardly I said it’s a very serious problem. And it’s always a serious problem. That doesn’t mean I’m going to jump up and down in the air and start saying, “People are going to die! People are going to die!” No. No. I’m not going to do that.
We’re going to get through this. And we’re, right now, I hope — really think we’re going to — we’re rounding the final turn. And a lot of good things are happening with vaccines and with therapeutics, but there’s no lying. And the way you ask that question is very disgraceful.
Q But should people trust you now?
THE PRESIDENT: Phil, go ahead, please. Go ahead.
Yeah, I do think so. And I think we did a great job. I think we did a great job. And the people that did such — our generals, our admirals, Mike Pence, all of the people that have worked so hard — and now Dr. Atlas — all of the — Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx — they should be respected for the job they’ve done.
Q So you won’t downplay it again?
THE PRESIDENT: And you haven’t —
Q You won’t downplay it again? Because you said you downplayed it. That’s what you told (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: All I’m doing is — no, I don’t want to jump up and down and start screaming “Death! Death!” because that’s not what it’s about. We have to lead a country. We’re leading a great country, and we’re doing a great job.
And the people that have done such a good job should be given the kind of credit that they deserve. We possibly have done the best jobs when you start looking at what we’re doing with the vaccines and therapeutics and ventilators. We had no ventilators, Jon. We make thousands of ventilators now a month, and we’re supplying them to the whole world. The job we’ve done is the best job. And don’t give me any credit; give the people that have done this the credit. They’ve done a great job.
Yeah, Phil. Go ahead.
Q Yeah, Mr. President, you talked about the need to stay calm and not jump up and down and scare people. A lot of other world leaders were calm. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was very calm and she presented information to the German people so that they could stay safe and protect their families. So why as you, as President of the United States, did you not level with the American people, did you not share the information that you knew at the time, in real time?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t know what — what Angela is doing. But if you look at the European Union right now, they’re having breakouts like you’ve never seen before. And, frankly, their numbers are at a level that are much worse than the numbers here.
Q Many people have died in the United States.
THE PRESIDENT: We are — we have done — we have — Phil, we have done much, much better than the European Union. I just read you numbers that are not good on their behalf; that are very good at ours. And we have rounded the final turn, and we have — we’re going to have vaccines very soon —
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: — maybe much sooner than you think. Listen, maybe much sooner than you think.
But we have done a phenomenal job, and the people that have done this job — including the American public that’s had to put up with a lot with the lockdowns and all of the things that they had to do — they have to be given credit. They have to be given credit.
Q But you knew this was a deadly virus.
THE PRESIDENT: Please, go ahead.
Q You knew it was airborne. You knew — on February 7th, you told Bob Woodward how it transferred from person to person in the air, how deadly it was. Why did you not come to the podium and (inaudible) people what you —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me ask you this: If Bob Woodward thought that was bad — because this is stuff that everyone knew. There’s a report that I have here someplace where China said it was airborne earlier than the statements I made. People knew it was airborne. This was nothing — this was no big — when I say it was airborne, everybody knew it was airborne. This was no big thing.
Q (Inaudible) put that out in February?
THE PRESIDENT: But read the reports. China came out with a statement that it was an airborne disease. I heard it was an airborne disease. I assumed it early on. The fact is, there has to be a calmness. You don’t want me jumping up and down, screaming, “There’s going to be great death. There is going to…” and really causing some very, very serious problems for the country.
If Bob Woodward thought what I said was bad, then he should’ve immediately, right after I said it, gone out to the authorities so they can prepare and let them know.
Q But Bob Woodward is not —
THE PRESIDENT: But he didn’t think it was bad, and he said he didn’t think it was bad. He actually said he didn’t think it was bad.
Q Bob Woodward is not the President.
THE PRESIDENT: The only one that said it was bad or thinks it was bad were the fake news media, because they take it and they try and put it a certain way.
If Bob Woodward thought it was bad, then he should’ve immediately gone out publicly, not wait four months. You know, he’s had that statement for four months, maybe five months. He’s had it for a long time. It was a series of taped interviews, mostly by telephone — quick ones, not long ones. Quick ones. And it was — I did it out of curiosity, because I do have respect, and I want to see — I wonder whether or not somebody like that can write good. I don’t think he can, but let’s see what happens.
Yeah, please.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. We’re just about 50 days out from the election and we haven’t seen a lot out of the Durham investigation yet.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q Where is that? And do you — do you have confidence in the investigation?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I can’t tell you that yet. I have to see. I’m not involved in it. I purposely stayed uninvolved. I’m, I guess, considered the chief law enforcement officer of the country. I could be involved if I wanted to. I thought it would be better if I wasn’t. I think it’s better if our great Attorney General handle it. He has Durham, who is a very, very respected man, and we’re going to see what it is. I can’t tell you that.
Q But do you want to see more indictments?
THE PRESIDENT: I can tell you this — I can tell you this: They — they lied, they cheated, they leaked, they got caught. They spied on my campaign. Never in history has there been anything like this. And I guarantee if the roles were reversed and I was on the Democrat side, people would have been in jail at the very highest level. People would have been in jail for two years already. Nothing like this has ever happened. And the term would be for many, many years, because it’s treason and other words can be used also.
Q So you think there should be more indictments as a part of this investigation?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think — just on what I read in your wonderful papers, I think — and — and see what, you know, just looking at the media — not even what I know. I think Comey is a disgrace to our country. I think Strzok — who just wrote a book, which is a total fake — is a disgrace. I think Page — Lisa Page, his lover — is a disgrace to our country.
I think that when you look at McCabe, where his wife got $700,000 in campaign contributions from Hillary Clinton — right?
And then Hillary Clinton is under investigation, and yet she paid the head of the FBI — one of the top people, but actually the head, because he took over for — for the other guy, who fortunately I fired. I made a good move when I fired. That was a smart move — because they were looking to take down this administration, duly elected administration. So I fired him. That was a great move when I fired him. Because maybe, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here talking to you as President.
But when McCabe’s wife gets $700,000 in campaign contributions when she was running for whatever office she was running from — from Virginia — and yet he’s in charge of the investigation of Hillary Clinton. Now, he says, “Well, I wasn’t really in charge.” Of course, he was in charge. He was totally in charge. He knew exactly what was going on.
These people got caught in the — probably the biggest political scandal in the history of our country. They got caught.
Now, what the Durham report is going to say, I can’t tell you. But if they say half as much as I already know — just from seeing it. You know, you have people — I watch some of the shows. I watch Liz McDonald; she’s fantastic. I watched Fox Business. I watched Lou Dobbs last night, Sean Hannity last night, Tucker last night, Laura. I watched “Fox and Friends” in the morning. You watch these shows; you don’t have to go too far into the details. They cover things that are — it’s really an amazing thing.
They got caught in the biggest political scandal in the history of our country. They were spying on their opponent’s campaign. Not only spying; they were making up fake dossiers. You have the dirty dossier. They were making up the dirty — and it was all made up. It was all fiction. It turned out to be fiction. And then they were using that in the FISA courts — this revered court. Well, it’s not so revered anymore because when you look at what they did and how they played it — and they hurt a lot of people.
General Flynn is still being hurt, and he’s being hurt very badly. He’s a wonderful person. I spoke to General Milley about General Flynn two weeks ago. I said, “What do you think of General Flynn?” He said, “He’s a great soldier, sir. He’s a wonderful, wonderful human being.” He’s been destroyed. He’s been destroyed.
No, I think that this — without knowing anything about what Durham is going to release — the “Durham report,” we’ll call it, or maybe it’s going to be more than a report. Maybe it’s going to be much more than a report, I don’t know. Maybe it’s a report or maybe it’s much more than that.
But when I look at the — the things that everybody in this room knows, just from reading about it from yourselves back and forth, I think it’s a disgrace to our country. And I think if people don’t pay a very, very substantial price, it’ll happen again. And this should never ever happen to another President.
Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody.
END 4:00 P.M. EDT
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
