Transcript - Interview: Bill Hemmer Interviews Donald Trump at The White House - March 24, 2020 | Factba.se

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[Transcript and video courtesy of Fox News]

Bill Hemmer

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Mr. President. Thank you. Did we get out here in the light? Right about now -- a big part of your job is to be an optimist.

Donald Trump

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Bill Hemmer

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You say that yourself.

Donald Trump

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Bill Hemmer

00:00:07 - 00:00:17 (10 sec)

How do you, how do you figure out what's the level of optimism that's appropriate for the moment on the medical side? Health wise?

Donald Trump

00:00:17 - 00:00:33 (16 sec)

Well, look, we have to do what's right. Ultimately, for the country and for the people. And it's not even a question of optimism or pessimism. We have to do what's right for our country. And, you know, we have a very optimistic country, but this was a very sad thing that happened. It came from wherever it came from.

Donald Trump

00:00:33 - 00:00:57 (24 sec)

We won't even get into that. But this was a terrible thing that happened to our country. And it's a terrible thing that happened to, I guess, 149 other countries. Think of it. I mean, 149 countries are affected by this, but our people are incredible. And the way they've handled it and what they've done and what they've gone through is to me, it's it's really sort of shocking because as we discussed, they want to go back.

Donald Trump

00:00:57 - 00:01:13 (16 sec)

They want to go back to their restaurants and they want to go back to their places where they work. They want it. This is our country was built on that whole concept. I never realized how much. But they want to get it back. But we have a great country and our people are just truly amazing people.

Bill Hemmer

00:01:13 - 00:01:20 (7 sec)

You have, I've been with you for a few hours. You've called this the Chinese virus. You did not use that today.

Donald Trump

00:01:20 - 00:01:41 (22 sec)

Well look, I have a very good relationship with President Xi. And they went through a lot. You know, some people say other things. They went through a lot. They lost thousands of people. They'd been through hell. And I've always said, you know, whether it's Ebola or so many, I could name 10 of them. You take our wonderful place in Connecticut.

Donald Trump

00:01:41 - 00:01:48 (7 sec)

I'm sure they're not thrilled about the Lyme disease rate, but they do name and after places it came from China.

Bill Hemmer

00:01:48 - 00:01:50 (2 sec)

So you don't regret that language?

Donald Trump

00:01:50 - 00:02:15 (25 sec)

I don't regret it. But, you know, they accused us of having done it through our soldiers. They said our soldiers did it on purpose. What kind of a thing is that? And that was their paper. That was a paper. That's an organ for pretty much the top people. And I didn't like that. So I think, look, everyone knows it came out of China, but I decided we shouldn't make any more of a big deal out of it. I think I've made a big deal.

Donald Trump

00:02:15 - 00:02:23 (8 sec)

I think people understand it. So that -you appeared when -- that all began When they said our soldiers started it. Our soldiers had nothing to do.

Bill Hemmer

00:02:23 - 00:02:39 (16 sec)

So you you've pulled back from that today. And we'll, we'll see how that goes over time. Domestically, the Illinois governor had some harsh words for you, it appears, of patched up of the past 24, 36 hours. Yes. the amount protective gear they were getting or not. The Democratic governor from.

Donald Trump

00:02:39 - 00:02:56 (17 sec)

We're there to help them. They have to get that gear themselves. We're there to help them. If they don't have like with Governor Cuomo, he had a chance to order 16,000 ventilators, the ventilators two years ago. And he turned it down. He turned down the chance. Now, he can't be blaming us, but we're there to help them.

Donald Trump

00:02:56 - 00:03:11 (16 sec)

When we build these hospitals and what we're doing from New York and what we're doing from for California, I'll tell you, Gavin Newsom has been very, very gracious. And we you know, we've gone at it over the forest fires over the different things we've had our disputes but Gavin Newsom gets what we're doing.

Donald Trump

00:03:11 - 00:03:24 (13 sec)

We're sending the ship. We're doing one for New York also. It's going to head out in about three weeks. It's being finished up and loaded up. And it's a great thing for New York. But they shouldn't be hitting us. The fact is, we've done a lot with what we were doing.

Bill Hemmer

00:03:24 - 00:03:33 (9 sec)

What about the Michigan Governor, just yesterday she was saying, you know, we we can get through the next shift. We can't get through the next day. What do you say to Governor Gretchen.

Donald Trump

00:03:33 - 00:03:52 (19 sec)

We're supposed to be buying this stuff over years? Their staff, they're supposed to look in all fairness to her. Nobody ever thought a thing like this could happen. We are talking about millions of masks and you're talking about all of the things you're talking about. But we're there to help them. We're not there to be their enemy, and they ought to treat us that way.

Donald Trump

00:03:52 - 00:04:09 (18 sec)

We've done an incredible job. Now, I have to say, you mentioned, too. But for the most part, they were at the call the other day, two days ago, three days ago, I had all of the governors just about they were on the phone, 50 governors. And you saw that call? It was a very friendly call. I mean, they were really thankful for the job we've done.

Donald Trump

00:04:09 - 00:04:22 (13 sec)

We've done a great job and we've done a great job on testing, too. But we inherited a mess. We inherited a broken system that was OK. In all fairness to broken it, it was it was OK for a very small event. But that was it. It was a broken system, essentially.

Bill Hemmer

00:04:22 - 00:04:35 (12 sec)

Let's come to today now. Take a little walk here. On the corner. What is your level of optimism with regard to a two trillion dollar package that may or may not pass in Congress? And how important is it?

Donald Trump

00:04:35 - 00:04:53 (18 sec)

Well, I'll say this. It's very important because we want to get our economy back. I think if it passes, we can be pretty quickly up to where we were and it actually gives us a step and a stepping stone. I think we're going to ultimately top where we were. But the longer it takes, the longer we stay out, the harder that is to do.

Bill Hemmer

00:04:53 - 00:04:57 (4 sec)

How much reservations do you have in spending two trillion dollars.

Donald Trump

00:04:57 - 00:05:15 (18 sec)

Well, it's not really spending because a lot of it a lot of it is helping companies. It's going to be loans to these great companies that all of a sudden for the first time in years, needed loans because of this tragedy, because of what happened. You know, the unseen enemy or whatever you want to say, silent enemy, you can call it a lot of different things.

Donald Trump

00:05:15 - 00:05:33 (18 sec)

But these are companies that are great companies that employ tens of thousands, in some cases hundreds of thousands of people. We got to keep them in business. But what's going to happen is they're going to pay that back and they're going to pay it back with maybe stock in the company for the stock, for the shareholders and for the know for various.

Donald Trump

00:05:33 - 00:05:38 (6 sec)

We're going to get stock for the people of our country, for the taxpayers of our country they're going to end up making a great deal.

Bill Hemmer

00:05:38 - 00:05:43 (4 sec)

Joe Manchin, the Democratic senators are saying it's loaded for corporations.

Donald Trump

00:05:43 - 00:06:00 (18 sec)

It's loaded to save corporations. I mean, maybe he was a businessman. Maybe he wasn't. I don't know. But it's loaded to save corporations. Does Joe Manchin want all of these or many of these companies to go out of business? We'll have an unemployment rate, the likes of which nobody's ever seen before. We have to save these companies.

Donald Trump

00:06:00 - 00:06:16 (15 sec)

These are companies that weren't in trouble three weeks ago. And now they're in trouble because of what happened. These are great companies. They're you know, that in some cases triple A companies. And we also then we can go to another extreme Boeing, which never had a problem in the history of their company virtually.

Donald Trump

00:06:16 - 00:06:22 (7 sec)

It was like the perfect company then a year ago, you know, the problem they had and it was in trouble and this exacerbated.

Bill Hemmer

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How much money would you give Boeing?

Donald Trump

00:06:25 - 00:06:36 (11 sec)

Well, they're going to need a certain they're going to come up with a request and it's going to be really small compared to the numbers we're talking about. It's gonna be a small amount of money, but we're not letting Boeing go out of business.

Bill Hemmer

00:06:36 - 00:06:37 (1 sec)

But Boeing is not the only one.

Donald Trump

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Bill Hemmer

00:06:38 - 00:06:40 (2 sec)

So many others will line up.

Donald Trump

00:06:40 - 00:06:58 (18 sec)

And you have to help them temporarily. It's not going to be a longtime temporarily. And they're going to pay interest and they're going to probably give stock in their company to the to the people of our country, to the taxpayers of the country, to the citizens of our country. And it's gonna be great. But we have to keep them in business.

Donald Trump

00:06:58 - 00:07:16 (18 sec)

We can't lose these companies if we lose a company that employs 100,000, 150,000 people when we could have given them what they sometimes call a bridge loan. But basically alone, it doesn't make sense. So it's a very important thing. And it's great for the citizens of our country.

Bill Hemmer

00:07:16 - 00:07:27 (12 sec)

During our town hall today you threw out a date where you think America can be working again. And that's Easter Sunday that's 19 days from now. How did you come up with that day?

Donald Trump

00:07:27 - 00:07:35 (7 sec)

Well, it's 19 days. But at another seven, because we've been doing this now for seven. So that's from the time we heard about it.

Bill Hemmer

00:07:35 - 00:07:36 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:07:36 - 00:07:56 (20 sec)

Yes. So from the time we close it up so you could add seven to nine. Look, Easter is a very special day for me. And I see it sort of in that timeline that I'm thinking about. And I say, wouldn't it be great to have all of the churches full? You know, the churches aren't allowed essentially to have much of a congregation there.

Donald Trump

00:07:56 - 00:08:18 (22 sec)

And most of them I watched on Sunday online and it was terrific, by the way. But online is never gonna be like being there. So I think Easter Sunday and you'll have packed churches all over our country. I think would be a beautiful time. And it's just about the timeline that I think is right. It gives us more chance to work on what we're doing.

Donald Trump

00:08:18 - 00:08:35 (18 sec)

And I'm not sure that's gonna be the day, but I would love to aim it right at Easter Sunday. So we're open for church service and services generally on Easter Sunday. That would be a beautiful thing.

Bill Hemmer

00:08:35 - 00:08:38 (2 sec)

Thank you for your time.