Transcript - Interview: Chris Cuomo Interviews Donald Trump on CNN's New Day - May 9, 2016 | Factba.se

Chris Cuomo

00:00:00 - 00:00:10 (11 sec)

Let's discuss these recent turns of event in the election with the man himself, the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump on the phone this morning. Mr. Trump, can you hear us?

Donald Trump

00:00:10 - 00:00:12 (1 sec)

Chris Cuomo

00:00:12 - 00:00:33 (22 sec)

We need to talk policy. We need to talk the state of play within your own party, but you have commanded a different headline that needs to be addressed. You are attacking Hillary Clinton for the sexual past and indiscretions of her husband, calling her an enabler. We have a panel of independent voters. They are smart as heck and most of them don't like it.

Chris Cuomo

00:00:33 - 00:00:46 (12 sec)

They see it as a distraction, they see it as hypocritical coming from you, and mostly they see it as potential proof you may have no real ideas to offer as president. What is your thinking on this line of attack?

Donald Trump

00:00:46 - 00:01:02 (16 sec)

Well, this is a nice way to start off the interview. First of all, you should congratulate me for having won the race. I thought at least there would be a small congratulations, but I'm not surprised with CNN because that's the way they treat Trump. It's the -- they call it the Clinton network and I believe that. So, you know...

Chris Cuomo

00:01:02 - 00:01:12 (10 sec)

Wait, hold on. Mr. Trump, I did congratulate you the last time we spoke. I said congratulations on winning the big race. What are you going to do going forward?

Donald Trump

00:01:12 - 00:01:13 (2 sec)

Thank you very much. So warm and so well-felt.

Chris Cuomo

00:01:13 - 00:01:17 (4 sec)

But you -- no, no, no, hold on, hold on. Let's get this off on the right foot. I'm trying to address what you...

Donald Trump

00:01:17 - 00:01:27 (10 sec)

You're starting off with a question, we haven't spoken, last week, towards the end, I was the, essentially the nominee of the party, and you start off with this question which is not surprising, because I understand CNN perhaps a lot better than you do.

Chris Cuomo

00:01:27 - 00:01:37 (10 sec)

OK, OK, you know what? You're right. Sometimes it's good to restart. Here's the restart. You are going to be your party's nominee by all accounts.

Chris Cuomo

00:01:37 - 00:01:49 (12 sec)

You are going to carry the standard for this party. You have said that once you get into the general, people will see what you have to offer. The first thing that you've come out with hot and heavy out of the box are these attacks on Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump

00:01:49 - 00:02:05 (16 sec)

That wasn't the first thing I came out with. The first thing I came out with, if you watched, was trade. We're making horrible trade deals, we're losing our jobs, we're losing our manufacturing, it's trade. The next thing I came out with is rebuilding our military, because our military is absolutely being decimated.

Donald Trump

00:02:05 - 00:02:20 (14 sec)

We're not spending the proper money. We're not buying the proper equipment. We're not taking care of our soldiers. We're not taking care of our vets, by the way. But we're not taking care of our military at a time when we just about in the history of our country need it the most.

Donald Trump

00:02:20 - 00:02:39 (19 sec)

So I talk about that. I talk about the border. I talk about the fact that we have to stop the drugs from pouring into our country. Those are the things I talk about in a very long speech in Washington, actually Nebraska, which was unbelievable -- every one of them had tens of thousands of people.

Donald Trump

00:02:39 - 00:02:48 (10 sec)

I mean, they were massively attended, which, of course you don't mention, nor does CNN ever show the crowds. It's very interesting, because CNN -- I could be making a speech for an hour, they'll never show the extent of the crowd.

Chris Cuomo

00:02:48 - 00:02:55 (6 sec)

Well I'll tell you, Mr. Trump, I would suggest that CNN shows your events more than they show any other candidate's.

Donald Trump

00:02:55 - 00:03:00 (5 sec)

... where we had a record crowd, where Hillary Clinton said she wants to put the coal miners out of business, the miners.

Chris Cuomo

00:03:00 - 00:03:02 (2 sec)

We covered that extensively.

Donald Trump

00:03:02 - 00:03:05 (3 sec)

She said she wants the miners and the companies to go out of business.

Chris Cuomo

00:03:05 - 00:03:15 (10 sec)

We covered it extensively. On the military, you raise an important issue. We tried to get your campaign and the other campaigns to hold forth on whether or not they supported the current G.I. bill.

Chris Cuomo

00:03:15 - 00:03:28 (13 sec)

As you know, in the congress, they did this sneaky vote in the house where there was no roll call and they were going to cut money from the G.I. bill to allow for other expenditures for vets. The vets were very upset. They said, no, don't take money from us and reallocate it.

Chris Cuomo

00:03:28 - 00:03:36 (7 sec)

Find the savings elsewhere. Do you support maintaining the G.I. bill the way it is right now and even growing it as opposed to cutting it?

Donald Trump

00:03:36 - 00:03:44 (9 sec)

I don't want to be hurting our vets. Our vets have been hurt enough. We treat illegal immigrants better than we treat our vets. So I'm going to do nothing to hurt our vets. I'm going to only help our vets.

Chris Cuomo

00:03:44 - 00:03:46 (1 sec)

So is that a yes?

Donald Trump

00:03:46 - 00:03:58 (13 sec)

I'm not Hillary Clinton that thinks that the vets are getting too much. And they're not getting too much. I've traveled, I've seen so many vets, I know so many vets now and I have a lot of friends. I've developed great friendships among the vets. Our vets are being treated very badly.

Chris Cuomo

00:03:58 - 00:04:00 (2 sec)

So is that a yes, I do support the current G.I. bill?

Donald Trump

00:04:00 - 00:04:21 (21 sec)

No. I want to bring jobs back to our country, I want to make our country go again. I just traveled. I won so many states in a row in massive landslides and part of the reason was trade. It wasn't what you brought up at the beginning of the show which was totally inappropriate. Part of the reason I won was because of trade and I talk trade and I'm the only one that can do anything about trade.

Donald Trump

00:04:21 - 00:04:34 (13 sec)

I'm going to renegotiate these trade deals. These trade deals have sucked everything out of our country. And by the way, Clinton is the one that approved NAFTA. NAFTA is the worst deal, one of the worst deals our country's ever made from an economic standpoint.

Donald Trump

00:04:34 - 00:05:00 (26 sec)

One of the worst deals ever. It's taken -- if you've seen what it's done to New York State and New England and virtually every state, but it's just -- it is just, it has sucked the jobs out of our country, it sucked the money out of our country. We're going to bring our jobs back. We're going to make it much harder for people to leave, for people to take their companies and just go to Mexico and then sell the product back into the United States with no tax or nothing.

Chris Cuomo

00:05:00 - 00:05:11 (11 sec)

All right, so let's unpack a little of this stuff one at a time. And first of all, just to get back to tone, just for one second, a little bit of this is because you're on the phone. As you know, when you're in person with somebody, very often you can interpret questions...

Donald Trump

00:05:11 - 00:05:14 (3 sec)

You would have asked the same question in person.

Chris Cuomo

00:05:14 - 00:05:17 (3 sec)

But I think maybe if you were face to face, it might be a little bit different. That's all.

Chris Cuomo

00:05:17 - 00:05:20 (3 sec)

You think you would have asked a different question? I don't think so.

Chris Cuomo

00:05:20 - 00:05:32 (12 sec)

No, I think that you're taking it the wrong way, because obviously I'm playing off what the headline is everywhere this morning. I'm not just making it up, and NAFTA, I understand you wanting to bring up trade. As you know, Clinton did not pass NAFTA. Bush passed NAFTA.

Chris Cuomo

00:05:32 - 00:05:33 (2 sec)

So you can criticize it all you want.

Donald Trump

00:05:33 - 00:05:35 (2 sec)

Oh really? Who signed NAFTA?

Chris Cuomo

00:05:35 - 00:05:39 (4 sec)

You can criticize it all you want. I'm just saying you want to keep the history. Bush was involved with NAFTA.

Donald Trump

00:05:39 - 00:05:44 (4 sec)

Excuse me. Who signed NAFTA? Whose bill was it and who signed it?

Chris Cuomo

00:05:44 - 00:05:46 (2 sec)

But what is your point, though? This was in the Bush administration.

Donald Trump

00:05:46 - 00:05:49 (3 sec)

But this was one of the worst deals ever made in the history of our country...

Chris Cuomo

00:05:49 - 00:05:51 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:05:51 - 00:05:54 (4 sec)

... and it has just destroyed manufacturing, and destroyed jobs.

Chris Cuomo

00:05:54 - 00:06:00 (5 sec)

All right, that's a valid point. You just have to spread the blame across both parties and you have to come up with a solution.

Donald Trump

00:06:00 - 00:06:03 (3 sec)

No, but the signer of NAFTA, take a look at who signed it. Check it out.

Chris Cuomo

00:06:03 - 00:06:05 (2 sec)

Donald Trump

00:06:05 - 00:06:20 (15 sec)

OK. You take a look. You take a look. NAFTA was a Clinton deal and he wanted it so badly, and I have not been a big fan of what went on in terms, economic developmentally, or with the war with Bush either, frankly, if you want to know the truth.

Donald Trump

00:06:20 - 00:06:33 (14 sec)

I mean, there's a whole -- that's a whole other story. But if you look at NAFTA and you take a look at what's been done and how hard Clinton pushed it and that bill has been an absolute disaster. The passage of that has been an absolute disaster for our country.

Chris Cuomo

00:06:33 - 00:06:39 (5 sec)

All right. Fair point. You want to criticize NAFTA. Doing more about trade, helping veterans.

Donald Trump

00:06:39 - 00:06:50 (11 sec)

And we're going to bring it back and we're going to bring the jobs back into our country and we're going to make it very hard for companies to leave and then sell product back into our country and rip us off, and all we end up getting is unemployment of great people.

Chris Cuomo

00:06:50 - 00:07:08 (19 sec)

All real issues. As you know, the last time we spoke, when we did talk about your taking everybody out in the race and now being the man yourself, we talked about how you would bring about bringing back jobs. You said, I would tax companies who don't do the right thing. I would have a tariff imposed. I said, that's what congress does, not a president. You said, well I'll work with them.

Chris Cuomo

00:07:08 - 00:07:13 (5 sec)

All real issues. And that's why I was so surprised to see you going after Clinton for her husband's infidelity and calling her an enabler.

Donald Trump

00:07:13 - 00:07:31 (18 sec)

It's only retribution for what she said. She is playing the woman's card to the hilt. She is going -- I mean I watched over the weekend, everything is about woman and Donald Trump raised his voice. It's all nonsense. And you know what, women understand it better than anybody, and watch how well I do with women when it counts, when the election comes.

Donald Trump

00:07:31 - 00:07:52 (21 sec)

Watch how well, because women want to see strong security, they want to see strong military, they want to see borders where people can't just come walking across the border like it's Swiss cheese, and you see the damage that's been done to our country with the weak borders. You see what's happening. You see the crime. You see the drugs flowing in and poisoning our youth and everybody else.

Chris Cuomo

00:07:52 - 00:07:58 (6 sec)

But then why don't you talk about those issues and get women on your side as opposed to talking about infidelity and enabling?

Donald Trump

00:07:58 - 00:08:01 (3 sec)

I do. You took one sentence out of a long one hour speech. You took one sentence...

Chris Cuomo

00:08:01 - 00:08:06 (5 sec)

Mr. Trump, it's not one sentence. You were grandstanding on it, you were working the crowd about it...

Donald Trump

00:08:06 - 00:08:19 (13 sec)

Chris, I spoke very little about that compared to other things. You took a small amount of the speech and you build it up like it's the biggest thing in the world, but it is a big thing. Hey look, he was the worst abuser of women...

Chris Cuomo

00:08:19 - 00:08:23 (3 sec)

You just said I'm making too much of it, now you say it's a big thing.

Donald Trump

00:08:23 - 00:08:38 (16 sec)

Excuse me. As a politician in the history of our country. He was impeached! He was impeached! And then he lied about it. He said, nothing happened with Monica Lewinsky, and then he said, sorry folks, it actually did happen. And the guy was impeached for lying.

Chris Cuomo

00:08:38 - 00:08:41 (3 sec)

All of that can be true. What does it have to do with Hillary?

Donald Trump

00:08:41 - 00:09:11 (30 sec)

She can't talk about me because nobody respects women more than Donald Trump, and I will be better for women by a big factor than Hillary Clinton, who frankly, I don't even think will be good to women. You know, she went and she spoke -- it was very interesting. She spoke a few weeks ago and she said, I'm going to put the miners and the companies out of business. Then she went to West Virginia and she tried to pretend she didn't make the statement, and that's the way it is with here.

Donald Trump

00:09:11 - 00:09:36 (25 sec)

The lies and the deception, it's horrible. And by the way, they understand her in West Virginia, and I'll bet you that she loses West Virginia, which she was easily supposed to win, and I would bet that if you took a poll there now, myself compared to her, you'll see a big difference. But you watch the problems she'll have. But the deception and the lies, and she tried to pretend like she didn't mean it.

Chris Cuomo

00:09:36 - 00:09:58 (22 sec)

All right, let's talk about something else. Sarah Palin came out and said, Paul Ryan is done. I'm calling on the supporters of Donald Trump to go after Paul Ryan and make sure that he gets Cantered, as in Eric Canter, that he loses his seat where he is. Do you want that? Do you want Sarah Palin going out there and trying to turn people against Paul Ryan? You're supposed to be unifying the party.

Donald Trump

00:09:58 - 00:10:01 (3 sec)

Well, Sarah has endorsed me and I like her a lot. I think she's a terrific person.

Chris Cuomo

00:10:01 - 00:10:04 (2 sec)

But do you want that? Do you want Paul Ryan kicked out?

Donald Trump

00:10:04 - 00:10:24 (21 sec)

Let me finish what I wanted to say, OK? But I have nothing to do with that. Sarah is very much a free agent. She's a terrific person but she's very much a free agent and I didn't know about this until yesterday. I guess she's been fighting, or she's endorsing somebody that's running against Paul Ryan and I didn't know about it until yesterday when I read about it.

Chris Cuomo

00:10:24 - 00:10:33 (8 sec)

But this is a big deal. Paul Ryan, the speaker there, you have said to this point, to give you your due, hey, I want Ryan on my side. I want to work with him.

Donald Trump

00:10:33 - 00:10:58 (26 sec)

I'll go a step further. I've always liked him. He called me not so long ago, I don't know, a number of weeks ago, but he called me and he was very supportive and very nice and I thought everything was fine, and then I got blindsided, so we'll see. I mean look, I'll see what happens. Look, Chris, I think you know this better than anybody -- the Republican Party, because of me, has received more votes than any time in its history during these primaries, right? Is that a correct statement?

Chris Cuomo

00:10:58 - 00:10:59 (1 sec)

You are on track to...

Donald Trump

00:10:59 - 00:11:02 (3 sec)

No, no, is that a correct statement?

Chris Cuomo

00:11:02 - 00:11:04 (3 sec)

... more votes than anybody in this primary.

Donald Trump

00:11:04 - 00:11:09 (5 sec)

No, no, I'm not even talking about me. Because of me, there has been a massive turnout...

Chris Cuomo

00:11:09 - 00:11:10 (1 sec)

Any GOP primary ever, you've gotten the most votes.

Donald Trump

00:11:10 - 00:11:33 (23 sec)

Because of me, you got the highest rates in the history of CNN during a debate and Fox set the all time record for cable television, 24 million and 23 million, OK. Now, most importantly, from my standpoint, in the history of primaries, I -- with many states left. It'll be beaten this weekend. I think it might already be beat-- I've received more votes than any person ever to run in the Republican primary. So I have people that I'm representing. They're unbelievable people.

Donald Trump

00:11:33 - 00:12:06 (33 sec)

They're loyal, they're smart, they're sharp, they're tired of being abused, they're tired of being lied to by people like Hillary Clinton with the 3:00 in the morning and then she never answered the call, Benghazi, all of the things, all of the e-mails, it's just a mess with her, so they're tired of it. They're tired of not having increases in their wages for a period of 18 years. Essentially they're making less money now in real wages than they made 18 years ago and we have a group of people that's great. This group of people has given me, and it's them, it's a group.

Donald Trump

00:12:06 - 00:12:39 (32 sec)

I'm like a messenger, but they've given me a number that no other president, not Ronald Reagan, nobody, has ever gotten. And by the way, we have many states left. We have California, we have New Jersey, Washington State where I was this weekend, I was at Oregon, I was in Nebraska, I was in West Virginia -- they haven't even been included in these numbers yet, so we're going to break it by millions and millions of votes. So I represent a very important group of people and a powerful group of people. These people have to be treated with respect, Chris.

Chris Cuomo

00:12:39 - 00:12:48 (9 sec)

Understood. But Paul Ryan said, I'm not ready to endorse yet. You know you have the big meeting coming. This weekend, you gave him some cause for concern.

Chris Cuomo

00:12:48 - 00:12:59 (11 sec)

It seemed as though you were saying this weekend two things that were different from what you said in the past. One on taxes for the wealthy where you said you were open to taxing them more. As you know, that's against the conservative...

Donald Trump

00:12:59 - 00:13:01 (1 sec)

I didn't say that, Chris.

Chris Cuomo

00:13:01 - 00:13:03 (2 sec)

Well that's how it's being reported. Tell us.

Donald Trump

00:13:03 - 00:13:17 (14 sec)

NBC misrepresented and Chuck Todd, if they put out that clip, in fact, I corrected him when he said it. Let's get it straight so maybe there's somebody listening to your show so we can actually have...

Chris Cuomo

00:13:17 - 00:13:18 (1 sec)

There are millions watching.

Donald Trump

00:13:18 - 00:13:48 (30 sec)

Let me just set it straight. I put in the biggest tax decrease of anybody running for office by far, OK, and many people think it's great, and if anything, I was criticized because it's too steep a cut, but that's OK, but I put in by far the biggest tax decrease. All right. What I said -- and that really is a proposal because we have to go to congress, we have to go to the senate, we have to go to our congress men and women and we have to negotiate a deal.

Donald Trump

00:13:48 - 00:14:11 (24 sec)

So it really is a proposal, but it's a very steep proposal. I said that I may have to increase the section -- and by the way, everybody across the board, businesses, everybody's getting a tax cut, especially the middle class. And I said that I may have to increase it on the wealthy. I'm not going to allow it to be increased on the middle class. Now, if I increase on the wealthy, that means they're still going to be paying less than they pay now.

Donald Trump

00:14:11 - 00:14:17 (5 sec)

I'm not talking about increasing from this point, I'm talking about increasing from my tax proposal.

Chris Cuomo

00:14:17 - 00:14:19 (2 sec)

Key distinction.

Donald Trump

00:14:19 - 00:14:37 (18 sec)

And Chuck Todd understood that totally, and yet they released information like I'm looking to increase the taxes. They will be getting a reduction, but the big reduction is going to be for business and for the middle class, because the middle class is being decimated in our country. So it was totally misrepresented just now by you and it was misrepresented frankly by NBC.

Chris Cuomo

00:14:37 - 00:14:40 (4 sec)

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on, Mr....

Donald Trump

00:14:40 - 00:15:00 (20 sec)

... and actually, Chuck Todd, when I corrected him on the show and he put it on, and yet they go then and talk about like I'm giving a tax increase for the wealthy, I'm not. I said, they may have to pay somewhat more than my proposal. But my proposal is much less than people are paying right now.

Chris Cuomo

00:15:00 - 00:15:11 (11 sec)

I totally understand, but when something is reported a certain way and I ask you about it and give you the opportunity to correct it, that's not me misrepresenting, that's giving you the opportunity you want which is to tell the audience what the truth is.

Donald Trump

00:15:11 - 00:15:14 (3 sec)

Well OK, and there was one other thing that was really misrepresented, I'll tell you this...

Chris Cuomo

00:15:14 - 00:15:16 (2 sec)

About the minimum wage?

Donald Trump

00:15:16 - 00:15:35 (20 sec)

... and that's the buyback of debt. I said, if we can buy back government debt at a discount, in other words, if interest rates go up and we can buy bonds back at a discount, if we are liquid enough as a country, we should do that. In other words, we can buy back debt at a discount. People said, I want to go and buy debt and default on debt and -- these people are crazy.

Donald Trump

00:15:35 - 00:15:47 (12 sec)

This is the United States Government. First of all, you never have to default because you print the money, I hate to tell you, OK, so there's never a default, but the point is, it was reported in the "New York Times" in correctly...

Chris Cuomo

00:15:47 - 00:15:51 (4 sec)

That you said you would go to creditors and make them take less.

Donald Trump

00:15:51 - 00:16:19 (29 sec)

It was reported in the failing "New York Times" and other places that I want to default on debt -- I'm the king of debt. I understand debt better than probably anybody. I know how to deal with debt very well. I love debt. But debt is tricky and it's dangerous and you have to be careful and you have to know what you're doing, but let me just tell you, if there's a chance to buy back debt at a discount, U.S. debt, in other words, interest rates go up and the bonds go down, you can buy debt, that's what I'm talking about.

Donald Trump

00:16:19 - 00:16:36 (17 sec)

People had it, "The Times" and others wrote, oh, Trump wants to go and see creditors and buy debt at a discount. Now there could even be a time when somebody comes in but with the government, they're never going to walk in and say, do me a favor. Would you buy my debt at a discount? In business, that happens all the time.

Donald Trump

00:16:36 - 00:16:51 (15 sec)

I bought mortgages back when the market went bad. I bought mortgages back at tremendous discounts, and I love doing that. There's nothing like it, actually. It gives me a great thrill. But in the United States with bonds, that won't happen because in theory, the market doesn't go down so that you default on debt and that's what happens.

Donald Trump

00:16:51 - 00:17:01 (9 sec)

So here's the story. Just to have it corrected -- if we have an opportunity where interest rates go up and you can buy debt back at a discount, I always like to be able to do that if you can do it, but that's all I was talking about. They have it like I'm going to go back to creditors and I'm going to...

Chris Cuomo

00:17:01 - 00:17:02 (1 sec)

Yes. That's what they were reporting.

Donald Trump

00:17:02 - 00:17:07 (5 sec)

... restructure debt, it's ridiculous. They know it's ridiculous, but they printed that wrong purposely.

Chris Cuomo

00:17:07 - 00:17:21 (14 sec)

All right. So let's just be clear. Your team is saying you've got to go, I know you have a lot of different interviews to do. It's good of you to accept these opportunities because it's important for the people to hear these distinctions in what's reported versus what you say is on the table from you, and that's the opportunity...

Donald Trump

00:17:21 - 00:17:23 (2 sec)

Well, there's so much misreporting. I mean, the press...

Chris Cuomo

00:17:23 - 00:17:26 (3 sec)

Well look, and that's why we ask you to come on.

Donald Trump

00:17:26 - 00:17:33 (7 sec)

The press is unbelievably dishonest. There's so much -- and they know it's wrong. Like, you have a lightweight, a real dope...

Chris Cuomo

00:17:33 - 00:17:34 (2 sec)

Mr. Trump, they say you have to...

Donald Trump

00:17:34 - 00:17:42 (8 sec)

... named Jennifer Rubin who spoke about, I didn't speak to Rubio. Well I have spoken to Rubio. And then she said I never spoke to Ryan.

Donald Trump

00:17:42 - 00:17:46 (4 sec)

Well I have spoken to Ryan, and she's living in a time warp or something, you watch her...

Chris Cuomo

00:17:46 - 00:17:52 (6 sec)

Don't worry -- look, there are going to be a lot of talking heads say a lot of different things. What I offer you is this.

Donald Trump

00:17:52 - 00:17:56 (4 sec)

Someday you'll put good people on about Trump, one of these days.

Chris Cuomo

00:17:56 - 00:17:59 (3 sec)

Look, what I want is to have you on. That's why I offer you these opportunities...

Donald Trump

00:17:59 - 00:18:00 (1 sec)

OK, well I'm on.

Chris Cuomo

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

... not to be unfair, to be fair and to give you the chance to correct what you say others get wrong and to be tested. Thank you for being here today, your team is saying you've got to get going, but I appreciate the time on "New Day ." I want to talk to you, not about you. Thank you for being with us.

Donald Trump

00:18:15 - 00:18:16 (1 sec)

Good. Thank you.

Chris Cuomo

00:18:16 - 00:18:17 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:18:17 - 00:18:18 (1 sec)

Thank you very much.