Transcript - Interview: Jacqueline Policastro of Gray Television Interviews Donald Trump - June 17, 2020 | Factba.se

Jacqueline Policastro

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

Mr President, you put out an executive order that calls for police reform, but critics say it doesn't go far enough to address racism and police brutality. What's your response to that?

Donald Trump

00:00:10 - 00:00:25 (16 sec)

Well, we need strong police. We have to have very strong police and if we don't have that, once you get over that certain line where you start losing people that work for the police force, we have unbelievable good people in the police force. And of course, like everything else, you'll have some bad apples.

Donald Trump

00:00:25 - 00:00:48 (23 sec)

They're very few, but sometimes you find them and we have to find them before they act. And we've really passed something quite strong. We did it in conjunction with all of the police and sheriff's associations. By the way, they want it more than anybody. They want this more than anybody. So we stick with our law enforcement and we've done that very strongly.

Donald Trump

00:00:48 - 00:01:26 (38 sec)

At the same time, we very much want to stick with our communities and that's what we've done, because the communities, people don't understand this, the communities more than anything or anybody else, they want strong law enforcement, because they're the biggest recipients of horrible crime. So we've worked at both, yesterday, as you know, I had the law enforcement people here. Great support, and I had a lot of the parents of young kids, their parents are devastated, like devastated, I had quite a few people that you've seen in the papers recently, and it's tragic.

Donald Trump

00:01:26 - 00:01:42 (15 sec)

They have been absolutely devastated, and seeing them both together was a very interesting thing. But law enforcement is very important for communities where there has been just devastation. It's terrible.

Jacqueline Policastro

00:01:42 - 00:01:47 (5 sec)

After weeks of protest, you said our nation does not need more stoking of fears and division.

Donald Trump

00:01:47 - 00:01:47 (1 sec)

Jacqueline Policastro

00:01:47 - 00:01:50 (2 sec)

How do you plan to live up to that?

Donald Trump

00:01:50 - 00:02:12 (22 sec)

Well, you know what, I'm doing so much now, and I'm devoting so much time to it, our jobs and working so that our economy comes back. It is rocking and rolling. It's coming back. Yesterday we had tremendous retail sales numbers. It was up 17.7%, which is more than double the projection. Nobody could even believe it. And the stock market went up, and the stock market soon, going to be as high.

Donald Trump

00:02:12 - 00:02:29 (17 sec)

Hopefully it'll keep going as it was pre- the Chinese plague coming in because when the plague came in, the whole thing changed. So I have to build it. Once I built the greatest economy in the history of this country and the history of the world, and now I'm doing it again and we'll top it and we'll top it very soon.

Donald Trump

00:02:29 - 00:02:46 (18 sec)

But the numbers are great, the job numbers are great, we had the biggest, last month it was just announced two weeks ago for last month, the biggest number of job gain in the history of our country. We've had the biggest job gain ever the history of our country. And I think we're going to have a couple of more of them.

Donald Trump

00:02:46 - 00:03:09 (22 sec)

And all of a sudden we'll be back to where we were and I expect to be beyond. So I'm devoting a lot of my time to the economy. I think it's such an important thing, very important for African American, we had the best African American employment numbers in history, Asian numbers in history, women in history, Hispanic employment numbers, and unemployment numbers in history.

Donald Trump

00:03:09 - 00:03:11 (2 sec)

And we'll be back there pretty soon.

Jacqueline Policastro

00:03:11 - 00:03:15 (4 sec)

Millions of Americans are hurting financially. Will you support a second stimulus payment?

Donald Trump

00:03:15 - 00:03:24 (9 sec)

I would do that, and we expect to do that at some point in the very near future. We're coming up with some concepts now and we expect it to be bipartisan. We think we're going to get it done.

Jacqueline Policastro

00:03:24 - 00:03:34 (9 sec)

Coronavirus cases are rising in 22 states, including Oklahoma, where you plan to hold a big rally this week. Aren't you worried about people getting sick?

Donald Trump

00:03:34 - 00:03:52 (18 sec)

No, because if you look, the numbers are very minuscule compared to what it was. It's dying out. By the way, we're doing very well in vaccines and therapeutics also, I think there's going to be some big announcements on that in the not-too-distant future. But no, we're not concerned. Actually, Oklahoma has had a very low rate relatively speaking.

Donald Trump

00:03:52 - 00:04:12 (20 sec)

It is a little spike, a small spike for a specific reason. But no, we had over a million people apply. They have people now, days ahead, lined up. They have big lines of people, over a million people tried to get tickets to the event. We'll go there, everyone is going to be safe. They have to be safe. They want to be safe.

Donald Trump

00:04:12 - 00:04:27 (15 sec)

We're doing temperature checks. We're doing a lot of different things where I think we're giving out face masks. We're doing a lot of things, but Oklahoma, one of the reasons we chose it is they've been very low in terms of, and they've done a really fantastic job. The governor has done a fantastic job.

Jacqueline Policastro

00:04:27 - 00:04:32 (5 sec)

You're behind in the polls in most battleground states right now. What's your plan to catch up to Joe Biden, and will you debate him in the fall?

Donald Trump

00:04:32 - 00:04:52 (20 sec)

Well, it's like with Hillary. I was behind in the polls in the battleground states and every poll. And then I ended up winning all those states. You remember that well. And winning states that I wasn't even supposed to be in play. We won Michigan. We won Wisconsin, great states. And so, we were behind, and I don't believe we're behind because in my polls, we're ahead.

Donald Trump

00:04:52 - 00:05:24 (32 sec)

We have polls, and in my polls, we're ahead. But polls are fake, just like the reporters and the news are fake. There's so much of it that's false. And that excludes you of course, but the polls are fake and they're called suppression polls. They're supposed to take people's enthusiasm away. And when you look at that phony CNN poll that recently came out and you look at some others and where they go and interview Democrats or take polls, Democrats at far greater numbers than Republicans and other things, many other things.

Donald Trump

00:05:24 - 00:05:41 (17 sec)

This suppression polls, no. We're ahead in our polls and some others too, by the way. But we're ahead in our polls. And especially in the battleground states, I think we're going to do very well. I find there's much more enthusiasm now than there was even in 2016.

Jacqueline Policastro

00:05:41 - 00:05:45 (4 sec)

And quickly, can I just ask, do you think we should make Juneteenth a federal holiday?

Donald Trump

00:05:45 - 00:05:48 (3 sec)

Well, a number of people have asked me that question, we'll take a look.

Jacqueline Policastro

00:05:48 - 00:05:50 (2 sec)

All right, thank you, sir. I very much appreciate your time.

Donald Trump

00:05:50 - 00:05:51 (0 sec)

Thank you, thank you very much.