Transcript - Interview: Jack Fink of KTVT CBS 11 Dallas/Fort Worth Interviews Donald Trump - October 22, 2018 | Factba.se

Jack Fink

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

Thank you Mr. President.

Donald Trump

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

Thank you very much.

Jack Fink

00:00:02 - 00:00:13 (11 sec)

We really appreciate you sharing your time. What was your reaction when you first heard that Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick asked that you come to Texas to help Senator Cruz and Texas Republicans get out the vote?

Donald Trump

00:00:13 - 00:00:40 (27 sec)

Well, Dan has been a friend of mine for a long time, and he is just a great guy, and Ted and I, I mean we went to war during the presidential -- during the primaries. But he's a great person, and he loves this state, and I think he's doing really well, it looks like he's really doing well, and I can tell you we had over 100,000 people apply to come to watch what we're going to be doing in a little while. And -- so Dan did make the initial request, and it was my honor, right away, immediately. There was no thought about it.

Jack Fink

00:00:40 - 00:00:44 (4 sec)

Were you surprised about coming to Texas and having to do that here?

Donald Trump

00:00:44 - 00:00:57 (13 sec)

No, because I'd do it anyway. I think he's going to -- he's going to do well. I think Ted's going to do well. He's a very superior kind of a guy. You look at academically, and, you know, up here, very important. And he -- he's doing a good job for the state.

Donald Trump

00:00:57 - 00:01:11 (14 sec)

I can tell you, we worked on a lot of things. When you had the hurricane, Ted was right out there, and John Cornyn, they were out there, they were really pitching hard that you get the money you needed to fix things, and it worked out really well. So, he's done a lot for the state.

Jack Fink

00:01:11 - 00:01:21 (10 sec)

As you know, Democrats have been making a lot of your 2016 tweets about Senator Cruz, repeating the fact that you call him lyin' Ted. What do you say to that?

Donald Trump

00:01:21 - 00:01:35 (14 sec)

Well, now I call him Texas Ted. Now I call him Texas Ted. No it's -- Look, it's all fun. And they probably are, I guess they probably do. But, actually I was asked that question a little while ago, I said, No, now we call him Texas Ted.

Jack Fink

00:01:35 - 00:01:44 (9 sec)

Congressman O'Rourke said other day that he thinks that there is enough evidence out there to impeach you, to have the House impeach you. What do you think of that?

Donald Trump

00:01:44 - 00:02:00 (16 sec)

He's is a lightweight. He shouldn't even be running, in my opinion. And, it's -- now they're talking about Kavanaugh, they're talking about -- they want to impeach everybody. They're not going to impeach anyone. They want to try winning. First, they have to win, they have to learn how to win. So far, they haven't.

Donald Trump

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

I think we have a really good chance of holding the House, and increasing the Senate, looking more and more like we're going to increase the Senate. And they all have to start winning. I will say this: most Democrats have said don't even mention that word, because we're going to lose, we're going to lose if you mention that word. He's one of the few guys that said, oh let's do that.

Donald Trump

00:02:18 - 00:02:36 (19 sec)

The only thing they could impeach me for is for having created the best economy in the history of, not only Texas, but in the history of this country. We have probably the greatest economy in the history of our country, and, very importantly, just came out today, consumer confidence the highest it's ever been in our country.

Donald Trump

00:02:36 - 00:02:51 (15 sec)

So, I don't know, are they a peach -- impeachable offenses? But, it's -- we're doing well, the country is doing really well. And, you look at our military being rebuilt, you look at what we've done for our vets. We -- we're very proud of what we've done.

Jack Fink

00:02:51 - 00:03:04 (13 sec)

Given what you say are your accomplishments, in Dallas County today nearly record turnout for a non-presidential year for first day of voting. Dallas County very heavy blue. And so, does that give you any pause?

Donald Trump

00:03:04 - 00:03:17 (13 sec)

That's good. That's good I think. Yeah, no, I think that Ted's going to get a lot of votes that are blue. I think we're going to get a lot of votes, both red and blue, and I would be very surprised to see anything but a big, fat, beautiful victory.

Jack Fink

00:03:17 - 00:03:20 (3 sec)

Let me ask about the caravan of migrants coming up --

Donald Trump

00:03:20 - 00:03:21 (1 sec)

Yeah, big problem.

Jack Fink

00:03:21 - 00:03:33 (13 sec)

-- to the United States. Today, you said you alerted the military, you alerted the Border Patrol. What factors will go into your decision whether you call the military to the border, and will that be here in Texas?

Donald Trump

00:03:33 - 00:03:50 (17 sec)

Well, it's going to be here, and I've just spoken to your governor, your attorney general, I spoke to a lot of your people -- Dan, and we -- we really have got a lot of great people from Texas, and our military people are working together. We just can't let them come in. It's just something we can't do.

Jack Fink

00:03:50 - 00:03:53 (3 sec)

And what did you tell them as far as the timetable of a decision?

Donald Trump

00:03:53 - 00:04:09 (16 sec)

Well, it looks like it's going to be a couple of weeks before they get here. And it's a big group of people, and once you lose control of your borders, you no longer have a country. I mean, you literally don't have a country. So, we're going to maintain total control over our country, our borders.

Donald Trump

00:04:09 - 00:04:23 (14 sec)

We pay to -- if you look at Honduras, and you look at El Salvador, we pay hundreds of millions of dollars to all of these countries, and they don't come through for us. And I hope Mexico's going to come through, we're gonna find out soon enough, but I hope they do.

Jack Fink

00:04:23 - 00:04:29 (6 sec)

You said today that you blame the Democrats for the immigration situation.

Donald Trump

00:04:29 - 00:04:29 (0 sec)

Jack Fink

00:04:29 - 00:04:35 (6 sec)

And so, what I'm wondering is, Republicans still control both houses. Why can't they pass anything?

Donald Trump

00:04:35 - 00:04:55 (20 sec)

Well, like in the Senate you need 60 votes. We have 51 votes. I mean, we need nine Democrat votes, so we can't get them. They won't give you one vote. So we need more people. We need more more Republicans elected. In the House we do pass things, we pass them a lot. But we can't get it by the Senate. We need more people. We actually need more people in the House too.

Donald Trump

00:04:55 - 00:05:11 (16 sec)

So we're going to see what happens. But I will tell you, it's a great issue. It's an important day. It's now coming to light, and the Democrats just won't allow legislation to be passed, even though they know it's bad for the country, but they think it's good for them as a party. It's not. It's really not.

Donald Trump

00:05:11 - 00:05:35 (24 sec)

They -- I think they overplayed their hand just like they did with, as you know, Justice Kavanaugh, they overplayed their hand, and that was a big loss for them. But they really did. They made a mistake, and I think they have a big mistake coming up. A lot of people say, did they start that, did they infuse money into that? I have no idea. But I'll say, they overplay their hand every time, and it hurts them.