Transcript - Interview: Mike Huckabee Interviews Donald Trump on TBN - August 22, 2020 | Factba.se

Mike Huckabee

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

DNC's been going on this week. I get the impression watching, they don't like you very much.

Donald Trump

00:00:05 - 00:00:13 (8 sec)

I don't think so. It's pretty sad, but no, they're not big fans. I'm not big fans of theirs either.

Mike Huckabee

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

You get your shot next week. Preview for us, what's going to be different from what we've seen this week, and a very dark presentation of America, to what we're going to see next week?

Donald Trump

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

It's been very dark. And they're not talking about law and order, they're not talking about police, they don't want to get into it. When they look at Portland or when they look at New York or Chicago and where they look at what's happening with these Democrat-run cities and states, they're disgraceful, and they don't even talk about it.

Donald Trump

00:00:41 - 00:01:05 (24 sec)

When you saw the young man just get obliterated the other night in Portland, they don't talk about that. And in theory, they have to ask us to come in, or unless it gets so bad, in which case we can do it ourselves. We're thinking about doing it, because what's happening in Chicago and New York, but what's happening in Portland, they're anarchists and agitators, and they say they're peaceful protestors.

Donald Trump

00:01:05 - 00:01:11 (6 sec)

They burned down the stores, they're ripping down buildings, I've never seen anything like it. Run by Democrats.

Mike Huckabee

00:01:11 - 00:01:28 (18 sec)

You made a comment this week that I thought was very, very appropriate. You made the point that all this talk about your presidency and how great Obama was, that it was the Obama administration that set the table for you to be elected president.

Donald Trump

00:01:28 - 00:01:45 (17 sec)

Well, except for Obama and Biden, I wouldn't be president. I was never even thinking about it. You know that, I've known you a long time. I was never thinking about it. And then, all of a sudden, they do so bad. And then I have to listen to what a wonderful job they did. They did a terrible job. They didn't bring the economy back.

Donald Trump

00:01:45 - 00:02:05 (20 sec)

The economy was the slowest. It was the slowest recovery since 1929. It was going forever, it would've never happened. And we had the greatest economy in history until the plague came in from China, and China will pay for that, but until the plague came in from China and really hurt the world, not just us, hurt the whole world.

Donald Trump

00:02:05 - 00:02:23 (18 sec)

But I watched these people and I say, "Are they living in the world of the make-believe?" And I watch Obama talking and it's like, "I wouldn't be president except for you." Because if he did a good job, I wouldn't have won, nobody would've won. But he did a horrible job.

Mike Huckabee

00:02:23 - 00:02:32 (9 sec)

Part of what I think people may not realize, the economy was on fire prior to the virus coming up. On fire.

Donald Trump

00:02:32 - 00:02:34 (2 sec)

Hottest ever in the history of the world.

Mike Huckabee

00:02:34 - 00:02:41 (6 sec)

Where would we be had we had an Obama and Biden era economy going into something like the virus?

Donald Trump

00:02:41 - 00:02:55 (15 sec)

So, it's really interesting Mike. Because instead of the comeback that we're having, which is one of the great comebacks ever, we'll have it good. Next year is going to be a great year economically. Now, in all fairness, you can never forget the people, all of the people that died, we'll never ever forget them.

Donald Trump

00:02:55 - 00:03:17 (22 sec)

That can never be compensated for. But, if I didn't do what I did, we shut it out, we closed out China, we closed out Europe. And I did this long before Dr. Fauci and everybody else asked me to do it. We would've lost millions of people more. I mean, think of it, 10, 15 times more. We've done it all right, but it's a vicious disease.

Donald Trump

00:03:17 - 00:03:39 (22 sec)

It's a vicious problem that came in. So we took over a basically limping along economy and made it the hottest economy in the world. At the same time, we took massive amounts, hundreds of billions of dollars from China in tariffs. They went to the worst year they've had in 67 years, as you know. They had a horrible, horrible economy because of me.

Donald Trump

00:03:39 - 00:03:55 (15 sec)

And I don't want them to have a horrible economy, but you know what? They've been ripping us off for 25 years. And they never had a better time than during the Obama/Biden years. I mean, Biden walks in and he gets his son a billion and a half dollars that he gets management fees on, which is millions of dollars a year.

Donald Trump

00:03:55 - 00:04:03 (9 sec)

And the guy didn't even have a job. Between that and Ukraine and others, we're now finding out. So, I mean, it's a disgrace, it's a disgrace.

Mike Huckabee

00:04:03 - 00:04:22 (19 sec)

When we're talking about the virus, early on there were people saying, "Well, the president has got to take control." You said the Tenth Amendment means that there's certain things you can do, but you need to let local governors, mayors make decisions. They made decisions. Now it's like they are telling you that you shouldn't have done that.

Mike Huckabee

00:04:22 - 00:04:24 (2 sec)

But I don't know that you had a constitutional option.

Donald Trump

00:04:24 - 00:04:41 (17 sec)

Well, you believe in Federalist, you believe in whatever you believe, but we have 50 states and I let the 50 governors run their states. They weren't equipped, most of them weren't equipped. They had empty cupboards cause nobody ever... I don't even blame them necessarily, because nobody thought a thing like this could happen.

Donald Trump

00:04:41 - 00:05:05 (24 sec)

And it almost seemed like ancient times, it would happen in ancient times. Who thought something like this could happen? 1917 was the big one, and that was, they think, close to 100 million people. From 50 to 100, at least. And that was terrible. That was the plague. That was the big flu of... It was so bad, it ended the first World War, they say, because all the soldiers were sick.

Donald Trump

00:05:05 - 00:05:24 (19 sec)

They were so sick they couldn't fight. But now we have something that what we've done is incredible. Frankly, putting the ban on, that was something we did that nobody wanted me to do. Putting the ban on people, very heavily infected people coming in from China, long before it would have been fashionable.

Donald Trump

00:05:24 - 00:05:30 (6 sec)

That was a big move. We made a lot of good moves, and if you look at what's happening now, the numbers are way down.

Mike Huckabee

00:05:30 - 00:05:34 (4 sec)

Joe Biden said you were xenophobic for doing that. It saved lives.

Donald Trump

00:05:34 - 00:05:51 (18 sec)

He called me racist. He called me xenophobic. He called me everything. Two months later, he was saying, "He did the right thing." And he actually, in a forum, apologized, okay? But maybe there was just a weak moment. Maybe he didn't know what he was saying. Could that be possible? But he actually did. He sort of apologized.

Donald Trump

00:05:51 - 00:06:13 (22 sec)

But look, it's a terrible thing. But as you said, we created the hottest economy, not just of our country, best ever. Best stock market, best employment numbers, best... We had 160 million people working. We were never even close to that. We just about hit 160 million people working. Never happened before, never even close.

Donald Trump

00:06:13 - 00:06:36 (23 sec)

We're the greatest economy we've ever had. African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, everybody was working. Women, people without a high school degree, with a high school degree, great scholars, everybody was working. And you know what? The country was coming together, because people, they ask, "How do you get the country together?" Success, the country was coming together.

Donald Trump

00:06:36 - 00:06:51 (15 sec)

And then we got hit by this plague from China. And now what we're doing, we did the right thing, we had to close it up, and now we're rebuilding it. And we're beyond a V. They were saying, "Oh, you'll never get a V." Well, we're at a super V, if you look at the numbers.

Mike Huckabee

00:06:51 - 00:06:59 (8 sec)

The stock market this past week hit highest ever. Coming out of this, that's pretty stunning. I don't think people saw that coming.

Donald Trump

00:06:59 - 00:07:17 (18 sec)

No, and frankly, if you would've told me that, I would've said, "Maybe next year." But that just shows you the optimism that very smart people have. And don't forget, stock market is a lot of people. That's 401ks, that's people that have stock. These are massive companies, but they're owned by sort of everybody.

Donald Trump

00:07:17 - 00:07:41 (24 sec)

And the stock market's doing great. The farmers are doing great, because we got them $28 billion from China. Because China targeted the farmers, and I said to my people, "How bad was it?" About $28 billion. I tariff China and I gave them $28 million right from China. And now China's buying more than they've ever bought from the American farmer.

Donald Trump

00:07:41 - 00:08:01 (19 sec)

But I feel differently about China, so differently. I mean, normally I'd be jumping up and down with that news. They gave the largest corn order in history last week, and that's good. But you know what? It can never compensate for what we went through with this whole thing. It's a terrible thing that happened, Mike.

Mike Huckabee

00:08:01 - 00:08:23 (22 sec)

You mentioned that the stock market affects retirees, teachers, firemen, people who are depending on those 401ks. A lot of our viewers tend to skew in that older group. I'm curious, because I join the ranks of Medicare this coming Monday. Remind me, that you're going to take care of Medicare and social security and all those people.

Donald Trump

00:08:23 - 00:08:26 (3 sec)

And preexisting conditions like nobody ever did. And-

Mike Huckabee

00:08:26 - 00:08:27 (1 sec)

But you get accused of not doing that.

Donald Trump

00:08:27 - 00:08:50 (23 sec)

Oh I know, it's terrible. Preexisting conditions, I'm the king of taking care of people with preexisting conditions. If you look at the mandate, the individual mandate, that was the worst part of Obamacare. I got rid of it. That really means you got rid of Obamacare. The truest sense, we did terminate Obamacare, because we got rid of the individual mandate, which is a terrible thing for people.

Donald Trump

00:08:50 - 00:09:10 (20 sec)

It was so unfair to people. So we got rid of the worst part of Obamacare. And without it, you don't have Obamacare, but we've run the carcass of Obamacare very well, and that the people are doing better than they would have done. I had a choice to make, do I run it badly and blame Obama, or do I run it as well as it could be run?

Donald Trump

00:09:10 - 00:09:19 (8 sec)

It's no good, but do I run it as well as it could? And we've done that. They've done a great job and they've made it as good as it can be.

Mike Huckabee

00:09:19 - 00:09:36 (18 sec)

One of the big things that has happened recently is the breakthrough in the Middle East with the UAE and Israel. Our viewers care deeply about Israel. It's a big issue for all of us. I don't think people even saw that coming, but it was a big, big breakthrough.

Donald Trump

00:09:36 - 00:10:13 (37 sec)

They didn't see that coming. And when I moved the embassy right? To Jerusalem, that was a big, big deal. And then Golan Heights, throw that on, and then terminating the Iran deal. A friend of mine, I said, "Which is the biggest, Golan Heights or moving the embassy, creating the capital Jerusalem, or, what do you think?" He said, "Neither." I said, "What do you mean neither?" He said, "The biggest thing you did for Israel is breaking the Iran nuclear deal." And I said, "I happen to agree with you." But nobody's done as much for Israel as I have, nobody.

Mike Huckabee

00:10:13 - 00:10:35 (22 sec)

I agree with that and I don't think anybody could dispute it. We've seen riots and looting in major American cities, and not one time did one of the Democrats, during the Democrat National Convention, openly condemn it as being immoral and wrong. How will that contrast with what Republicans will say next week?

Donald Trump

00:10:35 - 00:10:56 (21 sec)

Well, I didn't want to even mention it until tonight, because if they see your show before, they get a snippet of us talking, they'll put it in there and that'll hurt what we're saying, right? They don't even mention it. They don't mention police. They don't mention law and order. They don't mention the fact that they're going to take away your guns, because right now people want the Second Amendment more than they've ever wanted.

Donald Trump

00:10:56 - 00:11:23 (27 sec)

They don't mention that, Mike. The second amendment is so big. Life is so big. Supreme court is so big. We're going to announce very soon a list of 25 judges that we are going to propose as potential people to go into the Supreme Court. I want them to announce their list, because you can imagine. And they said they're not going to do it, but they're going to put on radical left judges.

Donald Trump

00:11:23 - 00:11:38 (15 sec)

And you can forget about pro-life, you can forget about your Second Amendment, you can forget about everything. Because the next president, I think, is going to have anywhere from two, three, maybe four justices. That will be really a very dominant court.

Mike Huckabee

00:11:38 - 00:12:02 (24 sec)

You've had a stunning record on sanctity of life. No president, none, not Reagan, nobody has done more for the pro-life movement, and for those of us who really value every single human soul. But it's not just a political calculation on your part, and that's what I've respected. Why does that matter to you, on a personal level, not the politics of it, but personally?

Donald Trump

00:12:02 - 00:12:22 (20 sec)

Well, I've seen it. And I've seen it with a friend of mine, where they were going to go the abortion route and they didn't do it. And they have one of the finest young people I've ever met. And they can't even think about it now. I mean, they were very close to doing that, but I've seen that a number of times, I've seen it.

Donald Trump

00:12:22 - 00:12:39 (18 sec)

And especially since I'm president, so many people have told me they were going to go the other route and they didn't do it. And now they have a young person getting ready to graduate from college and doing so well in life. No, it's a beautiful thing and nobody's done what I've done. Nobody's done what I've done on that issue.

Donald Trump

00:12:39 - 00:13:06 (27 sec)

And that issue can change radically, drastically, if you put in just one more judge that's on the radical left. Because it's a tie court right now. I mean, when you look at it, it's a tie court. And if you put in just one more radical left judge, you're going to have probably three and you could even have four judges to pick, meaning will become justices of the United States Supreme Court.

Donald Trump

00:13:06 - 00:13:27 (20 sec)

And when you pick them, you pick them young and they're there for 40 years. They could be there for 40 or 50 years, depending on the age. And that's a very big... This is going to be the most important election in the history of our country, that's what I think. Because we have far left, radical, crazy people.

Donald Trump

00:13:27 - 00:13:47 (20 sec)

They're maniacs. Nobody's ever seen anything like this. When you look at the Portland stuff and the New York stuff, and you look at what's coming out of the mouths of people that you know are more or less moderate. And all of a sudden they've ended up going far left because otherwise they're not going to get elected, or they're not going to be taken seriously by their party.

Donald Trump

00:13:47 - 00:14:04 (17 sec)

They're so afraid of these radical left monsters. So the Democrat party has gone so far left. They don't care about law and order. Life is just the opposite, okay? I mean, it's the exact opposite, and they're going to obliterate your Second Amendment, they're going to get rid of it.

Mike Huckabee

00:14:04 - 00:14:11 (7 sec)

And I look at things, taxes would go up, border security would go down. The clarity and difference between the issues are stunning.

Donald Trump

00:14:11 - 00:14:13 (2 sec)

Well, there's never been a bigger difference.

Mike Huckabee

00:14:13 - 00:14:15 (1 sec)

No, there's never been.

Donald Trump

00:14:15 - 00:14:29 (15 sec)

They want to raise your taxes through the roof, quadruple. They want to raise your taxes. They want to give you socialized medicine. So you're not going to have your doctors, you're not going to have your plans. And Obama said 28 times, you could keep your doctor, you keep your plan. It was a lie, the guy lied.

Donald Trump

00:14:29 - 00:14:51 (22 sec)

Just like he spied on my campaign, he lied horribly. And then you watch him last night, so sanctimonious. He's up there talking about Trump, Trump. The guy spied on my campaign, viciously, and we caught him. And he lied so much about healthcare, and then he said 28 times, you keep your doctor, you keep your... It was all a lie.

Mike Huckabee

00:14:51 - 00:15:17 (25 sec)

Final question, because I know you've got things you've got to get to and we must let you do it. You've outlined a very clear difference between you the vice president, former vice president. But there are still people who say, "But President Trump tweets things that offend me or he says things in an abrasive way." Reassure them that that's not the issue that they're going to vote on in November.

Donald Trump

00:15:17 - 00:15:40 (23 sec)

So I think I can be very diplomatic, as diplomatic as anybody. We're all smart people and all. But sometimes I feel I'm in this fight alone, or I'm in this fight with a few Republicans. And I always say the Republicans have to get tougher. So I have to speak quickly and strongly in order to win, because we have to win.

Donald Trump

00:15:40 - 00:15:59 (20 sec)

You look at pro-life, you look at what I've done on the Second Amendment, they haven't gotten anything on this. I'm telling you, a normal person, just a regular person, you wouldn't have a Second Amendment now. It would be gone or it would be meaningless, one or the other. As far as Twitter is concerned, it's really, I call it social media.

Donald Trump

00:15:59 - 00:16:16 (17 sec)

If I didn't have that, you probably wouldn't be interviewing me right now unless you did maybe as a businessman or something. I wouldn't be here right now being interviewed. It's a way of... The press is so corrupt. It's so fake, the news. People have no idea and now they're learning, but it is such a fake news.

Donald Trump

00:16:16 - 00:16:35 (19 sec)

When you look at it, you look at the networks, you look at CNN, MSDNC, you look at The New York Times, Washington Post, it's so fake that if I wasn't able to put out my thoughts in social media, through Twitter or whatever, but put out my thoughts, honestly, I wouldn't be here, Mike, I wouldn't be here.

Donald Trump

00:16:35 - 00:16:37 (2 sec)

Probably wouldn't be talking to you.

Mike Huckabee

00:16:37 - 00:16:38 (1 sec)

I'm glad you are.

Donald Trump

00:16:38 - 00:16:39 (1 sec)

So I'm glad for that reason alone.

Mike Huckabee

00:16:39 - 00:16:43 (4 sec)

Thanks for having us. Appreciate you hosting us and giving us an opportunity to visit with you.

Donald Trump

00:16:43 - 00:16:46 (3 sec)

That's a great honor, thank you. You're doing a great job too. Thank you very much.

Mike Huckabee

00:16:46 - 00:16:47 (1 sec)