Transcript - Interview: Anna Wiernicki of Nexstar Broadcasting Interviews Donald Trump - June 17, 2020 | Factba.se

Anna Wiernicki

00:00:00 - 00:00:13 (13 sec)

First, Mr. President, um, yesterday you met with the families of the victims of police violence and racially-motivated attacks. What did you learn from them? Um, and how will this impact how you address the issue moving?

Donald Trump

00:00:13 - 00:00:38 (25 sec)

Well, I met with a number of families yesterday that, their whole lives were shattered by what happened. In most cases, it was a problem with police, and it's just devastating. When you meet with them and you hear the stories, it's devastating, and we have great police, great law enforcement, but you have people that make mistakes, and you have some bad ones, too.

Donald Trump

00:00:38 - 00:00:45 (7 sec)

You always have bad, no matter where you go, no matter what profession,. But it was very devastating to hear some of these stories.

Anna Wiernicki

00:00:45 - 00:00:50 (5 sec)

Will it be more difficult to unite the country in the middle of a re-election campaign?

Donald Trump

00:00:50 - 00:01:07 (17 sec)

I don't think so. I think that we're doing really well, with respect to the re-election. We're going to Oklahoma, as you know, on Saturday. We have over a million requests for tickets. There's never been anything like that. Nobody's ever heard of such a thing. And there's a great feeling. I think it's just a great pride in the country.

Donald Trump

00:01:07 - 00:01:24 (17 sec)

We got hit by China with the -- the, uh, virus, or the plague, as I call it. Shouldn't have happened. They did a big mistake. We just made a great trade deal. We were really buying a lot of product. I tell you, they're living up to the deal so far. Uh, they're buying tremendous product from farmers, and from manufacturers, and everything else.

Donald Trump

00:01:24 - 00:01:37 (13 sec)

But it's sort of a -- it made me feel very bad when I saw what happened. They said a plague is floating in from China, and that's basically what it was. And, uh, not a good situation

Anna Wiernicki

00:01:37 - 00:01:40 (3 sec)

Yesterday, Senator Tim Scott was here for the --

Donald Trump

00:01:40 - 00:01:40 (0 sec)

Anna Wiernicki

00:01:40 - 00:01:48 (8 sec)

-- Signing of your executive order. Today, he unveiled the Republican's plan to address police reform. The Justice Act. Will you support it?

Donald Trump

00:01:48 - 00:02:10 (22 sec)

Well, I will, and I've looked at it, and this was a step that we took yesterday. We took that first step, just like we did with criminal justice reform, which we call The First Step. But we took that, uh, that early -- we made the early move, and let's see what happens with the Democrats. They want to have, you know, they want to defund -- I mean, they literally want to defund our police and frankly, they would abolish our police.

Donald Trump

00:02:10 - 00:02:27 (17 sec)

If we weren't here, if we weren't here to watch it, you would have no police. I don't know what system they use. I think they'll have all social workers or something, but this is crazy. You see some of the people that we have to deal with and frankly, whether we like it or not, some of the criminal minds that we have to deal with.

Donald Trump

00:02:27 - 00:02:55 (28 sec)

You so that the other day where the man is pushing a 92 year old lady onto the sidewalk onto her face. And that's beyond anything but police, you need really strong, good police, but with heart and with compassion, and that's mostly what we have. So they want to, uh, defund, and they want to abolish police, and you look at what's going on in Minneapolis, and you look at what's going on in -- take Seattle as an example, look at that mess.

Donald Trump

00:02:55 - 00:03:17 (21 sec)

They don't want any police. They want no police in all of Seattle, and what's going to happen to the woman that has a house being broken into -- man and wife, woman alone, man alone? They have no 911. They have no -- who are they going to call? Who are they going to call? And I think they're saying, no, just talk to the people breaking into your house at 12 o'clock in the evening.

Donald Trump

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

So no, we want to have very strong police. I want law and order. I'm about law and order. I brought it out five days after they started. They wouldn't use the National Guard. I brought the National Guard to -- I told them, I said, you got to get the National Guard. We got them in. Everything stopped in Minneapolis.

Donald Trump

00:03:33 - 00:03:54 (21 sec)

It was really an amazing thing, actually, to see, and they had no problems after we called out the guard. So you need strong people. You need strength. You have to control your streets. You can't let this happen, and the Democrats don't want to do that. They wanted to defund. And I don't even -- I can't even fathom how they can say it.

Anna Wiernicki

00:03:54 - 00:04:07 (13 sec)

I want to talk about COVID-19 for a minute, and as we start to reopen the economy, uh, for people who, uh, may not be able to make rent by July 1st, uh, should people be expecting another stimulus check this summer?

Donald Trump

00:04:07 - 00:04:27 (20 sec)

I think we're working on something that's going to be very dramatic. Very good. I think we are looking at a phase 4. Phase 1, 2 and 3 have been fantastic for people generally, small business owners also, but we're looking at doing something else in addition. The economy is really starting to roll. We have the greatest job numbers in our history, last month.

Donald Trump

00:04:27 - 00:04:54 (28 sec)

We had great retail numbers, uh, also the best in history, up 17.7%. They were expecting 6%, 5%, maybe 7%. And we were 17.7. So the economy is roaring back. The, uh, the plague as I call it, the -- the virus is, uh, abating. We know how to handle it. We know where to go, and how to do it, and, uh, again: should have never happened.

Donald Trump

00:04:54 - 00:05:13 (18 sec)

China should have stopped it. They could've stopped it easily. They should've stopped it and they didn't do that, and we'll have that out. That'll be a point of discussion very soon, but, uh, we're really starting to do well. I think we're very close to a vaccine. The vaccine is going to happen. The, uh, therapeutics are happening already.

Donald Trump

00:05:13 - 00:05:26 (13 sec)

We really are at a point now where a lot of good things are happening, medically. I meet with the various doctors and the lab people, and they are the most brilliant in the world, and we're very close to having a vaccine, in my opinion.

Anna Wiernicki

00:05:26 - 00:05:30 (4 sec)

My last question is: are you nervous for a second wave of the virus?

Donald Trump

00:05:30 - 00:05:53 (23 sec)

No, I'm not, because we know how to put it out. We might have flames, and we may have embers, but I was talking to Mike Pence the other day, and he was saying that out of over 3,000 counties, there's just a very tiny proportion of them that have any kind of a -- a little bit of an outbreak. And what we've done is we closed that down and we take care of it. But no, we, uh -- I'm not concerned about it at all.

Anna Wiernicki

00:05:53 - 00:05:54 (1 sec)

Thank you so much, we appreciate it.

Donald Trump

00:05:54 - 00:05:55 (2 sec)

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Anna Wiernicki

00:05:55 - 00:05:56 (0 sec)

Great. Thank you.