Transcript - Interview: Dave Baker of WKYT-TV in Lexington Interviews Donald Trump - November 4, 2019 | Factba.se

Dave Baker

00:00:00 - 00:00:06 (7 sec)

Mr. President, I know your time is tight, so why did you choose to spend your time here in Kentucky the night before this election cycle?

Donald Trump

00:00:06 - 00:00:21 (15 sec)

Matt Bevin is a fantastic guy. He's done a great job as governor. He had to do things that very few people were able to do. You know what he did. He did some very tough moves, and he had no choice, and it made the state stronger, and I want to let people know that. He is a fantastic governor. He loves this country.

Donald Trump

00:00:21 - 00:00:33 (12 sec)

He loves this state. This is a great state, and I guess I'm pretty popular here, based on certain things. But I love the people of Kentucky, and we're gonna have a big victory tomorrow. Matt -- I'm here really for Matt Bevin tonight.

Dave Baker

00:00:33 - 00:00:42 (9 sec)

Mr. President, when you first took this job, you and Senator McConnell probably didn't know each other very well. Would you say now he's your biggest legislative ally?

Donald Trump

00:00:42 - 00:01:02 (21 sec)

Well, he's fantastic and he's done a great job, and, you know, we have 157 judges, federal judges approved, and two Supreme Court judges that are fantastic. And I think we'll have -- within about two months, we're gonna have 182 judges, which is a record. There's never been anything like that, and, he and I did that together, and it's a great tribute to Kentucky.

Donald Trump

00:01:02 - 00:01:04 (1 sec)

He loves this place.

Dave Baker

00:01:04 - 00:01:14 (11 sec)

Absolutely. Let me ask you about everything that has gone on. How in the world do -- do you keep the wagon on the road, with everything that has been thrown at you and continues to be thrown at you?

Donald Trump

00:01:14 - 00:01:46 (32 sec)

Well, I mean the do nothing Democrats -- and that's what I call them -- they just do nothing. They try this impeachment stuff -- it's so ridiculous, over a perfect conversation that I had with the President of Ukraine. It's so -- it's so absolutely crazy, and fortunately, we had a, you know, we had the transcript of the conversation, and they had a whistleblower come out, and I think the whistleblower is very suspect, because his conv -- his, what he wrote is very wrong, and I released the conversation, and when we released the conversation the whistleblow -- he disappeared.

Donald Trump

00:01:46 - 00:02:08 (23 sec)

Everybody sort of disappeared after I did that. But these people, I'll tell you, it's terrible what they're doing to our country, and they're doing nothing. USMCA has to get approved, all of these things have to get approved, and I call her crazy Nancy. I mean, this woman is just... there -- all they do is -- that's all they focus on. One conversation, which, by the way, it was like a perfect conversation.

Donald Trump

00:02:08 - 00:02:28 (19 sec)

I was watching last night, Mark Levin, who's a great constitutional lawyer, he said just read this conversation. It was a perfect conversation. So, we're winning. Our poll numbers are way up. We've never done better in terms of fundraising, campaign finance, and we're having a lot of fun, and to be in Kentucky is great for me.

Dave Baker

00:02:28 - 00:02:37 (9 sec)

I don't understand. I mean, we're being transcribed here. I mean, there's never anything that you do, except when you're in the private residence, that there's not, like, a whole bunch of people transcribing, right?

Donald Trump

00:02:37 - 00:02:43 (6 sec)

Well, not only that, when I made this call -- anytime you speak to a foreign leader, you have many people on the phone. You know that there are many people on the phone.

Dave Baker

00:02:43 - 00:02:44 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:02:44 - 00:03:00 (16 sec)

So, you make a call, and you know that all of these people -- I think the Secretary of State was on, but many, many people, including transcribers and stenographers and everything else. What are you going to say? Now, I'm straight anyway, but, when you know all of these people are on the phone, that's sort of what you're getting at.

Dave Baker

00:03:00 - 00:03:01 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:03:01 - 00:03:21 (20 sec)

It is so ridiculous. But, this is what I have to put up with. I mean, there are really -- there's an evil group, and, it -- they're so bad for the country -- the Democrats are do -- I call them the do nothing Democrats. Now, they took a vote. We had 194 or 95 Republicans, every single one, and two Democrats actually came on our side, which is pretty amazing.

Donald Trump

00:03:21 - 00:03:32 (10 sec)

So we had a tremendous vote. We have great solidarity. Mitch McConnell's been great from the Senate standpoint. You know, at some point, that may get before them. Nobody can believe it, based on -- I mean -- I can see pub --

Dave Baker

00:03:32 - 00:03:33 (1 sec)

Do you think it'll happen?

Donald Trump

00:03:33 - 00:03:48 (15 sec)

I think it's hard for them to do it. I really do, and it's made us stronger and more popular. But it's, you know, your same attitude is the attitude that everybody has. I mean, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it's just -- the whole thing is ridiculous. It really is ridiculous. But, Mitch has been good.

Donald Trump

00:03:48 - 00:03:50 (3 sec)

Hard to conceive that it would ever get to the Senate.

Dave Baker

00:03:50 - 00:04:05 (14 sec)

Now, let me ask you this, though, Mr. President. A lot of people -- a lot of the pundits, and historians, would say that a President wants to avoid impeachment at all costs. However, with the way things are going now, in a certain way, would you welcome that, because you would be able to present evidence.

Dave Baker

00:04:05 - 00:04:09 (4 sec)

You would be able to call witnesses, and such, and let the American people decide.

Donald Trump

00:04:09 - 00:04:25 (16 sec)

Well, I think that's true, and they say that, from a political standpoint, it's probably a good thing for the election, it's probably a good thing -- but you know to be honest with you, it's a -- to me, it's a dirty word. It's a terrible word. It's a dirty word. I came in, I won one of the greatest elections of all time.

Donald Trump

00:04:25 - 00:04:44 (19 sec)

Look at what happened with Kentucky, the -- you know, the kind of margins we won with. But that was all over the country. We won so many states, nobody thought it would be -- you know, states that hadn't been won by a Republican in many years, like Wisconsin and Michigan and others. And, you know, we had a great win, and I think the concept of impeachment is such a -- a terrible thing.

Donald Trump

00:04:44 - 00:04:56 (12 sec)

I think it's terrible, and probably, it is good politically, because I see the poll numbers, how good they are. I see -- I see the fundraising, how good it is, and all of the things, but it's not a good thing for our country, I can tell you that.

Dave Baker

00:04:56 - 00:05:02 (6 sec)

I want to get back to the call for just a second, because a lot of people thought that you were trying to curry favor against a, quote, political ally.

Donald Trump

00:05:02 - 00:05:03 (0 sec)

Dave Baker

00:05:03 - 00:05:08 (5 sec)

Were you not, in fact, asking the president to cooperate with Secretary Barr's investigation?

Donald Trump

00:05:08 - 00:05:23 (15 sec)

Yeah. In fact, if you look at it, it said, I'd like you to speak to the Attorney General of the United States. I mean, that's something that's a positive thing, and you know Cory -- Ukraine is known as a very, very corrupt place, and they know that. He got --the new President, who I don't even know --

Dave Baker

00:05:23 - 00:05:23 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:05:23 - 00:05:39 (17 sec)

I mean, I speak to him -- I never even, I don't even know him. But the new President won on the basis that he was going to fight corruption, and that's one, and the other thing is why aren't Germany, and why aren't all these other countries, France, U.K., why aren't they putting up money? And I say that: why aren't they putting up money.

Donald Trump

00:05:39 - 00:05:47 (8 sec)

I want them to put up money too, so that was part of it also. It is so bad what they do, because it's so bad for our country.

Dave Baker

00:05:47 - 00:05:56 (8 sec)

Final question. I never thought I'd compare a president to Elvis, but it seems like you get out in front of these crowds, and you, like Elvis, are energized --

Donald Trump

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

Dave Baker

00:05:56 - 00:05:58 (2 sec)

-- and it's good for you to get out of that bubble in D.C.

Donald Trump

00:05:58 - 00:06:14 (16 sec)

Well, I love it. I love the people I love -- I mean, certain states, where we have leads that have -- this is one of them -- where we have leads, individually, me, and that's why I love to see Matt -- in a way, Matt, I look at Matt also as a referendum against Nancy Pelosi and this crooked politician named Schiff.

Donald Trump

00:06:14 - 00:06:20 (6 sec)

He's a crooked guy. He's a guy, that got up and made up my conversation.

Dave Baker

00:06:20 - 00:06:20 (1 sec)

Parody, is what it said.

Donald Trump

00:06:20 - 00:06:22 (2 sec)

Yeah, oh, he said parody after they caught him.

Dave Baker

00:06:22 - 00:06:23 (1 sec)

In a congressional hearing.

Donald Trump

00:06:23 - 00:06:31 (8 sec)

Well, he never thought that I was going to release the tape, because normally, you don't do that. You know, I don't want to release a conversation with a foreign leader because you just don't do that.

Dave Baker

00:06:31 - 00:06:31 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:06:31 - 00:06:47 (16 sec)

We actually called, got approval to do it, and they said, why, it was a good conversation. I said, you're right. But he never thought we'd do that. But here's a guy that made up a conversation, totally, I mean, not even like -- he didn't use one word that I said. He just totally made it up, and it sounded terrible.

Donald Trump

00:06:47 - 00:07:06 (19 sec)

And so, he's a crooked politician, and it's a shame. So, I look at Matt -- Matt Bevin, as sort of a referendum in favor of -- of what we're doing, because, you know, you talk about the swamp, Nancy Pelosi, all these people. It's a terrible thing, Schumer, and in the meantime, they get nothing done. We're getting things done.

Donald Trump

00:07:06 - 00:07:16 (10 sec)

Sometimes, I'm doing executive orders -- we're getting things done. But they get so little done, all they do is focus on this kind of thing, and they're trying to win an election in 2020, and I think it's hurting them.

Dave Baker

00:07:16 - 00:07:19 (3 sec)

Mr. President, thanks for your time. Thanks for your service. Much continued health to you and your family.

Donald Trump

00:07:19 - 00:07:20 (1 sec)

Thank you [Inaudible]. It's a great honor.

Dave Baker

00:07:20 - 00:07:21 (1 sec)

Thank you very much.

Donald Trump

00:07:21 - 00:07:22 (1 sec)

Dave Baker

00:07:22 - 00:07:22 (0 sec)

A pleasure. Thank you.