Transcript - Interview: Ryan Elijah of Fox 35 Orlando Interviews Donald Trump - October 3, 2019 | Factba.se

Ryan Elijah

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

First of all, Mr. President, thank you for the time. I want -- I want to get your thoughts on Congress in a second, but let's start -- you're back in Florida for the first time --

Donald Trump

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

Ryan Elijah

00:00:05 - 00:00:08 (3 sec)

-- since this summer's announcement. Health care is what you're talking about today.

Donald Trump

00:00:08 - 00:00:08 (0 sec)

Ryan Elijah

00:00:08 - 00:00:09 (1 sec)

How big of an issue will that be going forward?

Donald Trump

00:00:09 - 00:00:26 (17 sec)

To me, it's a very big issue, and when you look at all we've done for health care and getting rid of the individual mandate, which was a disaster for people, and just not affordable -- doing all of the things -- we are we are really focused on health care, and I don't think anybody could do it like we're doing it, and we're saving Medicare.

Donald Trump

00:00:26 - 00:00:33 (6 sec)

If you look at what the Democrats wanted, they wanted to destroy Medicare. We're saving Medicare. So, to me, it's right up there with the top.

Ryan Elijah

00:00:33 - 00:00:44 (11 sec)

You've had some strong words this week about the whistleblower process and moving forward, so, to Floridians: how do you want to see this process play forward by -- based on what they find out about the whistleblower, and also the process that you protect the whistleblower?

Donald Trump

00:00:44 - 00:01:01 (17 sec)

Well, it's a political witch hunt. The whistleblower got me totally wrong, because the whistleblower never saw what I said to the Ukrainian president, which was literally a perfect, beautiful, nice conversation. He also said, by the way, there was no pressure put on him whatsoever, et cetera, et cetera. He said that the United Nations.

Donald Trump

00:01:01 - 00:01:30 (29 sec)

So the whistleblower, they didn't think -- meaning shifty Schiff and that whole group -- they didn't think I'd put out my telephone conversation, which was done by professional stenographers. They didn't think it would be put out. When I saw what the whistleblower said and heard rumors -- I said well, we're going to put it out, and we've got approval from Ukraine, and we put it out, and everyone now is panicking because they said, what they said and what the whistleblowers said, bears no resemblance even, to what took place in the phone call ,which was a perfect call.

Ryan Elijah

00:01:30 - 00:01:40 (10 sec)

When you look forward, I mean, certainly it's a situation where you were an outsider coming in. Your expectations of the White House, basis what you've seen: how different are they?

Donald Trump

00:01:40 - 00:01:54 (15 sec)

Well, I knew it would be a little bit tough. And I I just never thought I'd see the kind of cheating and lying that you see. I never thought the press would be as bad as they were. I've met with the press -- I used to get good press, when I was private. Probably, it's one of the reasons I'm here, right, I got good press.

Donald Trump

00:01:54 - 00:02:14 (20 sec)

But I had no idea the press would be as dishonest, as fake. You know we call it fake -- not you, of course. But it's really fake news. It's unbelievable. You'll have a story, a big success, like in California, they sued to get me off the ballot. I won the suit. It was a huge story. I won the suit. Nobody even covers it. So, I never thought I'd see that.

Donald Trump

00:02:14 - 00:02:37 (22 sec)

But overall, I have to say I'm happy, and the reason I'm happy -- no administration has ever done so much for people in its first two and a half years, and we're here for now even more than two and a half years, and we've done so much whether it's choice for the vets -- you know they were trying to get it for 50 years -- they never got it. Regulations, tax cuts, the big tax cuts, getting rid of certain things.

Donald Trump

00:02:37 - 00:02:53 (16 sec)

I'll tell you a very, very important are now you can use medicines as they get developed, if you're terminally ill. They call it the Right to Try. Right to Try. If somebody's terminally ill, they have to go to other countries, or just literally die. And we have the best scientists, we have the best doctors in the world.

Donald Trump

00:02:53 - 00:03:03 (10 sec)

We have great things, but they're in a pipeline, you couldn't use them, and we have now the right to try. So somebody can sign a piece of paper and they have the right to use that medicine, and you would be -- you wouldn't believe how successful it's been.

Ryan Elijah

00:03:03 - 00:03:10 (7 sec)

Final question, I hear them cheering inside there. Fighting the issues that need to be done in this country: how do you move forward dealing with what you have to deal with in Congress?

Donald Trump

00:03:10 - 00:03:30 (20 sec)

Well, I have a very -- I called them the do nothing Democrats. They just don't do anything. I mean, it's unbelievable. All they do is they focus on trying to win the election in 2020, which is all this is about, and it's too bad. But we're doing a lot of things. We're doing a lot on gun safety, and we're working with the NRA, and we're working -- you know, we tried to work with a Democrats, but frankly, they don't even want to meet.

Donald Trump

00:03:30 - 00:03:55 (25 sec)

They they don't have time to meet, because all they do is focus on one thing. And, you know, the word do nothing -- the words do nothing, I think, are very important. They just can't get it done. But we're doing a lot. Nobody's done what we've done, and I think we can have some really good -- one of the things, very important, that we can do it without them, is we've already had the first year in 51 years where drug prices have come down, and we're going to get drug prices much lower -- prescription drug prices.

Donald Trump

00:03:55 - 00:03:57 (2 sec)

So we're doing a real job, and I love doing it.

Ryan Elijah

00:03:57 - 00:04:00 (3 sec)

How big is Florida? There are a lot of things that are going well here.

Donald Trump

00:04:00 - 00:04:30 (30 sec)

Well, it's my home, and it's a place where I spend a lot of time, maybe the most time, in a certain way, certainly over the last couple of years. It's a special pla -- It's really, you have a great governor, Ron DeSantis. I'm very happy -- I was with him right from the beginning, and he's doing a fantastic job, and together, we're working on doing a fantastic job, and he's going to have some big news very soon on prescription drug prices, because we're going to be buying from certain people, in certain areas of the world, at -- the same product exactly for a much lower price.

Donald Trump

00:04:30 - 00:04:40 (10 sec)

So, a lot of great things are happening. I love Florida. Florida is very good to me. I want it fairly easily, and I think now, after what we've accomplished, we are going to run it -- you know -- run it right through. We're going to win it by an even by a bigger number.

Ryan Elijah

00:04:40 - 00:04:41 (1 sec)

Mr. President, thanks for your time.

Donald Trump

00:04:41 - 00:04:43 (2 sec)

Thank you. Very nice. Thank you.