Transcript - Remarks: Donald Trump Meets With Governors-Elect at The White House - December 13, 2018 | Factba.se

Donald Trump

00:00:00 - 00:00:22 (22 sec)

Well, thank you very much. We have invited the nation's -- our great nation's newly elected governors. And some really terrific people. They're going to do a wonderful job. All of them had great victories. Some had very, very outstanding victories, in terms of the percentage of victory, and even surprising.

Donald Trump

00:00:22 - 00:00:40 (18 sec)

We have some real stars in the room. And they became stars because of the way they handled themselves. I could almost say -- I think I could pretty much say, Mike, most of them have become stars, if not all. Because you won. Winning is a wonderful thing. [Laughter] So I thought what I'd do is go around the room, and maybe you could just introduce yourself; say hello.

Donald Trump

00:00:40 - 00:00:51 (11 sec)

We have some Cabinet members, too. You can quickly introduce yourself, because we've all seen you guys. But I'd love to -- maybe say a couple of words. And it's an honor to have you all. Kristi?

Kristi Noem

00:00:51 - 00:01:07 (16 sec)

Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate the invitation to be here today. I'm Kristi Noem, the governor-elect in South Dakota. Farmer, rancher, small business owner. Served in our state legislature and leadership, and spent the last eight years in Congress, representing and fighting for the state of South Dakota.

Kristi Noem

00:01:07 - 00:01:08 (1 sec)

So thank you for the invitation.

Donald Trump

00:01:08 - 00:01:09 (1 sec)

Great job. Great job.

Kristi Noem

00:01:09 - 00:01:11 (2 sec)

Yeah, thank you. And tax reform.

Donald Trump

00:01:11 - 00:01:11 (0 sec)

Kristi Noem

00:01:11 - 00:01:12 (1 sec)

Appreciate that.

Donald Trump

00:01:12 - 00:01:14 (2 sec)

That's right. We did a job.

Kristi Noem

00:01:14 - 00:01:14 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:01:14 - 00:01:15 (0 sec)

Mike DeWine

00:01:15 - 00:01:18 (3 sec)

Mr. President, thank you for having us. We appreciate it very, very much.

Donald Trump

00:01:18 - 00:01:20 (2 sec)

Thank you, Mike. And good job. Mr. Secretary.

Alex Azar

00:01:20 - 00:01:35 (15 sec)

Alex Azar. I'm the Secretary of Health and Human Services. And, as you get to know your budgets, you'll realize we'll spend a lot of time together. [Laughter] And we just -- we pride ourselves on being a great partner to governors and states and flexibility. So, please -- open door, everybody.

Donald Trump

00:01:35 - 00:01:36 (0 sec)

Kevin Stitt

00:01:36 - 00:01:46 (10 sec)

Kevin Stitt, newly elected governor of Oklahoma. And excited to be here, and it was wonderful getting the phone call from you after our primary victory.

Donald Trump

00:01:46 - 00:01:48 (2 sec)

That was a great victory. Great job.

Kevin Stitt

00:01:48 - 00:01:49 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:01:49 - 00:01:50 (1 sec)

Brad Little

00:01:50 - 00:02:00 (10 sec)

I'm Brad Little, from Idaho. I'm the lieutenant governor. I'm the new governor-elect, and thank you also for the phone call. It put a big punctuation point.

Donald Trump

00:02:00 - 00:02:04 (5 sec)

Thank you very much. Great going. Jared -- you know. Secretary.

Alex Acosta

00:02:04 - 00:02:14 (9 sec)

Alex Acosta, Secretary of Labor. And, Mr. President, we just spent about an hour chatting with the governors, and so we're off to a great start in this partnership.

Donald Trump

00:02:14 - 00:02:16 (2 sec)

Johnny, thank you.

Albert Bryan

00:02:16 - 00:02:35 (19 sec)

Albert Bryan -- Governor-elect, United States Virgin Islands. Thank you, Mr. President and Vice President Pence. Donna Christian sends her regards. Would really like to thank the administration for their support in the hurricane recovery thus far. And looking forward to a continued, growing relationship and the support of the administration moving forward.

Donald Trump

00:02:35 - 00:02:38 (3 sec)

Good. Thank you. Congratulations.

Wilbur Ross

00:02:38 - 00:02:41 (2 sec)

Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce.

Gretchen Whitmer

00:02:41 - 00:02:49 (8 sec)

Gretchen Whitmer, governor-elect in Michigan, the Great Lakes State. And I'm happy to be here, and looking forward to a good working relationship with your administration.

Donald Trump

00:02:49 - 00:02:53 (4 sec)

Oh, we're going to have it. Thank you very much. Congratulations.

Gretchen Whitmer

00:02:53 - 00:02:53 (0 sec)

Bill Lee

00:02:53 - 00:02:57 (4 sec)

Mr. President, I'm Bill Lee, and I'm the governor-elect of Tennessee.

Donald Trump

00:02:57 - 00:02:58 (1 sec)

Bill Lee

00:02:58 - 00:03:05 (7 sec)

And I'm honored to be here today with you and with Mr. Vice President. We look forward to serving the people of Tennessee and partnering with you.

Donald Trump

00:03:05 - 00:03:06 (1 sec)

Fantastic race.

Bill Lee

00:03:06 - 00:03:08 (1 sec)

Thank you very much.

Donald Trump

00:03:08 - 00:03:09 (2 sec)

You did a great job. Thank you.

Tony Evers

00:03:09 - 00:03:16 (7 sec)

Tony Evers, governor-elect from Wisconsin. Thank you very much for the invitation today. Looking forward to working with your administration.

Donald Trump

00:03:16 - 00:03:17 (1 sec)

Congratulations.

Tony Evers

00:03:17 - 00:03:18 (1 sec)

Mike Dunleavy

00:03:18 - 00:03:26 (8 sec)

Mike Dunleavy, from the great state of Alaska. And I want to thank you for your words of encouragement and offer of assistance with our recent earthquake, Mr. President.

Donald Trump

00:03:26 - 00:03:27 (1 sec)

And that worked out quite well, hasn't it? Huh?

Mike Dunleavy

00:03:27 - 00:03:28 (1 sec)

Nobody passed away. Nobody died in that whole --

Donald Trump

00:03:28 - 00:03:29 (1 sec)

Mike Dunleavy

00:03:29 - 00:03:30 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:03:30 - 00:03:32 (2 sec)

Just hit the right spots, I guess.

Mike Dunleavy

00:03:32 - 00:03:34 (2 sec)

It's hard to describe.

Donald Trump

00:03:34 - 00:03:35 (1 sec)

Because that was a big one.

Mike Dunleavy

00:03:35 - 00:03:37 (1 sec)

It was a big one. Second-largest.

Donald Trump

00:03:37 - 00:03:38 (2 sec)

Great, Mike. Thank you very much.

Mike Dunleavy

00:03:38 - 00:03:39 (1 sec)

Kirstjen Nielsen

00:03:39 - 00:03:55 (16 sec)

Hi, sir. Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of Homeland Security. I congratulate to -- congratulations, first of all. But, secondly, we are here to support and assist you against all hazards, manmade threats, natural disasters. So I know you've spent some time with different parts of DHS already, but we look forward to working with all of you very closely.

Kirstjen Nielsen

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

So thank you for being here.

Kellyanne Conway

00:03:57 - 00:04:16 (19 sec)

Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President. Congratulations to each of you. And consider us a resource and a partner in working with you on some issues of the day, like workforce development, prison reform, opioids and the fentanyl crisis, and obviously all things economic. Thank you. And infrastructure.

Kellyanne Conway

00:04:16 - 00:04:18 (2 sec)

Donald Trump

00:04:18 - 00:04:20 (2 sec)

Lou Guerrero

00:04:20 - 00:04:48 (28 sec)

Good afternoon. I'm Lou Leon Guerrero, from Guam, where "America's day begins." [Laughter] My passion is in healthcare. I'm a nurse by profession, a senator for 10 years, and then ran the only locally owned and locally chartered bank -- Bank of Guam -- for 12 years. And now governor-elect of Guam and look forward to working very closely with this administration.

Lou Guerrero

00:04:48 - 00:05:02 (14 sec)

And I ask you, President Trump, to please do not forget Guam out there. We're a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but I think we're the first line of national defense for our country. So --

Donald Trump

00:05:02 - 00:05:04 (2 sec)

Good. Thank you very much.

Doug Hoelscher

00:05:04 - 00:05:12 (9 sec)

Good afternoon. Doug Hoelscher from White House Intergovernmental Affairs. We look forward to being good partners on behalf of the President and Vice President to you and your teams.

Brian Kemp

00:05:12 - 00:05:31 (19 sec)

Mr. President, Brian Kemp, governor-elect of Georgia. I want to thank you and the Vice President for your interest in Georgia in response to Hurricane Michael. And we certainly appreciate Sonny Perdue's interest as well. It's going great on the ground. Long recovery, but we appreciate the response and interest that you guys have shown.

Donald Trump

00:05:31 - 00:05:40 (9 sec)

That was a great race. And congratulations. You and I felt very lonely there for a while, right? Had everybody in the world coming down but you ran a great race.

Brian Kemp

00:05:40 - 00:05:40 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:05:40 - 00:05:42 (2 sec)

Congratulations, Brian.

Elaine Chao

00:05:42 - 00:05:45 (2 sec)

Elaine Chao, Secretary of Transportation.

J.B. Pritzker

00:05:45 - 00:06:02 (18 sec)

Mr. President, I'm J.B. Pritzker, the governor-elect of Illinois. And I founded 1871, which is the -- well, named this year as the world's best business incubator. And as I've been speaking with your daughter, I've also been a national advocate for early childhood education.

Donald Trump

00:06:02 - 00:06:04 (2 sec)

Very good. Great to see you.

Ron Desantis

00:06:04 - 00:06:21 (17 sec)

Ron DeSantis, governor-elect of Florida. Mr. President, thank you for helping out the folks in the Panhandle -- your commitment to rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base, it's important; those are great folks there -- and also for your support of the reservoir that we need to build south of Lake Okeechobee so we can fix some of these water problems.

Ron Desantis

00:06:21 - 00:06:27 (6 sec)

We'd like to be able to speed some of this up with the Army Corps. I know you'll be supportive of that. And you've been real supportive of Florida. So thank you.

Donald Trump

00:06:27 - 00:06:46 (18 sec)

We are very much involved with Lake Okeechobee. And a lot of problems in Florida can be solved by doing that properly. They've been trying to do it for 30 years. So we'll get it done, okay? Good job. Thank you all very much. We're going to have a little discussion now about how we can help the various governors, and it's going to be a very good discussion.

Donald Trump

00:06:46 - 00:06:47 (1 sec)

Thank you all very much.

Question

00:06:47 - 00:06:53 (6 sec)

Mr. President, quick question about Michael Flynn. Mr. President --

Question

00:06:53 - 00:06:55 (2 sec)

Any update on [Inaudible] your next Chief of Staff?

Donald Trump

00:06:55 - 00:06:56 (2 sec)

We're interviewing people now for Chief of Staff, yes.

Question

00:06:56 - 00:06:59 (3 sec)

How long is the short list now?

Donald Trump

00:06:59 - 00:07:05 (6 sec)

Five people. Really good ones. Terrific people. Mostly well known, but terrific people.

Question

00:07:05 - 00:07:15 (10 sec)

Mr. President, quick question about Michael Flynn. As you know, Judge Emmet Sullivan has asked the Office of Special Counsel and the FBI for the documents related to the interview of Michael Flynn. Do you --

Donald Trump

00:07:15 - 00:07:16 (1 sec)

Question

00:07:16 - 00:07:20 (4 sec)

-- do you believe that the FBI acted improperly in how they handled his interview?

Donald Trump

00:07:20 - 00:07:38 (18 sec)

Well, the FBI said Michael Flynn -- a general and a great person -- they said he didn't lie. And Mueller said, "Well, maybe he did." And now they're all having a big dispute. So I think it's a great thing that the judge is looking into that situation. That's a -- that's an honor for a lot of terrific people.

Donald Trump

00:07:38 - 00:07:41 (3 sec)

Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you.