The Daily Caller's Vince Coglianese and Saagar Enjeti sat down with President Donald Trump for an exclusive interview in the Oval Office of The White House on Tuesday during which they discussed a variety of topics concerning the administration. You can find excerpts from the wide-ranging interview below.
**All must be attributed to The Daily Caller**
On social media companies interfering in the 2016 and 2018 elections:
“I think they already have,” Trump said of social media companies' interference in the 2018 presidential election. The president pivoted to 2016 saying “I mean the true interference in the last election was that — if you look at all, virtually all of those companies are super liberal companies in favor of Hillary Clinton.”
On declassifying documents relating to a FISA warrant obtained on Carter Page:
“Well, we’re looking at it very seriously right now because the things that have gone on are so bad," Trump said. “I mean, they were surveilling my campaign. If that happened on the other foot, they would’ve considered that treasonous. They would’ve considered it spying at the highest level."
On questioning the United States' defense pacts with other countries:
“We’re protecting immensely wealthy countries and they’re not paying us for the protections. I say why are we protecting you when you’re very wealthy and you wouldn’t be here for two weeks if it wasn’t for us? Why aren’t we being reimbursed for this massive cost? Fully reimbursed – for this massive cost that we’re taking care of,” Trump said.
On the sex abuse scandal surrounding the Catholic Church:
“It’s so sad to watch,” Trump said, lamenting “the numbers, the length of time, you know, going back 70 years, I think it’s having a really negative impact on the Catholic Church…To me it’s one of the sadder stories ’cause I respect so much the Catholic Church. And to me it’s a very sad story.”
On Special Counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing "illegal investigation":
“I view it as an illegal investigation. It should have never been started. It should have never been allowed to start. You know, I’m not a target of this investigation, just in case you don’t realize," President Trump began.
On Chuck Todd declaring that journalists need to fight back against Trump:
“He’s sleepy eyes Chuck Todd, he covers me very dishonestly, I mean you watch his show, it’s like he gets angry at people if they say I’ve done a good job. And they won’t appear on the show again,” Trump responded.
On the anti-Kavanaugh protestors disrupting Tuesday's hearing:
**All must be attributed to The Daily Caller**
On social media companies interfering in the 2016 and 2018 elections:
“I think they already have,” Trump said of social media companies' interference in the 2018 presidential election. The president pivoted to 2016 saying “I mean the true interference in the last election was that — if you look at all, virtually all of those companies are super liberal companies in favor of Hillary Clinton.”
On declassifying documents relating to a FISA warrant obtained on Carter Page:
“Well, we’re looking at it very seriously right now because the things that have gone on are so bad," Trump said. “I mean, they were surveilling my campaign. If that happened on the other foot, they would’ve considered that treasonous. They would’ve considered it spying at the highest level."
On questioning the United States' defense pacts with other countries:
“We’re protecting immensely wealthy countries and they’re not paying us for the protections. I say why are we protecting you when you’re very wealthy and you wouldn’t be here for two weeks if it wasn’t for us? Why aren’t we being reimbursed for this massive cost? Fully reimbursed – for this massive cost that we’re taking care of,” Trump said.
On the sex abuse scandal surrounding the Catholic Church:
“It’s so sad to watch,” Trump said, lamenting “the numbers, the length of time, you know, going back 70 years, I think it’s having a really negative impact on the Catholic Church…To me it’s one of the sadder stories ’cause I respect so much the Catholic Church. And to me it’s a very sad story.”
On Special Counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing "illegal investigation":
“I view it as an illegal investigation. It should have never been started. It should have never been allowed to start. You know, I’m not a target of this investigation, just in case you don’t realize," President Trump began.
On Chuck Todd declaring that journalists need to fight back against Trump:
“He’s sleepy eyes Chuck Todd, he covers me very dishonestly, I mean you watch his show, it’s like he gets angry at people if they say I’ve done a good job. And they won’t appear on the show again,” Trump responded.
On the anti-Kavanaugh protestors disrupting Tuesday's hearing:
“To allow somebody to stand up and scream from the top of their lungs — and nobody does anything about it — is, frankly … I think it is an embarrassment," President Trump said.
On Bob Woodward's new book "Fear: Trump In The White House":
“It’s just another bad book. He’s had a lot of credibility problems,” Trump declared, adding, “I probably would have preferred to speak to him, but maybe not. I think it probably wouldn’t have made a difference in the book. He wanted to write the book a certain way.”
On how President Trump chooses who to endorse:
“It’s very much my gut instinct coupled with a lot of talented people that I have that know where these people have come from over the last two years,” Trump said, adding, “sometimes I’ll have a nasty Never-Trumper and every once in a while it’s recoverable but generally speaking if somebody is that much opposed … Now if somebody is opposed that’s one thing, if they’re that much opposed to a tune of coming up with the Never-Trumper type stigma it’s rare that I’ll get involved.”
On Nike's decision to make Colin Kaepernick the face of its new "Just Do It" campaign:
“As much as I disagree with the Colin Kaepernick endorsement, in another way — I mean, I wouldn’t have done it,” Trump said. “In another way, it is what this country is all about, that you have certain freedoms to do things that other people think you shouldn’t do, but I personally am on a different side of it.”
On the new Neil Armstrong movie "First Man" omitting the American flag:
“It’s unfortunate,” Trump said when asked about the decision, adding “it’s almost like they’re embarrassed at the achievement coming from America, I think it’s a terrible thing.” The president continued, “when you think of Neil Armstrong and when you think of the landing on the moon, you think about the American flag.”
On the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape and NBC's handling of the Harvey Weinstein story:
“I had a lawsuit prepared, a lawsuit that was prepared to be filed against NBC because they leaked that tape,” the president revealed. “I had a lawyer hired to bring a suit right after the election ended, but one problem arose. I won the election.”
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