In Difficult Times Good People gravitate towards Absolute Truth
Remarks by President Trump Before Marine One Departure
You've got to treat the White House and the Office of the Presidency with respect.
I see her nodding very positively, so I'll ask her - you know.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: You have to speak up, though. You have a helicopter raging back -
For all the people that don't know why, my hearing is great, but you have a helicopter that's raging back there.
Q I'll help her out.
THE PRESIDENT: In fact, do you remember Ronald Reagan? He'd always, "What? What? I can't hear you." I never - I always thought he was hard of hearing; he wasn't. That's the problem.
Q She wants to know what's going to happen when you meet with Putin.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'll meet with Putin at the G20. I don't know that we're seeing each other in Paris, but there may be a lunch for the leaders. I don't know. So I would say, nothing. We have a good relationship. Having a good relationship with Russia and China, and every other country, is a good thing, not a bad thing.
But we have a good - we have a very good relationship.
Q Are you going to fire Ryan Zinke?
THE PRESIDENT: No. I'm going to look into any complaints. David, if there are any complaints, I'll look into it.
Q Your thoughts about the judge's decision to delay the XL Pipeline?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it was a political decision made by a judge. I think it's a disgrace. It's 48,000 jobs. I approved it; it's ready to start. And they went - and I guess they'll end up going to the Ninth Circuit, as usual. We're slowly putting new judges in the Ninth Circuit. Everything goes to the Ninth Circuit. Everything.
Now, DACA, that was actually good news yesterday, because you never win in the Ninth Circuit if you're on this half of the equation. When I say "half," it could be half or more. But you never win; you rarely win in the Ninth Circuit. The good news is, by rejecting DACA in the Ninth Circuit yesterday, finally we've been waiting for that. We get to the Supreme Court, and we want to be in the Supreme Court on DACA.
President Obama said he had no right to sign it. He had no right, but it was upheld in the Ninth Circuit, as usual. If you take President Obama's statement, he knew that he couldn't sign it. So this whole thing, it's a terrible thing what's happening with the courts. The DACA will now hopefully go to the Supreme Court, where we'll be given a fair decision.
Q U.N. Ambassador. Have you made a decision?
THE PRESIDENT: We'll be making a decision. I have so many people who want it. We are looking at Heather. We're looking at numerous people. We have plenty of time. Nikki is staying until the end of the year. We're working with Nikki, also. We have some very good people that want that job.
I'll make the decision over the next few weeks, but by the end of the year.
Q On the Attorney General, what's your timeline to make a decision? And who are the frontrunners?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I have some very, very good people. But, I mean, there's no rush. You know, it has to go through a Senate process, which takes a long time. But we'll pick somebody that's great. We're going to pick somebody that's very good. And again, I think it's very - Matt Whitaker is a highly respected man, but I didn't know Matt Whitaker. But he's a highly respected man.
Q Mr. President, you said the Senate process. Matt Whitaker has not gone through a Senate process.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, but neither has Mueller.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. You talk about the Senate process. Mueller is doing a report. He hasn't gone through the Senate process. You're saying Whitaker hasn't, but Whitaker has. Wait a minute. Because he was a really distinguished U.S. attorney in Iowa, and he was approved by everybody. Because to be U.S. attorney, that's top of the line. He was a highly respected.
In fact, I'll tell you, the Ambassador to China, as you know, Terry Branstad - who used to the be the governor of Iowa - he told me that what a great choice that is; that he is one of the most respected people in all of Iowa. And that was coming from Terry Branstad, who was the governor.
Look, Mueller - a big complaint people have - Mueller was not Senate confirmed. So he's doing a report. He wasn't Senate confirmed. Whitaker was Senate confirmed. Now, he doesn't need this, but he was Senate confirmed at the highest level, when he was the U.S. attorney from Iowa. But Mueller was not Senate confirmed. Why didn't they get him Senate confirmed? He should have been Senate confirmed. No - but because of all the conflicts, they didn't want to bring him before the Senate because he's very conflicted. So because of those conflicts, they didn't want to bring him before the Senate.
But don't tell me about Whitaker. Don't tell me about Whitaker, because Mueller was not Senate confirmed, and Whitaker was, actually.
Q Mr. President, the Democrats keep picking up more seats in the House, now more than 31 seats. Can you still describe (inaudible)?
THE PRESIDENT: It doesn't - whether they get a couple of more House seats, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. But you notice the votes never go the other way? They hire lawyers, and the votes don't ever seem to go the Republican way - although I hear -
Q Do you have evidence of fraud?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don't know, you tell me. It's always the Democrats. It's always GPS Fusion. It's always crooked stuff.
Q But there's no evidence that you have, is there?
THE PRESIDENT: Look - look at what happened. How many FBI are gone? How many Justice Department people are gone? That I found out - that I found out. There's a lot of bad stuff going on in this country, and we're finding out, and I'm getting to the bottom of it. And I've done a hell of a job. How many people have been fired from the FBI? You got Comey, you got McCabe, you got Strzok, you have Lisa Page, you have Baker. You have a whole list of people. There's a lot of crooked stuff going on.
But it is interesting; it always seems to go the way of the Democrats. Now, in Arizona, all of a sudden, out of the wilderness, they find a lot of votes. And she's - the other candidate is just winning by a hair. What's going on in a Florida is a disgrace. Go down and see what happened over the last period of time - 10 years. Take a look at Broward. Take a look at the total dishonesty of what happened with respect to Broward County. Broward County - just (inaudible) - Broward County/election. There's a lot of dishonesty.
Q Why did your Press Secretary share a doctored video of the incident in the East Room? Of the (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: The taped video of Acosta?
Q Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: What are you talking about? All that was -
Q The video is manipulated.
THE PRESIDENT: Nobody manipulated it. Give me a break. See, that's just dishonest reporting. All that is, is a close-up. See, that's just - that is just dishonest reporting. I watched that; I heard that last night. They made it close up. They showed it up close up.
And he was not nice to that young woman. I don't hold him for that because it wasn't overly, you know, horrible. But it was - but all that was - when you say "doctored," you're a dishonest guy. Because it wasn't doctored. They gave a close-up view. That's not doctoring.
Q Mr. President, are you thinking about more Supreme Court justices since Justice Ginsburg in the hospital?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I wish her well. She said something very inappropriate during the campaign, but she apologized for it. I wouldn't say she's exactly on my side, but I wish her well. I hope she gets better. And I hope she serves on the Supreme Court for many, many years.
Q (Inaudible) another mass shooting, this time in California.
THE PRESIDENT: Terrible. Terrible.
Q What are we going to do about (inaudible)?
THE PRESIDENT: He's a very sick - well, it's a mental health problem. He is a very sick puppy. He was a very, very sick guy. Not too many people knew about it. But now that they're looking, they're starting to see he had a lot of problems, a lot of trouble. And we're very much into that. As you know, I funded a lot of money toward mental health for that reason. And we're continuing to do it, and we continue to look at the laws. We want to make sure - look, it is a problem. It's a disastrous problem. It makes you sick to look at it. But he was a very, very mentally ill person.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Say it?
Q Do firearms play any part of this mental health conversation?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, he was a war veteran. He was a Marine; he was in the war. He served time. He saw some pretty bad things. And a lot of people say he had the PTSD. And that's a tough deal. We're spending - as you know, I've given tremendous funding to the vets for the PTSD and for general health for PTSD. It's a big problem.
People come back. That's why it's a horrible thing. They come back, and they're never the same.
Q Are you prepared to fly that flag at half-mast a lot more?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don't like abusing any privilege, but when I see something that we should do, I always do that. Yeah, I always do that. I believe you should. When somebody - when it's a worthy situation, I do believe it.
Q Do you expect Matt Whitaker to be involved in the Russia probe? Do you want him to -
THE PRESIDENT: It's up to him.
Q Do you want him to rein in Robert Mueller?
THE PRESIDENT: What a stupid question that is. What a stupid question. But I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions.
Q (Inaudible) sign an executive order on birthright citizenship this week. Why did that not happen?
THE PRESIDENT: We're working. Well, because other things have come up, and we will be signing it soon.
Q Was it a political stunt?
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, no. Oh, we're signing it. We're doing it. And it'll probably work its way up to the Supreme Court. Birthright citizenship probably works its way up to the Supreme Court. It will be signed. We wanted a perfect document. And because of the election and all of the delays in the election, and whatever is going on in Broward County - remember the word, "Broward County."
Q Is there any evidence of fraud in Broward County?
THE PRESIDENT: Wait. Well, you take a look at the past. Take a look at the past.
Q Right now is there any?
THE PRESIDENT: And all of a sudden, they're finding votes? You mean after the election, they're finding votes? And then you look at her past, where she's already been convicted, and now they're finding votes. And you have this guy, Elias, who represented Hillary Clinton and a lot of very shady things. I think what you ought to do is get smart.
Good luck, folks. I'll see you in Europe.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you.
Go Back
I see her nodding very positively, so I'll ask her - you know.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: You have to speak up, though. You have a helicopter raging back -
For all the people that don't know why, my hearing is great, but you have a helicopter that's raging back there.
Q I'll help her out.
THE PRESIDENT: In fact, do you remember Ronald Reagan? He'd always, "What? What? I can't hear you." I never - I always thought he was hard of hearing; he wasn't. That's the problem.
Q She wants to know what's going to happen when you meet with Putin.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'll meet with Putin at the G20. I don't know that we're seeing each other in Paris, but there may be a lunch for the leaders. I don't know. So I would say, nothing. We have a good relationship. Having a good relationship with Russia and China, and every other country, is a good thing, not a bad thing.
But we have a good - we have a very good relationship.
Q Are you going to fire Ryan Zinke?
THE PRESIDENT: No. I'm going to look into any complaints. David, if there are any complaints, I'll look into it.
Q Your thoughts about the judge's decision to delay the XL Pipeline?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it was a political decision made by a judge. I think it's a disgrace. It's 48,000 jobs. I approved it; it's ready to start. And they went - and I guess they'll end up going to the Ninth Circuit, as usual. We're slowly putting new judges in the Ninth Circuit. Everything goes to the Ninth Circuit. Everything.
Now, DACA, that was actually good news yesterday, because you never win in the Ninth Circuit if you're on this half of the equation. When I say "half," it could be half or more. But you never win; you rarely win in the Ninth Circuit. The good news is, by rejecting DACA in the Ninth Circuit yesterday, finally we've been waiting for that. We get to the Supreme Court, and we want to be in the Supreme Court on DACA.
President Obama said he had no right to sign it. He had no right, but it was upheld in the Ninth Circuit, as usual. If you take President Obama's statement, he knew that he couldn't sign it. So this whole thing, it's a terrible thing what's happening with the courts. The DACA will now hopefully go to the Supreme Court, where we'll be given a fair decision.
Q U.N. Ambassador. Have you made a decision?
THE PRESIDENT: We'll be making a decision. I have so many people who want it. We are looking at Heather. We're looking at numerous people. We have plenty of time. Nikki is staying until the end of the year. We're working with Nikki, also. We have some very good people that want that job.
I'll make the decision over the next few weeks, but by the end of the year.
Q On the Attorney General, what's your timeline to make a decision? And who are the frontrunners?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I have some very, very good people. But, I mean, there's no rush. You know, it has to go through a Senate process, which takes a long time. But we'll pick somebody that's great. We're going to pick somebody that's very good. And again, I think it's very - Matt Whitaker is a highly respected man, but I didn't know Matt Whitaker. But he's a highly respected man.
Q Mr. President, you said the Senate process. Matt Whitaker has not gone through a Senate process.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, but neither has Mueller.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. You talk about the Senate process. Mueller is doing a report. He hasn't gone through the Senate process. You're saying Whitaker hasn't, but Whitaker has. Wait a minute. Because he was a really distinguished U.S. attorney in Iowa, and he was approved by everybody. Because to be U.S. attorney, that's top of the line. He was a highly respected.
In fact, I'll tell you, the Ambassador to China, as you know, Terry Branstad - who used to the be the governor of Iowa - he told me that what a great choice that is; that he is one of the most respected people in all of Iowa. And that was coming from Terry Branstad, who was the governor.
Look, Mueller - a big complaint people have - Mueller was not Senate confirmed. So he's doing a report. He wasn't Senate confirmed. Whitaker was Senate confirmed. Now, he doesn't need this, but he was Senate confirmed at the highest level, when he was the U.S. attorney from Iowa. But Mueller was not Senate confirmed. Why didn't they get him Senate confirmed? He should have been Senate confirmed. No - but because of all the conflicts, they didn't want to bring him before the Senate because he's very conflicted. So because of those conflicts, they didn't want to bring him before the Senate.
But don't tell me about Whitaker. Don't tell me about Whitaker, because Mueller was not Senate confirmed, and Whitaker was, actually.
Q Mr. President, the Democrats keep picking up more seats in the House, now more than 31 seats. Can you still describe (inaudible)?
THE PRESIDENT: It doesn't - whether they get a couple of more House seats, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. But you notice the votes never go the other way? They hire lawyers, and the votes don't ever seem to go the Republican way - although I hear -
Q Do you have evidence of fraud?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don't know, you tell me. It's always the Democrats. It's always GPS Fusion. It's always crooked stuff.
Q But there's no evidence that you have, is there?
THE PRESIDENT: Look - look at what happened. How many FBI are gone? How many Justice Department people are gone? That I found out - that I found out. There's a lot of bad stuff going on in this country, and we're finding out, and I'm getting to the bottom of it. And I've done a hell of a job. How many people have been fired from the FBI? You got Comey, you got McCabe, you got Strzok, you have Lisa Page, you have Baker. You have a whole list of people. There's a lot of crooked stuff going on.
But it is interesting; it always seems to go the way of the Democrats. Now, in Arizona, all of a sudden, out of the wilderness, they find a lot of votes. And she's - the other candidate is just winning by a hair. What's going on in a Florida is a disgrace. Go down and see what happened over the last period of time - 10 years. Take a look at Broward. Take a look at the total dishonesty of what happened with respect to Broward County. Broward County - just (inaudible) - Broward County/election. There's a lot of dishonesty.
Q Why did your Press Secretary share a doctored video of the incident in the East Room? Of the (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: The taped video of Acosta?
Q Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: What are you talking about? All that was -
Q The video is manipulated.
THE PRESIDENT: Nobody manipulated it. Give me a break. See, that's just dishonest reporting. All that is, is a close-up. See, that's just - that is just dishonest reporting. I watched that; I heard that last night. They made it close up. They showed it up close up.
And he was not nice to that young woman. I don't hold him for that because it wasn't overly, you know, horrible. But it was - but all that was - when you say "doctored," you're a dishonest guy. Because it wasn't doctored. They gave a close-up view. That's not doctoring.
Q Mr. President, are you thinking about more Supreme Court justices since Justice Ginsburg in the hospital?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I wish her well. She said something very inappropriate during the campaign, but she apologized for it. I wouldn't say she's exactly on my side, but I wish her well. I hope she gets better. And I hope she serves on the Supreme Court for many, many years.
Q (Inaudible) another mass shooting, this time in California.
THE PRESIDENT: Terrible. Terrible.
Q What are we going to do about (inaudible)?
THE PRESIDENT: He's a very sick - well, it's a mental health problem. He is a very sick puppy. He was a very, very sick guy. Not too many people knew about it. But now that they're looking, they're starting to see he had a lot of problems, a lot of trouble. And we're very much into that. As you know, I funded a lot of money toward mental health for that reason. And we're continuing to do it, and we continue to look at the laws. We want to make sure - look, it is a problem. It's a disastrous problem. It makes you sick to look at it. But he was a very, very mentally ill person.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Say it?
Q Do firearms play any part of this mental health conversation?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, he was a war veteran. He was a Marine; he was in the war. He served time. He saw some pretty bad things. And a lot of people say he had the PTSD. And that's a tough deal. We're spending - as you know, I've given tremendous funding to the vets for the PTSD and for general health for PTSD. It's a big problem.
People come back. That's why it's a horrible thing. They come back, and they're never the same.
Q Are you prepared to fly that flag at half-mast a lot more?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don't like abusing any privilege, but when I see something that we should do, I always do that. Yeah, I always do that. I believe you should. When somebody - when it's a worthy situation, I do believe it.
Q Do you expect Matt Whitaker to be involved in the Russia probe? Do you want him to -
THE PRESIDENT: It's up to him.
Q Do you want him to rein in Robert Mueller?
THE PRESIDENT: What a stupid question that is. What a stupid question. But I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions.
Q (Inaudible) sign an executive order on birthright citizenship this week. Why did that not happen?
THE PRESIDENT: We're working. Well, because other things have come up, and we will be signing it soon.
Q Was it a political stunt?
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, no. Oh, we're signing it. We're doing it. And it'll probably work its way up to the Supreme Court. Birthright citizenship probably works its way up to the Supreme Court. It will be signed. We wanted a perfect document. And because of the election and all of the delays in the election, and whatever is going on in Broward County - remember the word, "Broward County."
Q Is there any evidence of fraud in Broward County?
THE PRESIDENT: Wait. Well, you take a look at the past. Take a look at the past.
Q Right now is there any?
THE PRESIDENT: And all of a sudden, they're finding votes? You mean after the election, they're finding votes? And then you look at her past, where she's already been convicted, and now they're finding votes. And you have this guy, Elias, who represented Hillary Clinton and a lot of very shady things. I think what you ought to do is get smart.
Good luck, folks. I'll see you in Europe.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you.
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