Transcript - Interview: Scott Thuman of Sinclair Broadcast Group Interviews Donald Trump - November 5, 2018 | Factba.se

Scott Thuman

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

Mr. President, let's start by talking about the midterms.

Donald Trump

00:00:02 - 00:00:03 (1 sec)

Scott Thuman

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

How confident are you about -- not just the Senate, but also the House. Could you give me a -- a scale of 1 to 10 you're feeling right now?

Donald Trump

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

I don't know if I should do that. That always comes back to haunt. But I think we're doing really well. You've seen my rallies, my speeches I'm selling out stadiums, and the other side can sell 500 seats, a thousand seats. We're filling up these massive arenas all over the -- all over the place.

Donald Trump

00:00:25 - 00:00:36 (11 sec)

I've been to many states, and I don't think we've had literally an empty seat. We -- We have just -- there's an electricity going around that I haven't seen since '16, which was the presidential election. And a lot of people --

Scott Thuman

00:00:36 - 00:00:37 (1 sec)

You feel okay about the House then?

Donald Trump

00:00:37 - 00:00:46 (9 sec)

I feel good about the House. I feel really good about the Senate, but you never know what happens. I mean, we're going to have to see tomorrow. I can see that there is an electricity in the air.

Donald Trump

00:00:46 - 00:01:03 (17 sec)

There is something special -- and I'm sure you've seen it. There's something going on. I don't know if it's because of the great economy. I don't know if it's because of the immigration policies that we have, that are very tough, and they don't have that. They have the opp -- they have open borders, which is ridiculous. But there is a great electricity in the air.

Scott Thuman

00:01:03 - 00:01:17 (14 sec)

A lot of people like to make this, whether you like it or not, about you. People say it's a referendum on you. If it is that way, and do you see it that way, but say, for example, you were hypothetically to lose the House. How would you get your agenda through for the next two years?

Donald Trump

00:01:17 - 00:01:33 (15 sec)

Well, you have to fight and you have to do what you do, and maybe it comes together, and maybe it doesn't. But, you know, maybe it's nasty, and maybe it's productive. It could be productive, but I would just say, you have to acclimate. That's what I do. I acclimate, and we'll see how it comes out.

Donald Trump

00:01:33 - 00:01:42 (9 sec)

I do say though, that I really think we're going to see some good numbers out of the House. Now the Senate, we're looking very good, but I see some -- I see some surprising numbers out of the House.

Scott Thuman

00:01:42 - 00:01:45 (2 sec)

On the tone and tenor of politics right now --

Donald Trump

00:01:45 - 00:01:45 (0 sec)

Scott Thuman

00:01:45 - 00:01:48 (3 sec)

I know you blame some Democrats. Some Democrats blame you.

Donald Trump

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

Scott Thuman

00:01:49 - 00:01:54 (5 sec)

It's clearly either way pretty nasty out there. You can't be happy with how vitriolic it is though, right?

Donald Trump

00:01:54 - 00:02:07 (13 sec)

No, no I'm not. I'd love to get along, and I think after the election a lot of things can happen. But right now, they're in their mode, and we're in our mode, and you know, if you're criticized, you have to fight back, or you should.

Donald Trump

00:02:07 - 00:02:16 (9 sec)

And what is happening is there is an election, sort of a sequence going on, and they're in -- they're just -- they're doing their thing, and we're sort of responding to what they're doing.

Scott Thuman

00:02:16 - 00:02:20 (3 sec)

Do you think there'll be some sort of olive branch you'll be able to extend afterwards -- that you will be able to?

Donald Trump

00:02:20 - 00:02:29 (9 sec)

I do. I -- I really do. Well, I hope so. It's certainly better for the country. I hope that happens, and we are certainly willing to do that. And I think probably, before anything else, we have to get tomorrow over with.

Donald Trump

00:02:29 - 00:02:38 (9 sec)

We have to get the election finished, and we'll see a result, and it'll be either a great result, a medium result, or not such a great result. But I think we're going to have really good numbers.

Scott Thuman

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

You mentioned immigration. Obviously and it's one more polarizing --

Donald Trump

00:02:41 - 00:02:41 (0 sec)

Scott Thuman

00:02:41 - 00:02:50 (9 sec)

-- issues out there right now. Some people believe that the talk about it, that that leads to fear mongering, and that that can actually spark racism. Do you worry about that?

Donald Trump

00:02:50 - 00:03:05 (15 sec)

No I don't. And I -- it's not racism. It's just that people have to come into our country legally, otherwise you don't have a country, and a lot of people say you should talk about the economy, because they ack -- even the other side acknowledges that I've created -- this is the greatest economy in the history of our country.

Donald Trump

00:03:05 - 00:03:16 (11 sec)

And the truth is, I do talk about it all the time. But if I mention one word about immigration, it gets brought up a lot by the press because, maybe it's a very exciting topic. You know, when you see the caravan and everything else.

Donald Trump

00:03:16 - 00:03:31 (15 sec)

But, no, I think -- I'm focused, very much on the economy. Greatest economy we've ever had. The greatest job numbers we've ever had. These are the best job numbers we've ever had. And, you know, that's a big, big thing, and I do talk about it a lot.

Scott Thuman

00:03:31 - 00:03:48 (17 sec)

Talk to me about -- this is something that I asked your predecessor about during his term. I asked President Obama, so I'll just get the same thing. Is there anything as you look back on your first almost two years that you regret, that you wish -- on you -- that you could just take back and redo?

Donald Trump

00:03:48 - 00:04:03 (15 sec)

Well, there would be certain things. I'm not sure I want to reveal all of them, but I would say tone. I would like to have a much softer tone. I feel to a certain extent, I have no choice, but maybe I do, and maybe I could have been softer from that standpoint.

Donald Trump

00:04:03 - 00:04:13 (10 sec)

But I want to get things done. We've had tremendous victories on trade. We've had tremendous victories on so many different things. On our military, you look at what we've done with rebuilding the military.

Donald Trump

00:04:13 - 00:04:29 (16 sec)

But I would say, if there's anything, I think, tone would be, perhaps, something. I'm not sure that if I did that, maybe I'd be swamped, you know, swamped meaning, with the other side, because I wouldn't say their tone's been so nice either. But that would be something I would say, that I'll be working on.

Scott Thuman

00:04:29 - 00:04:29 (0 sec)

[No audio] Thank you.

Donald Trump

00:04:29 - 00:04:32 (3 sec)

[No audio] Thank you very much.