Transcript - Interview: Sean Hannity Interviews Donald Trump Via Telephone - July 25, 2019 | Factba.se

Sean Hannity

00:00:00 - 00:00:10 (10 sec)

The president of the United States, President Trump, always a pleasure to have you, sir. Thank you for being with us. Sorry about that, I guess we had a phone problem on our end. I apologize on behalf of the entire Fox News Channel.

Donald Trump

00:00:10 - 00:00:12 (3 sec)

Oh, don't worry about that, Sean. Thank you very much.

Sean Hannity

00:00:12 - 00:00:34 (22 sec)

Mr. President, just -- I'm just going to open it up to you to go wherever you want with this. This has been something you've had to deal with your entire presidency almost. You have and were loud and saying it was not true. It was a witch hunt. And we had four separate investigations backing up your claim and culminating in what you saw yesterday, sir.

Sean Hannity

00:00:34 - 00:00:37 (3 sec)

Your reaction to all that.

Donald Trump

00:00:37 - 00:01:05 (28 sec)

Well, I think people learned a lot yesterday, watching a very poor performance and watching things that they couldn't believe when they saw what was going on. And hopefully, we are going to be able to find out how a thing like this started. It was a disgrace to our country, it was a disgrace from every standpoint and I would say that most people have never seen anything like it. And then on top of it, you watch that performance, it was -- it was shocking and very sad.

Sean Hannity

00:01:05 - 00:01:09 (4 sec)

How much -- how much of that did you watch, sir?

Donald Trump

00:01:09 - 00:01:10 (1 sec)

Sean Hannity

00:01:10 - 00:01:14 (4 sec)

How much of the Mueller testimony did you actually watch?

Donald Trump

00:01:14 - 00:01:26 (12 sec)

So, I wasn't going to watch at all, and then I started thinking about it, and then I watched a little bit at the very beginning and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. So, I ended up watching more than I wanted to.

Sean Hannity

00:01:26 - 00:01:27 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:01:27 - 00:01:45 (19 sec)

And then I watched the afternoon because, you know, it was such a big crater at the beginning, and I said, now, I have to watch -- I have to watch shifty Schiff because he just went through three hours and now he has to go through Schiff. And I said, this is going to be very interesting. And I've never seen anything like it, actually.

Donald Trump

00:01:45 - 00:02:03 (18 sec)

It was sort of good television. So, I couldn't watch it all. I had meetings, I had economic development meetings, and I was saying, fellows, maybe we could move it to another time but I didn't want to do that. But I got to watch enough and it was shocking. I thought the Republicans represented themselves brilliantly.

Donald Trump

00:02:03 - 00:02:31 (28 sec)

John Ratcliffe and Jim Jordan and, I mean, all of them, Louie Gohmert, I could mention 15 names or however many they have that spoke. It got fairly close to that number, I guess, maybe it was a little bit less than that. But I will tell you that everybody representing the Republicans I thought was really good and I thought the other side was typically biased, but they were stuck with a situation that they couldn't believe.

Sean Hannity

00:02:31 - 00:02:51 (19 sec)

Mr. President, I just mentioned, "The New York Times," not long ago, actually said that they believed that -- well, the dossier, which I was stunned Mueller didn't know about Fusion GPS, the things he didn't know shocked me, didn't know Jeannie Rhee, Clinton's attorney, worked for him. But we'll put that aside.

Sean Hannity

00:02:51 - 00:03:30 (39 sec)

But they suggest at "The New York Times" that the dirty dossier that Hillary paid for that was used to spy on your campaign, your transition, and even your presidency, sir, was likely Russian disinformation from the beginning. Now, if that's the case, that would mean that the Russians knew that Hillary was paying for those lies, which would mean that the narrative that the American people have been fed by the media and the Democrats, that, well, they were trying to help you, the Russians, that would mean that "The New York Times" is right for once, and I suspect they may very well be, that they were trying to hurt you more than Hillary.

Donald Trump

00:03:30 - 00:04:08 (38 sec)

Well, based on the fact that we've just become -- and, you know, fairly recently, a little while ago, the number one oil and gas producer and energy producer in the world, by far, Russia, Saudi Arabia, now second and third, based on the fact that we now have the best -- we will soon have the most modern military we have ever had with the best equipment, the best -- newest planes and all of the things that we have done, and so many other things, Sean, based on all of that, the last person they should want is me. But I have heard the same thing about the fake dossier.

Donald Trump

00:04:08 - 00:04:31 (23 sec)

I've heard it came out of Russia. I think a lot of it also is made up. It was just made up like you would write a novel, but it was a fake and it was paid for by the Democrats and paid for by Hillary Clinton and the DNC and it's incredible. These are incredible stories. Nobody would write a novel like this because people wouldn't believe it. It wouldn't be believable.

Sean Hannity

00:04:31 - 00:04:55 (24 sec)

You know, Mr. President, I famously have asked Lindsey Graham -- he really, when Attorney General Barr was before his committee, he went through a list of things, do you feel that Mueller did a good job? Do you think he had the resources? Do you believe that his had every opportunity? You turned over 1.5 million documents, I can't believe -- you encouraged everybody to testify before Congress, before the special counsel -- I was shocked.

Sean Hannity

00:04:55 - 00:05:23 (28 sec)

McGahn did, but we'll put that aside here. And you keep saying that you think we can't let this happen again. And, I guess the -- we've learned from the attorney general that he is going to look into whether the investigation into Hillary's server was rigged, he's going to look into potential FISA abuse, he's going to look into the origins of this probe, we know that Durham has now interviewed Steele for nearly 16 hours, and we know the I.G. is very close to a FISA report.

Sean Hannity

00:05:23 - 00:05:29 (6 sec)

What do you -- why is it important to get to the bottom of this from your perspective?

Donald Trump

00:05:29 - 00:05:54 (25 sec)

Because this should never happen to another president of the United States again. This is an absolute catastrophe for our country. This was a fake witch hunt and it should never be allowed to happen to another president again. This was treason. This was high crimes. This was everything as bad a definition as you want to come up with.

Donald Trump

00:05:54 - 00:05:57 (3 sec)

This should never be allowed to happen to our country again.

Sean Hannity

00:05:57 - 00:06:20 (22 sec)

Your thoughts -- you have often said fake news. I called them out often on this program. It turns out there's been, you know, I give a list, starting with Richard Jewell and Ferguson, Missouri, and Cambridge police and Baltimore, Maryland, and UVA and Duke lacrosse, and Nicholas Sandmann. But they went with every single lie, every conspiracy theory.

Sean Hannity

00:06:20 - 00:06:38 (18 sec)

I don't see the media very often talking about the things you have accomplished. I mention the employment situation is the best since 1969. What you say to the press in this country? The press that is supposed to be fair, balanced, objective, down the middle? I'm a talk show host. I'm like the whole newspaper.

Sean Hannity

00:06:38 - 00:06:40 (2 sec)

We do everything.

Donald Trump

00:06:40 - 00:07:14 (33 sec)

Well, I think the press has lost all credibility, much of it. But it's lost a big part of it. I mean, a very substantial part of it, lost all credibility. And I watch as people scream at these poor Democrats, the congressmen, scream like I've never seen. You must do this, you must do that, I mean, these are supposed to be journalists, talk show hosts, of all sorts of people, I could not believe it. And they are actually trying to force them to do what they want to be done.

Donald Trump

00:07:14 - 00:07:37 (23 sec)

I've never seen anything like it. And I've seen it -- you know, they use the word unhinged, they are unhinged. The media has become totally unhinged. They are very dishonest. And when I say enemy of the people, when people give purposely fall stories and when they tried and get politicians to do things that are wrong and they are know they are wrong, that really is the enemy of the people.

Donald Trump

00:07:37 - 00:07:40 (4 sec)

It's fake news, but it's the enemy of the people, more importantly.

Sean Hannity

00:07:40 - 00:08:10 (30 sec)

In other words, that if you're claiming to be fair, balanced, objective, and down the middle, and you purposely like and you don't have any interest in the truth, you make a distinction between the two and I heard you say that many times. I'm interested in this question because you were very critical of Mueller, the whole issue of whether or not you told your counsel to fire him, and you have the authority, according to Alan Dershowitz, many constitutional attorneys I've interviewed, under Article 2, for conflicts of interests, you could have fired Mueller yourself.

Sean Hannity

00:08:10 - 00:08:20 (10 sec)

But my question is, now that you saw how little he actually knew, do you have a different opinion of him? Did you at any point almost feel sorry for him, during this?

Donald Trump

00:08:20 - 00:08:43 (23 sec)

So, I had the absolute right to fire him but I didn't. And I never suggested to do it. But I had the absolute right to fire him under Article 2 and perhaps for other reasons but, I didn't do it. I didn't do any of the things -- you know, when they said he was going to do this or said he was going to do that, I didn't do any of it and it's really incredible when I hear this.

Donald Trump

00:08:43 - 00:09:04 (21 sec)

And, you know, the whole concept of obstruction, first of all, they create a phony crime, which was just a terrible thing to say about somebody, especially somebody that loves the country as much as I do. So, they create this phony crime and then they say he obstructed. They said there was no collusion but he obstructed.

Donald Trump

00:09:04 - 00:09:31 (27 sec)

And there has never been anything like this ever before in our country. This crime was a -- the crime was committed on the other side and we will find out about that. We have a great attorney general who is looking at it. I'm not involved in that. He is looking at it and, you know, I've been hearing a lot of the media actually talked about investigate the investigators and a lot more than that.

Donald Trump

00:09:31 - 00:09:54 (23 sec)

And I think that things are -- I just see it. I feel it. I think a lot of good is going to come out of it. We went through hell. A lot of people went through hell. They came down to Washington wanting to do a phenomenal job for the people and they get served with papers to come and testify and go before grand juries and by the way, nothing affected the Trump Organization.

Donald Trump

00:09:54 - 00:10:13 (19 sec)

You know, all of these things like the Russian bloggers, they had nothing to do with us. And everybody knew it. In fact, there is a little sentence and they are saying that it had nothing to do with the Trump administration. But it was like a lot of people, 24 people or something. A lot of bloggers, bloggers in Russia, they will never see these people.

Donald Trump

00:10:13 - 00:10:35 (23 sec)

They know that. They sent out papers to these people, they will never see them. People probably never even got the papers. But all of these people, none of them had -- they went through people with old tax cases, old cases. Cases that were not even going forward and, you know, just went after them viciously and violently.

Donald Trump

00:10:35 - 00:10:59 (24 sec)

General Flynn, who is a good man, what they did to General Flynn and so many others -- Hope Hicks, this wonderful young woman. And she spent much of her time in Washington fighting off, you know, horrible stories and things and she'ss just a high-quality person. So many. I mean, I could name almost everybody.

Donald Trump

00:10:59 - 00:11:18 (19 sec)

What they went through. And still, to this day, I mean, I heard people saying that -- I heard some of the media saying that they thought Mueller performed OK. In other words, they let a day go by and then they'll try and spin it. These are very dishonest people. These are very bad people.

Sean Hannity

00:11:18 - 00:11:26 (8 sec)

Mr. President, the power of the pardon -- I actually think the best pardon you gave is to Alice Marie Johnson. I think you commuted her sentence, to be more accurate.

Donald Trump

00:11:26 - 00:11:26 (1 sec)

Sean Hannity

00:11:26 - 00:11:44 (17 sec)

It is absolute. Have you come at any point, ever considered in the back of your mind, a pardon for any of the people you mentioned? Or you would wait? I think is that at one point, you wouldn't consider it until after it all worked through.

Donald Trump

00:11:44 - 00:12:07 (23 sec)

Well, I don't want to comment on that as far as the pardons are concerned. Yes, it is absolute and it's a beautiful thing. I've had people, Jack Johnson, the heavyweight champion of the world in the early 1900s, and, he went to jail for, you know, no -- no reason. And so many other things, and Alice Johnson is another good example.

Donald Trump

00:12:07 - 00:12:39 (33 sec)

You know, I really feel good about giving it, where people have been treated unfairly and abused, actually. But, I haven't talked about it with respect to what's going on now. I mean, it's, you know, I think there's a whole new day starting. I think I know, I still use "drain the swamp". We have some very, very bad people in government that would be willing to do very bad things and for bad reasons.

Donald Trump

00:12:39 - 00:12:47 (7 sec)

So, I don't mention pardon, but, you know, I don't say what's going to happen in the future. I just don't comment on it.

Sean Hannity

00:12:47 - 00:13:15 (28 sec)

Mr. President, last question on this and that I want to switch to 2020, if I may. Comey, McCabe -- Comey signed the first FISA warrant which opened the door, apparently, according to Nunes and the Grassley-Graham memo, the bulk of information was Hillary bought and paid for dirty Russian dossier. We found out from John Solomon last week that they had a spreadsheet, even the FBI in early 2017, said 90-some odd percent of this thing was false, garbage and not true.

Sean Hannity

00:13:15 - 00:13:38 (23 sec)

Comey, though, signed it. That allowed a backdoor through Carter Page to spy on your campaign, later transitioning to the presidency. But McCabe, Strzok, Page, Brennan, Clapper, may be sourcing out what would be illegal intelligence gathering. And we know the attorney general is there. Is there any of these names -- what you think of these people?

Sean Hannity

00:13:38 - 00:13:58 (21 sec)

Because James Comey signed the first FISA application in October 2016, went to Trump Tower in January 2017, and told you it was unverified, months earlier, he swore on that application, the FISA application that it's verified, so he lied. What are your thoughts about these people today?

Donald Trump

00:13:58 - 00:14:27 (29 sec)

Well, Comey is a liar and a leaker and that's obvious. All you have to do is just follow him along and see what he said to Congress. Clapper and Brennan and all of these people, McCabe, these are bad people. My opinion, they are very bad people. They've been very bad for the country. They were -- I used to think incompetent but they are really I guess competent at other things and maybe bad things, but we'll see what happens.

Donald Trump

00:14:27 - 00:14:42 (15 sec)

I mean, I guess a lot of things are coming out and is going to be very interesting and it will be great to clean up a real big mess because again, it can never happen. This cab never be allowed to happen again, Sean.

Sean Hannity

00:14:42 - 00:14:59 (17 sec)

Mr. President, you have the power to literally release the FISA application and the 302s and the Gang of Eight information, and you made a decision to hand it over to the attorney general, and let him decide. And I'm curious as to why.

Donald Trump

00:14:59 - 00:15:30 (31 sec)

Well, we have a very respected gentleman, a very high quality person named William Barr. And he is doing -- I can tell you, he's working so hard, and rather than just doing a total release, I gave him his total release, in other words, he's got everything. Anything he needs, he's got. He is the attorney general of the United States, he's got a lot of very good people under him that I guess are involved and I gave them a total release.

Donald Trump

00:15:30 - 00:15:57 (26 sec)

So, all of it has been released and he has all of it. I've also given him authorization to release it to whoever he wants. Whether it's his people or, frankly, perhaps people like Devin Nunes, who is a star, what he has done and the amount of suffering that he has gone through, you know what they did with him where they tried to drive him right out of politics and probably worse than that.

Donald Trump

00:15:57 - 00:16:23 (27 sec)

He has done an incredible job and, so many others. I mean, the job -- they are warriors. We have had, I'll tell you the good side of all of this is the level of intelligence and strength and goodness that we've had on the Republican Party, a lot of them, not everybody, of course, but we've had tremendous, and I say, when I say we, I'm talking about the country.

Donald Trump

00:16:23 - 00:16:45 (22 sec)

The country has had tremendous support from Meadows and Jordan and Devin Nunes and so many of the names that you saw yesterday, performed so well. I mean, they performed so well, and they worked so hard because they saw this was a scam. This was an illegal takeover, as you would say in the business world.

Donald Trump

00:16:45 - 00:16:49 (4 sec)

I mean, this was -- this was a coup attempts, in my opinion.

Sean Hannity

00:16:49 - 00:16:51 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:16:51 - 00:17:03 (12 sec)

And this is the United States. And we wouldn't stand for it and I wouldn't stand for it. We have some very great people, but we also have some very bad people. And I think we caught them.

Sean Hannity

00:17:03 - 00:17:33 (31 sec)

I believe, sir, that we have the premiere law enforcement agency in the world, our FBI. We have the premiere intelligence people in the world. But that's 99 percent. But the 1 percent of the top, the ones we're talking about, abusing power. All right. So, how closely are you paying attention to the 2020 Democrats that, by the way, seem most influenced by "The Squad" and all of them having even adopted some version of the insane New Green Deal that would get rid of the life blood of our economy, oil, gas, and, you know, planes and cows and the combustion engine?

Donald Trump

00:17:33 - 00:17:52 (19 sec)

Well, you know, it's very interesting because I haven't seen it at all for the last four or five days. They're not talking about the Democrats. They're talking about Mueller and how bad he performed. How badly he performed. And they're talking about everything that happened over the last few days but in particular, yesterday, you are not saying much about the Democrats.

Donald Trump

00:17:52 - 00:18:17 (25 sec)

But, look, you know, you've got a few of them that are doing a little bit better than others. It'll be interesting. Whoever it is, I'm OK with it. We have the best economy we've ever had, as you know, we have the best stock market numbers we've ever had in the history of our country. That's -- you know, if you look at 401(k)s, if you look at the kind of money that people are making, I'm not talking about rich people or just rich people, I'm talking about everybody.

Donald Trump

00:18:17 - 00:18:51 (34 sec)

And blue-collar workers went up proportionally more than anybody. You saw the polls that just came out. Things are doing great. The best unemployment numbers, the best employment numbers. I'll tell you what, more people working in the United States today than at any time in the history of our country. And then we have the lowest unemployment numbers, especially for African-Americans, for Hispanics, for Asians; women are almost 70 years, the best numbers, and soon to be historic, meaning forever, meaning from the beginning.

Donald Trump

00:18:51 - 00:18:54 (3 sec)

No, I think we are going to be in great shape.

Sean Hannity

00:18:54 - 00:18:56 (1 sec)

Let me ask this then. Who --

Donald Trump

00:18:56 - 00:18:59 (3 sec)

Then you have the AOC, I called AOC plus three.

Sean Hannity

00:18:59 - 00:19:00 (1 sec)

Who do you think wins -- [Crosstalk]

Donald Trump

00:19:00 - 00:19:02 (2 sec)

You know, the three hangers-on. And --

Sean Hannity

00:19:02 - 00:19:03 (1 sec)

Who do you think wins the nomination?

Donald Trump

00:19:03 - 00:19:04 (1 sec)

And they're really hurting.

Sean Hannity

00:19:04 - 00:19:04 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:19:04 - 00:19:19 (15 sec)

I really believe they are going to hurt the Democrats. But who knows? I mean, we'll see. But I think we're going to very well, Sean. I think we're going to do very well. We have tremendous spirit. Every time, you've never seen an empty seat. We go into these massive arenas and they are packed and there's thousands of people outside.

Donald Trump

00:19:19 - 00:19:23 (3 sec)

You've never seen an empty seat. So, I think we're going to do very well.

Sean Hannity

00:19:23 - 00:19:40 (17 sec)

All right. Three quick questions and I'm going to let you go because you've been very generous with your time. Who do you think wins, and will you tell us? And is there one of the group of Democratic hopefuls that you hope wins because you know you can beat them easily?

Donald Trump

00:19:40 - 00:19:58 (18 sec)

Well, you know, I could say that obviously, the top three or four look like they are doing better than the rest. So, Sleepy Joe is OK but he is fading. I think he is fading fast. The only good thing about Mueller is it made Joe Biden look like a dynamo. [Laughter] So, when you watch Mueller's performance yesterday.

Donald Trump

00:19:58 - 00:20:18 (20 sec)

I think probably Biden is the one that asked him to go on. So, you have him and he is sort of a little bit leading. And then you have a whole group. You have Elizabeth Warren, formally known as Pocahontas. I'm sure that'll come out because that's a tough lead for her to withstand, I believed it, because her whole life was a fake.

Donald Trump

00:20:18 - 00:20:37 (19 sec)

She used that very, very adeptly and it was not good. And you have Harris -- and Bernie looks like he is fading. To me, Bernie looks like he missed his time. I think what Hillary did a few years ago was pretty tough, frankly, for Bernie.

Sean Hannity

00:20:37 - 00:20:38 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:20:38 - 00:20:57 (19 sec)

But that was his time. This -- I don't think it's Bernie's time. I see him flailing. He is flailing all over the place. He's going crazy. I call him Crazy Bernie. But the fact is, that I think those would be probably the three or four, may be there is another one or two, you know, I don't necessarily see anybody else gaining traction.

Sean Hannity

00:20:57 - 00:21:19 (23 sec)

Mr. President, last two questions. First one is on both Iran and North Korea have recently fired test missiles. Here's my question for you. I think -- I've known you for nearly 25 years. I know your mind-set on this very well. I said it on the air in a message to the mullahs that they better be careful.

Sean Hannity

00:21:19 - 00:21:39 (19 sec)

You will not put boots on the ground. You're probably going to show some level of patience, but at the end of the day, if they force you, I believe, knowing you, my belief is you will devastate them. And North Korea, you have given them nothing. People criticize -- I said certain things I believe about Donald Trump.

Sean Hannity

00:21:39 - 00:21:56 (17 sec)

One, you will put no boots on the ground. You will never try and bribe a dictator like Clinton did with North Korea and like Biden-Obama did with the mullahs. And I do believe that if pushed, the military might you would unleash will be mighty and it won't require boots on the ground, am I right?

Donald Trump

00:21:56 - 00:22:16 (20 sec)

Well, I think that in the case of Iran, they know that better even than you do, I think they understand that very well. And in the case of North Korea, I'm actually getting along very well with him, but we'll see what happens. I mean, you know, the sanctions are on. The hostages are back. We are getting the remains back.

Donald Trump

00:22:16 - 00:22:36 (19 sec)

They haven't done nuclear testing. They really haven't tested to missiles other than, you know, smaller ones, the -- which is something that lots test. But I think with North Korea, we have been doing very well here but that doesn't mean it's going to continue. We have a relationship. President Obama had no relationship.

Donald Trump

00:22:36 - 00:22:48 (13 sec)

You would have been at war. Had Hillary won this election, you'd be at war right now with North Korea, and I have no doubt about that. That's where it was heading. It was heading there very rapidly.

Sean Hannity

00:22:48 - 00:22:49 (1 sec)

As I said, yes --

Donald Trump

00:22:49 - 00:22:54 (5 sec)

So, we'll see what happens but I think what you said might be somewhat of an understatement.

Sean Hannity

00:22:54 - 00:23:17 (22 sec)

Last question, Mr. President, and I have said many times on this program, all you've given Kim Jong-un is your time. And yes, we've got remains back, we've got hostages back, and missiles stopped up until fairly recently. And you just gave time. Let me ask -- this is -- maybe it's because it's New York and I know a city that you obviously love a lot.

Sean Hannity

00:23:17 - 00:23:31 (15 sec)

You've seen and you've watched with us, these police officers who are being pounded with water and not reacting. I -- to me, if this continues, that is disastrous situation for the people in New York City.

Donald Trump

00:23:31 - 00:23:55 (24 sec)

Well, it's a bad mayor, probably the worst mayor in the history of New York City. He's done a bad job and now, he's running for president, and the people can't even believe it. He's a horrible mayor. The policemen and women cannot stand him. They don't respect him, they don't like him. Remember, they turned their back on him a couple of years ago, when he got up to speak, everybody turned their back and they kept it that way.

Donald Trump

00:23:55 - 00:24:00 (4 sec)

And still, they want to do it, but they still have respect for the office, if not him.

Sean Hannity

00:24:00 - 00:24:01 (1 sec)

Yes, Mr. President --

Donald Trump

00:24:01 - 00:24:27 (26 sec)

But I thought that was tragic, watching that scene. A couple of days ago when I first saw it, I couldn't believe it. I said, let me see that again. I don't believe what I'm seeing. And I know New York's Finest, and New York's Finest, in fact, we were in touch with them today. They are devastated that frankly, that that could happen and also that those two officers would allow that to happen.

Donald Trump

00:24:27 - 00:24:28 (2 sec)

That was a terrible thing.

Sean Hannity

00:24:28 - 00:24:37 (9 sec)

Well, we better -- every single one that we have on video, I'd like to see arrested. Mr. President, I won't take anymore of your time. Thank you so much for being with us. As always, we really appreciate it, sir.

Donald Trump

00:24:37 - 00:24:39 (2 sec)

Thank you, Sean. Thank you very much.

Sean Hannity

00:24:39 - 00:24:40 (0 sec)